Contemporary American novels please

[EdBird]

looking for recommendations for contemporary American novels. Preferably post 9 - 11 but others welcome too.
Books I loved have been Middlesex, Art of Fielding, Virgin Suicides, Secret History, Tinkers, Corrections, We were the Mulvaneys and I am not allowing myself to read Cormac McCarthy books all at once as trying to eke them out
Also dont know of anyone ideas on a female American author who has recently (within last year) published a new book who is meant to be excellent and comparable to Franzen and Shriver? Read about her in the Times and she had such an unusual name that I thoght I would remember it and of course I didnt :/
Thank you

I'm halfway through Donna Tartts Goldfinch. Love it - absolutely love her stuff...

Armistead Maupin
Paulina Simon
Marge Piercy

Claire Messud - I've enjoyed everything she has written.
Jonathan Dee is good, I thought Palladio was excellent.
Donna Tartt redeemed herself enormously with The Goldfinch, I thought.

I do love a good contemporary American novel! This thread is inspiring.

I'd second (or third, or whatever) A.M. Homes and Annie Proulx, and add Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch". (I know you've already got her debut novel, "The Secret History" on your list, but Goldfinch is also wonderful!)

For novels and short story collections pre-9/11, I can't recommend Ellen Gilchrist enough....particularly "In the Land of Dreamy Dreams" and "The Annunciation".

My recent reads: Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon (especially Telegraph Hill), Donna Tartt's latest, Joshua Ferris, Jonathan Saffran Froer.

Oh yes, and Wally Lamb's latest.

I am half way through We are all completely besides ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler and it is fabulous! Don't read any of the reviews as they give too much away.

I love Paul Auster, esp the earlier works. I would also recommend his wife Siri Husvedt, her book "What I Loved", it was an amazing read.

I read the Summer without men recently and was a bit when she described life 'as so wonderfully phrased by eminent author: the music of chance..' or something or other. Yuck.
I was disappointed but then again I'm easily hurt.

Has anyone else read any John Updike? I read Rabbit, Run recently - found it hard to get into but was very impressed once it got going. There are some passages towards the end that are incredibly powerful and moving.

Oh I want to read the Karen Joy Fowler, too.

I read American female writers almost exclusively. Love Louise Erdrich, Anne Tyler, Amy Tan, Elizabeth Strout, Ann Patchett and Curtis Sittenfeld. Also loved Courtney Sullivan's novel Maine from last summer and I rather liked Anna Quindlen's Still Life with Breadcrumbs.

Robert Coover - the Public Burning

Philip Roth - American Pastoral

Handbook for lightning strike survivors - Michele young stone

Going to have a good look back over recommendations ready for Easter reading. Thanks everyone!

Haven't read any John Updike but know I should.

Oh an Juno Diaz 'brief and wondrous life of Oscar Wao' - amazing. It has brilliant voices and fresh use of footnotes! Love it.

I loved Rabbit Run. It takes some concentration and I could only read it a bit at a time, but I thought it was magnificent. I def want to read the rest.

Good thread, lots of interesting suggestions here