21st Century /lit/

[Anonymous No.15478630]

Has any recent release been good enough to add to this list?

[Anonymous No.15478758]

>>15478630
For a start this list needs to excise sub-prime work by Pynchon, DeLillo and Roth. They're interesting enough, but only the aftershock of an artist's great moment.

Possible inclusions: Zone by Enard, Wolf Hall by Mantel, True History of the Kelly Gang by Carey.

[Anonymous No.15478822]

>>15478630
The Nix was okay. Cannonball. Maybe some Ishiguro. All of Coetzee. Gilead was fine, no Housekeeping. Tao Lin.

I haven't read Chabon but I've heard good things.

[Anonymous No.15478834]

>>15478822
What are the good books by Tao Lin?

[Anonymous No.15478851]

>>15478822
>Ishiguro
NLMG shouldn't make the cut, but I haven't read Buried Giant. If it were an 80/90s list he'd be well up there.

[Anonymous No.15478870]

>>15478834
Taipai

>>15478851
Buried Giant is in my stack and I've actually heard nice things. Wish he would write something of the caliber of TROTD again.

[Anonymous No.15478908]

Although not Vargas Llosa's best by any means, The Feast of the Goat obviously belongs in the list.

[Anonymous No.15479883]

>>15478822
Coetzee is based

[Anonymous No.15479895]

>>15478758
>Mathias Enard
Based. I haven't read Zone, but Compass was decent and Tell Them of Battles, Etc.. was really good (albeit brief)

[Anonymous No.15479905]

>>15478908
What would you consider his best? I recently read La Casa Verde and it left me wanting more from him

[Anonymous No.15479907]

>>15478834
Trip isn't fiction but it's good if you're interested in psychedelic history and culture. Admittedly it can feel a little "woaaah drugs man, trippyyy" but it's enjoyable and insightful still.

[Anonymous No.15479919]

>>15478630
Anything by Antonio Lobo Antunes.

Death With Interruptions, by Jose Saramago.

[Anonymous No.15479920]

Station Eleven.

Shut the fuck up. I enjoyed it. Fuck you.

[Anonymous No.15479923]

>>15478758
I agree with this regarding Pynchon and Delillo. I understand the image is trying to represent their works from this century but those are each among their worst books

[Anonymous No.15480189]

>>15479919
>Saramago
Good call.

>>15478908
> Goat

Not sure about that one. No idea how it reads in Spanish, but the English prose wasn't so hot. It definitely decent work, but on the strength of that translation certainly not top 10.

[Anonymous No.15480281]

>>15478630
I would swap out No Country for Old Men with The Road

[Anonymous No.15480293]

>>15479905
Conversations in the Cathedral, War at the End of the World and The Discreet Hero are all excellent

[Anonymous No.15480308]

>>15478630
I found Lincoln in the Bardo (to yoink from dfw) hellaciously unfun. The sources got tired, the concept of a novel being stretched was boring and done years prior, and the characters fell flat. What's the deal with the praise?

[Anonymous No.15480326]

>>15480281
The road is such a normie book. So many of my friends who don't read are reading the road

[Anonymous No.15480421]

The Dying Grass by Vollmann obviously

[Anonymous No.15480443]

>>15478630
austerlitz, on the edge, and laurus

[Anonymous No.15480447]

It's okay to be Jewish.

[Anonymous No.15480451]

>>15480308
Not even sure what any of your comments refer to. Seems like we didn't read the same book.

[Anonymous No.15480468]

>>15480421
I've been meaning to read Vollmer ever since I read his intro to my copy of JTTEOTN. I was looking at europe central because it's his most popular, but he's written so much. Where to start? And the big question: why doesn't /lit/ post about him?

[Anonymous No.15480475]

>>15480451
Try reading the comments again

[Anonymous No.15480522]

>>15480468
Europe Central really is the best place to begin with WTV, other than that you can see if you can find his travel writing called The Atlas. Lit doesn't talk about him much because lit is full of poseurs

[Anonymous No.15480568]

>>15480522
How do you feel about the tranny stuff

[Anonymous No.15480609]

>>15480421
If the author wasnt so obsessed about meme formatting it would be a great book

[Anonymous No.15480616]

>>15480568
Ive no issue with it. Anyone is free to explore their feminine side.

[Anonymous No.15480625]

>>15479907
lmfao bro that book is total shit. it is literally just secondhand McKenna.

[Anonymous No.15480697]

>>15478630
On The Edge by Chirbes
Cow Country
Novel Explosives
The Combinations

[Anonymous No.15480740]

>>15478630
The Wizard of the Crow

[Anonymous No.15480985]

>>15480326
I know people who don’t read who read tolkein and Homer, and they are great. Who gives a fuck who reads what

[Anonymous No.15481019]

For Me, it's the russian postmodernists.

