I've heard it said that McCarthy, Pynchon, Delillo, and Roth are the best living American authors. I've read a few books by Pynchon and McCarthy, so it's probably about time I give the other two a chance. Anybody have any thoughts on which is the better of the two? What does each author bring to the table? or do you know any other great modern writers?
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I'm still waiting for J.D. Salinger to die. Presumably he has at least two completed manuscripts that he has tucked away in his files.
Roth. Philip Roth is the author that got me to love literature. I also appreciate that he writes about the American Jewish experience. His style is extremely humorous. And his later works are fairly complex when they play with Metafiction.
I've only read one book by DeLillo, and even led a class discussion on it: Great Jones Street. Supposed to be his worst book, and inferior to his other offerings. However, considering that was his worst book I really liked it. His worst is apparently a billion times better than some writer's best. I remember his style being very surreal.
If you're considering reading both of them, then why not just rotate between the two. Read one Roth, then one DeLillo. One Roth, then one DeLillo.
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I've not read anything by DeLillo, but Roth is great. I enjoyed 'Human Stain' immensely and will definitely be reading more by him when I have time.
I really enjoyed Delillo's White Noise & Libra, both of which I studied at university.
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I agree that Roth may be the best... but I'd probably go with McCarthy's Blood Meridian as the single best work by any of them (of which I have read). By the way... where is Pynchon?
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Originally Posted by stlukesguild
Is Blood Meridian a great deal better than The Road? I read The Road and liked it, but not nearly as much as i expected to. And certainly not as much as The Human Stain. I've read nothing else by McCarthy.
Is Blood Meridian part of the border trilogy, and if so, can it stand on it's own?
What do you mean by where's Pynchon? like physically? Cause I hear he lives in the sewars under San Francisco.
This is the comic I write: http://www.snmcomics.com/
It's where crude toilet humor somehow meets snobby literature allusions.
No... Blood Meridian is not part of the Border trilogy... and it can most certainly stand on its own. I haven't read The Road as of yet... but I would be greatly surprised if the latter novel were anywhere near as good... let alone better than Blood Meridian... which is simply harrowing. There's really no way to gauge McCormack as a writer without reading Blood Meridian, Suttree, Child of God, and the Border Trilogy. It would be like judging Roth without the "Zuckerman novels", American Pastoral, and Sabbath's Theater or Don DeLillo without White Noise and Underworld.
Last edited by stlukesguild; 08-11-2009 at 02:14 AM.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
What he said. On Blood Meridian alone he wiped the floor with Roth...(not that I don't like what I have read by Roth. Pynchon IS awesome, I am just not sure he inhabits the same world...I have yet to read Inherent Vice...
The 2009 Nobel discussion is heating up, and it has been noted its a 14 year dry spell for Americans. Pynchon tho maybe the giant of all, would not show up for a Nobel Prize acceptance, so am guessing that leaves him out...
Stlukesguild has read way more of either Roth or McCarthy than I have, but all I needed to to read was BM..
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This is getting slightly off topic, but since you're the one who mentioned Suttree, it's technically your fault...
That's one of the few I've read by McCarthy, and while I found the prose wonderful and the various episodes entertaining and thought provoking, I couldn't get past the overall lack of a plot or conflict. I'd like to hear your thoughts on what justifies the inclusion of so many disconnected incidents into a single narrative. Thanks.
This is the comic I write: http://www.snmcomics.com/
It's where crude toilet humor somehow meets snobby literature allusions.
I think I'm in the minority here but I read The Human Stain by Roth a few years ago and really didn't like it at all. I felt like there was no substance and that he could have told the entire story in less than half the space without it losing anything.
Haven't read any DeLillo yet, though.
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Blood Meridian…I found it to be quite an irksome read myself. Not on account of the content, mind you, but it was a tad too congested, stylistically speaking, to allow for much of an atmosphere to develop through all that word-clutter. Intentional, no doubt, like the inconsistent and, therefore, most distracting interpunction, but it doesn’t make it any prettier for it. No mistake, it had its moments (at about 10 similes per paragraph a few of them inevitably hit the mark with resounding success), and I’ll even grant that the nefarious character of the Judge was quite nicely conceived indeed. Overall though, can’t say I’m in any hurry to read Mr. McCarthy, or his aforementioned contemporaries, any further.
I have not read anything by Roth, although I have Plot Against America sitting on my To Read shelf.
DeLillo is the only writer for which I've read everything he's written. Some of his novels are better than others, of course. I like his style. It's not fluffy or overly descriptive (although not as sparse as McCarthy's can be). With the exception of White Noise his novels don't really build in an obvious way like standard novels do. They get more intense but the climax sort of sneaks up on you. He approaches writing with the mind set of building sentences and physically making words on the page. His characters are interesting but strange. I could keep trying to describe his writing but I think it would be better for you to try a novel, say White Noise, Mao II or Americana. If you do, please let us know what you thought.
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