Contemporary Literature Lovers

[TheFifthElement]

It was commented on another thread that there might be, hidden away in dusty corners of Lit-net, some people who want to discuss contemporary literature. So here is a thread just for that.

So, who here reads contemporary literature and what recent books have you read that you'd strongly recommend?

Personal recent favourites include:
- All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
- This Book Will Save Your Life by A M Homes
- The Last Samurai & Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt
- A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
- The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
- We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulaweyo
- The Powerbook by Jeanette Winterson
- Dept of Speculation by Jenny Offill

which is quite a lot really. I'm currently reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and it's shaping up pretty well too.

Anyone have any favourite contemporary writers?

[R.F. Schiller]

I don't know where the cut-off date is for contemporary authors, but I've enjoyed the works of:

David Foster Wallace
Philip Roth
Kazuo Ishiguro
Amy Tan
Maxine Hong Kingston
David Mamet

I don't know if these are considered "contemporary" or not.

[wordeater]

My favorite novels after 2000:

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Snow - Orhan Pamuk
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
My Summer of Love - Helen Cross
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Paul Torday
The Solitude of Prime Numbers - Paolo Giordano

[Paulclem]

I think it's healthy to try to keep up with contemporary novels. I like Hilary Mantel - I got Bring up the Bodies recently. It's in my growing to read pile.

Orhan Pamuk is great - Snow is a book I'll definitely re-read. I'm currently reading Q by Luther Blisset and I recently finished Haruki Murukami's After Dark. I find them demanding and interesting to read, and it would be great to read and predict a classic.

[tonywalt]

After Dark - Haruki Murakami (not as widely known as others)
The Hired Man -Aminatta Forna
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Americanah - Chimamanda Adichie
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Adichie
The Passion - Jeanette Winterson
Disgrace - JM Coetzee
Summertime - JM Coetzee
Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroughs (technically a 'memoir' but much artistic' license)
The Unexploded - Alison MacLeod
The Unlikely pilgramage of Harold Fry - by Rachel Joyce

[Paulclem]

I find that despite constantly reading and reading about books, there are many authors I've never heard of when we start threads like this. Do others find this? I suppose one of the reasons is the limited number of reviews that can be written and distributed and then picked up. I think it's worth keeping up with contemporary publishing. One authir I picked up was Philip Kerr who wrote a series of books about a Berlin detective and then private detective over WW2. A new author is always a punt, but he's great and combines my taste for thrillers, history and warfare.

I don't suppose I'll even read the list of classic authors - particularly as some hold no interest for me such as Jane Austen. Reading contemporary lit does offer the opportunity to discover a great writer though. It adds that bit more impetus to read and review.

[kev67]

I think it's healthy to try to keep up with contemporary novels. I like Hilary Mantel - I got Bring up the Bodies recently. It's in my growing to read pile.

Orhan Pamuk is great - Snow is a book I'll definitely re-read. I'm currently reading Q by Luther Blisset and I recently finished Haruki Murukami's After Dark. I find them demanding and interesting to read, and it would be great to read and predict a classic.

Presumably not the Watford centre forward during the 1980s.

[kev67]

I think it's healthy to try to keep up with contemporary novels. I like Hilary Mantel - I got Bring up the Bodies recently. It's in my growing to read pile.

Orhan Pamuk is great - Snow is a book I'll definitely re-read. I'm currently reading Q by Luther Blisset and I recently finished Haruki Murukami's After Dark. I find them demanding and interesting to read, and it would be great to read and predict a classic.

Presumably not the Watford centre forward during the 1980s.

[Paulclem]

Presumably not the Watford centre forward during the 1980s.

Even more intriguing!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_...(nom_de_plume)

[mal4mac]

My favourite critic, John Carey, suggested that reading the old classics was "safest". You can never be sure if contemporary novels are good or hyped. Old classics have stood the test of time. So I tend not to buy contemporary novels, as you never know what you are getting. But my local public library seems quite good at selecting contemporary novels, and I borrow the most likely candidates from the "new shelf". I find myself giving up on many of these, but ones I have enjoyed in the last year, or so, in order of preference from most liked, are:

An Artist of the Floating World - Ishiguro
Things fall apart - Achebe
The view from Castle Rock : stories - Alice Munro
The collector of lost things - Jeremy Page.
Never let me go - Ishiguro

Generation X
The Queen and I - Sue Townsend
The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency
The skull and the nightingale
The collector - Fowles

The first five on this list, for me, bear comparison with the likes of Austen, George Eliot, Hardy, Conrad, Dickens and other old masters. (The list of those I didn't enjoy is longer, but I shall refrain from mentioning them, as I wouldn't want to feed the hype...)

