Properly literary fiction vs just fiction

[Myrobalanna]

I mean great writing AND great plotting AND great characters AND inspirational use of language AND a certain take on the world...does it still exist? I keep reading reviews, buying a book I think will be fantastic, and there's just nothing to it.

Would really love some recommendations for recent, 'proper books' - not that I don't enjoy the others but I want something amazing!

Ann Tyler fans should have a look at Elizabeth Strout.

She's brilliant - particularly My Name Is Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge.

Both fantastic books - especially the latter.

Not terribly recent (60s) but I'm just rereading Ursula Le Guin's 'The Left Hand of Darkness'. Lovely writing, solid plot, great characters, loads to think about. Sci-Fi but also proper, serious literature.

I find the more I read the harder it is to find a book that blows me away. I was the same when I used to see lots of plays. It takes something spectacular to have an impact.

David Mitchell is a high quality I find, and the last really great book I read was Sweetland by Michael Crummey. Crummey by name but not by nature.

My go to people for intelligent writing are

Muriel Spark
Garrison Keillor
Lucretia Grindle
Anne Tyler
Jonathan Coe

I hate stuff like Austen, Dickens etc

Another vote for Rohinton Mistry, I love Family Matters.

"A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies" by John Murray is a truly remarkable, enchanting, well-crafted collection of (fiction) short stories.

OP - I'm struggling with this too. I've read about 15 books so far this year, and none of them have been anything special.

Susan Howatch is my benchmark for brilliance in a modern novel. I love her racy style. I struggle to think of any other writer who rises above the mundane in the way that she does.

For comfort and a guaranteed good read, I'm reading my way through the Wallander novels by Henning Mankell. The dialogue is only great if you can tolerate the laconic style and the plotting is a bit slow - but the writing is intelligent and most are a satisfactory 350 plus pages.

I'm currently reading 'We Never Had It So Good' by Linda Grant: the story of Stephen and Andrea through their experience as students in Oxford in the 1960 , next as lovers, newly married, building careers, being parents etc etc. Essentially, a distillation of family life in the late twentieth century. At least it is as far as page 106, which is as far as I've got. Readable, but lacking something. So far it's reminding me a little of Margaret Drabble's 'The Pure Gold Baby' and making me wonder if reflecting on the experience of the late twentieth century is something that established modern writers feel a need to do. I almost wish they wouldn't as there seems to be a distinct absence of either flair or originality. It's as if they are writing from a place of satisfaction.

I've got my eye on 'A Little Life' to try next - I'm quite hopeful that that might fit the bill.

YYY to The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet (David Mitchell) - a great entralling story, beautifully written.

A book I read that has stayed with me was The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, which won the Booker a couple of years ago. It's not an easy read but I found it a worthwhile one. Have received entry read His Bloody Project which I loved, and have just started Do Not Say We Have Nothing which I'm enjoying so far.

Also love All the Light we Cannot See but I think that has had mixed reviews on here.

The Goldfinch
Cloud Atlas
The Luminaries
1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
This Thing Of Darkness

PP beat me to it, but I came on the thread to say Annie Proulx also.

Meets all your criteria plus absolutely readable and transporting. I've lived many lives through her writing.

Accordion crimes is an absolute favourite, with The old ace in the hole a close second.

Some great suggestions..,.have added (too many!) to my 'to be read' list

Tldr, Love this: 'I've lived many lives through her writing'

YY to David Mitchell and Chabon (Kavalier and Clay still active in my week to week life despite having read it 20 years ago) and will add to the list
anything by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Americanah)
Kazuo Ishiguro
I did enjoy We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and the Atkinson I've read but I dont think they are in the same category in that I don't think people will be reading them in 100 years time.

Ive just started reading Neil Gaimon - had only read his children's work before - and think he and Pullman are also in this category, but only if you are up for fantasy I suppose.

Pop, you are a reader after my own heart. Michael Chabon and Chimamanda Adichie are excellent writers.
I found We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves a pleasant surprise - very well written. Took my breath away in a couple of places.

How about Zadie Smith? Some of her books are better than others - I find her work quite uneven - but she is always interesting. The same is true of Rachel Cusk. And Barbara Kingsolver.

Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections and Freedom both made me think 'oh my god, I could never write this in a million years' -totally in awe of him as a writer. Very few books make me feel like that, and I read quite a lot. Kasuo Ishiguro when on form is the same.

AS Byatt is excellent. My favourites are Possession and the much more recent The Children's Book. Also, though you've probably already read them:

Umberto Eco (I especially like Baudolino)
Chimamanda Adichie
Barbara Kingsolver
Jonathan Safran Foer

Kate Atkinson was my first thought too.

I loved The Corrections, but thought Freedom was "meh". Loved two thirds of The Poisonwood Bible and then it dropped off a cliff. Just no need for the last segment. Do publishers tell writers to make their books fat? Less is often more, chaps!

I agree I do love a book which I admire and know I could never write. That's why I dislike The Gruffalo so much... not the illustrations, but the rhyme and idea - yeah, I could have knocked that off. Life of Pi is a book that for me is a modern classic. I know it's become fashionable to knock it, but I still think it is so inventive.

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides, Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliott Perlman, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, Oscar & Lucinda by Peter Carey...

Barbara Kingsolver
Tracey Chevalier
Kate Atkinson
David Mitchell

I loved the writing style of Wild Swans (Jung Chang) - I know it is a family history/ biography but it is heart-achingly, beautifully written too.

I also like Umberto Eco for the quality of the writing not just the story.

Also agree about Rohinton Mistry

Definitely try Margaret Attwood, I hadn't read anything of hers until I read The Handmaid's Tale a few months ago. I have read another three of her novels since and have become a huge fan.

I find Maggie O'Farrell unreadable