[Anonymous No.15481022]

>>15481019
recommend me some good russian lit that's from 1990s onward

[Anonymous No.15481073]

>>15481022
Pelevin
- Omon Ra
- Generation P
- Chapayev and the Void (aka Buddha's Little Finger)
- The Yellow Arrow
- Hermit and Sixtoes
last two are stories, not full books, but just great as an intro. not too short. i'd say his never books, ironically post-2000, are bland repetetive shite to be ignored. those listed are brilliant

Sorokin
now there's just a couple of his books that were translated and i've only read one of those. most other prominent works will likeky remain untranslated because this man bends the language like schizoposter in his prime.
- Day of the Oprichnik
thats the one i read. others i'm sure are just as worthy, im yet to read a work of his tgat i disliked.

other modern ru authors i've read are obscure and untranslated, so not much left to rec, sorry man

[Anonymous No.15481100]

>>15480985
I don't want to be relatable to those people

[Anonymous No.15481103]

>>15481073
it's ok dear anon
i've heard about Pelevin before that solidifies his place on my to read list
i love russian lit i think it hits the perfect balance between soulful and sad that i find irresistible
i wish to see how that translates into the 21th century but alas the country has changed so no wonder it was lost

[Anonymous No.15481138]

>>15481103
pelevin's Generation P surgically captures the russian 90's spirit, intermingled with his signature pseudo-orientalism and self-aware, ironic play on some "eastern enlightment"/"mythology irl"/"spiritualism" cliches. it's likely unlike any contemporary western lit you've read.

[Anonymous No.15481153]

>>15480447
No one said anything about Jews you schizo.

[Anonymous No.15481302]

>>15481100
Is your self image so fragile that you actually care about being relatable to people you don’t interact with? How insecure are you?

[Anonymous No.15481358]

>>15481302
you're a braindead normie too, it seems

[Anonymous No.15481464]

>>15481302

[Anonymous No.15481496]

>>15480308
I agree, but think the worst offense of the novel was the ending. It almost feels like he wrote the ending first, then made everything else that is almost interesting in the middle of the novel, then just slapped his prepared ending on.
Nothing before it is great, but it was serviceable enough.
Couldn’t help but feel like George was putting together a puzzle in front of me, 20 pieces but still good enough, and then swept it to the side and slapped a stick figure drawing in my face.

[Anonymous No.15481511]

>>15480326
>discrediting a book because people enjoy it

[Anonymous No.15481518]

What about poetry?

I am unfamiliar with much contemporary poetry outside of my native language.

I haven't had access to Geoffrey Hill's final books, but it's often said that he had a magnificent creative period in his last years.
There is Zagajewski in Poland.
There was Bonnefoy in France.
What about Italy? Did Mario Luzi or Edoardo Sanguinetti write some important book in this century?

It's hard to know, because poetry books sell very little and are so difficult to find in my country (Brazil).
At any rate, I think some poets and maybe some playwrights should be added to that list.

[Anonymous No.15481836]

>>15478630
I thought zero k was quite poor. Lincon in the bardo as well. My gf loves it immensely, though.

[Anonymous No.15482325]

Trip

[Anonymous No.15483679]

>>15478630

No.

[Anonymous No.15483693]

>>15478630
'Harvest' by Jim Crace.

[Anonymous No.15483715]

>>15480326
>>15481100
>>15481358
Do You Even Read? Or is this all a fashion statement for you?

[Anonymous No.15483928]

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt

[Anonymous No.15483944]

>>15479920
it had some truly movingpassages, despite straggling at parts

[Anonymous No.15484028]

>>15478630
Is Cloud Atlas actually good? I haven't read it since middle school but I do remember liking it.

[Anonymous No.15484183]

>>15478630
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001)
The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer (2001)
Kafka on the Shore by Murakami Haruki (2002)
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (2003)
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (2003)
Everyman by Philip Roth (2006)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (2007)
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk (2007)
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (2008)
Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love by Lara Vapnyar (2008)
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (2008)
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (2009)
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2010)
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2011)
Honour by Elif Shafak (2011)
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (2012)
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (2012)
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013)
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (2013)
The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak (2013)
Spectacle by Susan Steinberg (2013)
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2013)
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante (2014)
Bark by Lorrie Moore (2014)
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (2014)
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014)
The Emissary by Tawada Yoko (2014)
The Sellout by Paul Beatty (2015)
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (2015)
Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (2016)
Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak (2016)
Cannibal by Safiya Sinclair (2016)
Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong (2016)
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2016)
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (2017)
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2017)
Inquisition by Kazim Ali (2018)
A Portrait of the Self as Nation by Marilyn Chin (2018)
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver (2018)
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (2019)
Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh (2019)
Machine by Susan Steinberg (2019)
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (2019)

[You No.15484207]

>>15479923
Cosmopolis is 21st century and way better

[Anonymous No.15484212]

unironically Selfie, Suicide or Cairey Turnbull's Blue Skiddoo