[mal4mac]

Disgrace - JM Coetzee
Summertime - JM Coetzee

He's great! I also recommend the first two parts of his "autobiography", especially "Youth". His first novel, Joseph K, is also worth seeking out.

[TheFifthElement]

Kazuo Ishiguro

Oh Ishiguro! Yes, he is an excellent writer. Also definitely contemporary ( I don't know the exact definition of contemporary either, but I think as long as they're writing now they probably hit the criteria). Ishiguro has a new novel coming out next year, which will no doubt be worth a read.

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

I love David Mitchell too. Ghostwritten is really worth a look too, as is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

I think it's healthy to try to keep up with contemporary novels. I like Hilary Mantel - I got Bring up the Bodies recently. It's in my growing to read pile.

Hilary Mantel is also awesome. Bring up the Bodies isn't as good (in my opinion) as Wolf Hall, but still excellent. You start to see Cromwell turning. I am very interested in the final book of the trilogy.

After Dark - Haruki Murakami (not as widely known as others)
The Hired Man -Aminatta Forna
[...]Disgrace - JM Coetzee
Summertime - JM Coetzee
[...]The Unexploded - Alison MacLeod

Of course Coetzee is also excellent, one of the best writers around. What did you think of The Unexploded? It is on my 'interested' radar. Goodness, how did I forget Aminatta Forna? The Hired Man is excellent.

Another writer to add to the list: Helen Oyeyemi. Also, Marilynn Robinson hasn't written a bad word. Ever.

My favourite critic, John Carey, suggested that reading the old classics was "safest". You can never be sure if contemporary novels are good or hyped.

It could be argued, however, that classics are hyped in a different kind of way (e.g. by academia) and no guarantee that you'll find them either 'good' or 'enjoyable' as the debate on over-hyped classics evidences. The difficulty with contemporary fiction, I think, is that there is so much of it and it is always growing, so on balance of probabilities you're probably more likely to happen across a 'bad' one (e.g. Fifty Shades). If I just went into a bookshop, I'd probably find myself disappointed more often, but now I tend to get most of my 'to read' contemporary books by recommendation, either from a friend who has good taste in books (tonywalt, for example, is an excellent source of recommendations ) or a particularly good critic (e.g. John Self via Twitter is pretty flawless). It takes more effort than selecting from the classics pile.

Things fall apart - Achebe

I'd love to hear what you think about Achebe. He's another writer on my 'interested' radar.

So many writers, so little time huh?

[tonywalt]

Margaret Atwood - Cat's Eye
Geraldine Brooks - March
Geraldine Brooks - Calebs crossing

[aliengirl]

I find that despite constantly reading and reading about books, there are many authors I've never heard of when we start threads like this. Do others find this? I suppose one of the reasons is the limited number of reviews that can be written and distributed and then picked up. I think it's worth keeping up with contemporary publishing. One authir I picked up was Philip Kerr who wrote a series of books about a Berlin detective and then private detective over WW2. A new author is always a punt, but he's great and combines my taste for thrillers, history and warfare.

I agree with you that this kind of thread introduces us to many authors we may have never heard of. I won't describe myself as a lover of contemporary literature. It's just too broad a genre to say that. But I do read a lot of contemporary works. Some of my favorite authors are:

Margaret Atwood - The Blind Assassin, Alias Grace
Orhan Pamuk - My Name is Red, Snow, The Black Book, Istanbul (I'd recommend it very much.)
Chinua Achebe - Anthills of Savannah, Things Fall Apart
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude (Love in the Time of Cholera has been on my TBR for a long time.)
Yann Martel - Life of Pi
Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies (Enjoyed both novels. Eagerly waiting for the last volume.)
Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere (Highly recommended), The Ocean at the End of the Lane, American Gods, Anansi Boys (I love pretty much everything he writes. He knows how to weave a really interesting tale and has a wicked sense of humor.)

[aliengirl]

Margaret Atwood - Cat's Eye
Geraldine Brooks - March
Geraldine Brooks - Calebs crossing

Geraldine Brooks and J. M. Coetzee are there on my TBR list. Any recommendations for the start?

Has anyone read Alice Munro? A selection of her short stories is waiting on my shelf.