Top Ten novels since 1950

[papillondemai]

This subject may have been done already but I am new here and I just got the idea from the top 100 list. I am also hoping to get some suggestions because I am woefully deficient in my readings of contemporary writers. I hate to admit this but I haven't read any Cormac McCarthy yet. I few that I thought were excellent are (not necessarily in the order given) as follows:

1. Life of Pi, Yann Martel
2. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
3. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
4. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
5. Sometimes A Great Notion, Ken Kesey
6. Ironweed, William Kennedy
7. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut

[stlukesguild]

Vladimir Nabokov- Lolita- 1955
Gunter Grass- The Tin Drum- 1959
Samuel Beckket- Malone Dies, Molloy, The Unnamable (triology)- 1951-3
Gabriel García Márquez- Love in the Time of Cholera- 1985
Gabriel García Márquez- One Hundred Years of Solitude
Julio Cortázar- Hopscotch- 1963
Alejo Carpentier- Explosion in a Cathedral- 1962
Mario Vargas Llosa- Conversation in the Cathedral- 1975
José Saramago- Baltasar and Blimunda- 1982
José Saramago- The Gospel According to Jesus Christ- 1991
Nikos Kazantzakis- The Last Temptation of Christ- 1953
Joseph Heller- Catch 22- 1962
Chinua Achebe- Things Fall Apart- 1958
Saul Bellow- The Adventures of Augie March- 1953
Saul Bellow- Seize the Day- 1956
Jean Rhys- Wide Sargasso Sea- 1966
Philip Roth- Zuckerman Bound- 1979-85
Philip Roth- Sabbath's Theater- 1995
John Barth- The Sot-Weed Factor- 1960
John Barth- Giles Goat-Boy, or the Revise New Syllabus- 1966
Thomas Pynchon- V. - 1963
Thomas Pynchon- Gravity's Rainbow- 1973
Thomas Pynchon- Mason & Dixon- 1997
Don DeLillo- Underworld- 1997
Cormac McCarthy- Blood Meridian- 1985
Cormac McCarthey- Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plains- 1992-1998
Graham Greene- The Quiet American- 1955
Carlos Fuentes- Terra Nostra- 1975
John Kennedy Toole- A Confederacy of Dunces- 1980
Italo Calvino- The Baron in the Tress- 1957
Italo Calvino- The Complete Cosmicomics- published in 2009
Italo Calvino- Invisible Cities- 1972
Umberto Eco- The Name of the Rose- 1980
Gore Vidal- Julian- 1964
Gore Vidal- Myra Breckenridge- 1968
Gore Vidal- Burr- 1973
Gore Vidal- Lincoln- 1984
Marguerite Yourcenar- The Memoirs of Hadrian- 1951
Norman Mailer- Ancient Evenings- 1983
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa- The Leopard- 1958
Lawrence Durrell- The Alexandria Quartet- Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea- 1962
John Fowles- The Collector- 1963
Yoel Hoffmann- Katschen and The Book of Joseph- 1998

These are just a few of the finest novels written post-1950 culled from what I see from the book shelves around me. Undoubtedly there are many more.

[mona amon]

My personal favourites which I can remember at the moment -
1. Lolita - Vladimir Nabakov
2. A House for Mr Biswas - V. S. Naipaul
3. The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch
4. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
5. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
6. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami

[Darcy88]

I haven't read many books from after 1950, but here are my favourites from among the ones that I have -

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Justine by Lawrence Durrell
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Plexus by Henry Miller
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

[mortalterror]

1998 My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)
1996 Infinite Jest by William Foster Wallace (USA)
1992 The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago (Portugal)
1987 Beloved by Toni Morrison (USA)
1987 Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (Japan)
1985 Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (USA)
1985 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Canada)
1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (India)
1980 The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (Italy)
1979 If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino (Italy)
1973 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Russia)
1973 The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russia)
1970 The Temple of Dawn by Yukio Mishima (Japan)
1969 Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth (USA)
1969 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (USA)
1967 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Columbia)
1966 The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (USA)
1962 The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes (Mexico)
1961 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (USA)
1961 A House For Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul (India)
1959 The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass (Germany)
1958 The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (Italy)
1957 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (Russia)
1957 On the Road by Jack Kerouac (USA)
1956 Seize the Day by Saul Bellow (USA)
1956 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa (Brazil)
1955 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Russia)
1954 Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Britain)
1953 Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett (Ireland)
1952 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (USA)
1952 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (USA)
1952 The Financial Expert by R.K. Narayan (India)
1951 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (USA)

[bookowskee]

Top ten is a little tight.

1) Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
2) J.D. Salinger - Catcher, Franny, and Raise High
3) Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champs, Slaughterhouse, Timequake etc. etc.
4) Rushdie - Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses
5) Heller - Catch-22
6) Bukowski - Post Office, Pulp
7) David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest
8) Irvine Welsh - Filth, Trainspotting, Glue, Porno, Marabou Stork Nightmares, Skag Boys
9) Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
10) Marquez - 100 Years of Solitude
11) Cabrera Infante - Three Trapped Tigers
12) Hubert Selby - Requiem for a Dream, Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Room, Waiting Period


I did twelve and it's still way too tight. lol

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

I'll add-
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Cancer Ward Solzhenitsyn (about a 1/5th of the way in, but already feel it should be on my list)

[Chris 73]

Winter's Bone-Daniel Woodrell
Lavondyss-Robert Holdstock
The Haunting Of Hill House-Shirley Jackson
Hyperion-Dan Simmons
The Old Man And The Sea-Ernest Hemingway
Lolita-Vladimir Nabokov
Something Wicked This Way Comes-Ray Bradbury
Maus-Art Spiegelman (spelling?)
The Wasp Factory-Iain Banks
The Magic Toyshop-Angela Carter

Honourable mention-
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy-Douglass Adams
The Left Hand Of Darkness-Ursula K LeGuin
I Am Legend-Richard Matheson
Never Let Me Go-Kazou Ishiguro
The Complete Lyonesse-Jack Vance
The Folding Knife-KJ Parker

[JBI]

To live by Yu Hua

[Phocion]

Saul Bellow - Adventures of Augie March
Saul Bellow - Humboldt's Gift
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire
Kingsley Amis - The Old Devils
Anthony Powell - Dance to the Music of Time
Joseph Heller - Catch22
Martin Amis - Money
Milan Kundera - The Joke
Marquez - 100 years of solitude

[WyattGwyon]

I'm not going to do ten. But the following four have not been mentioned and all of them would be on my list:

The Recognitions by William Gaddis
JR by William Gaddis
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

[papillondemai]

I'm not going to do ten.

I chose the number ten arbitrarily. Contributors to this thread should list as many or as few as they think appropriate.

[WyattGwyon]

I chose the number ten arbitrarily. Contributors to this thread should list as many or as few as they think appropriate.

I have nothing against the number 10!:-) It's just that after the first few it becomes hard and feels a little arbitrary for me to decide on the rest of the list. No commentary on the question intended!

[bookowskee]

I'm adding these:

Famished Road by Ben Okri (up to you if you want to include its sequels which is also good, by the way)

The Beach by Alex Garland

The first three books of Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan, A Separate Reality, and Journey to Ixtlan

Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster

[ladderandbucket]

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

[EAP]

china mieville's Perdido Street Station

[papillondemai]

I'm adding these:

The first three books of Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan, A Separate Reality, and Journey to Ixtlan

Great addition to the list. I loved these books. They made me want to go out and do some mushrooms. LOL

"... when and how did you finally reach Ixtlan?"
Both of them broke into laughter at once.
"So that's the final outcome for you, don Juan remarked. "Let's put it this way then... Genaro is still on his way to Ixtlan. ...
... in my feelings sometimes I think I'm just one step from reaching it. Yet I never will ....

[bookowskee]

^ lol, yeah. Or peyote!

[ennison]

This is rather difficult for such a long period of time when novels have appeared in a multitude of languages. Most people here are monoglot or at the best bilingual and not knowledgeable enough to talk about but one or two cultures. Even if they could it would, as in the nature of these lists, be pretty subjective. There have been interesting novels mentioned.

[Darcy88]

This is rather difficult for such a long period of time when novels have appeared in a multitude of languages. Most people here are monoglot or at the best bilingual and not knowledgeable enough to talk about but one or two cultures. Even if they could it would, as in the nature of these lists, be pretty subjective. There have been interesting novels mentioned.

They do translate a lot of books.

[ennison]

Yes "they" do and some are very good. I know that much is missed in translating poetry and there is going to be a lot missed in translating allusive, language-rich novels too. Perhaps if the time span was cut to thirty years this would be a bit easier. Or if more than ten novels were allowed (a few real anarchists have decided already to take that route). I take your point though that a translation gives you something to start from. I read "The Seige"in translation and it was truly poor. If that is his best then I do not want to read more but of course it may have been a poor translation

[papillondemai]

Post as many or as few titles as you want. Monoglot, polyglot, objective, subjective, knowledgeable, not knowledgeable, truly poor, truly good .... Ultimately it doesn't matter.

[Eiseabhal]

Well Monsieur Papillondemai I shall put in some titles - not necessarily "the best" but all worth reading. The first is "The Taste of Too Much" by Cliff Hanley. Hanley was a Scottish journalist. This could be described as a "coming-of-age" novel. It is a minor classic and in need of republishing which, I hope, with the Scottish Education System now demanding that Scottish texts be prescribed in secondary English, will happen. The novel is at times very very humorous. There are passages of acute observation and great sensitivity. It was published in the early sixties but does not read in any way dated. Young love has been young forever. The only thing which may have changed is the old Scottish custom of first-footing at Hogmanay; there is a section on that.
So that is one to start off. I shall submit another nine over the next few days.

[quidoftullamore]

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee

[cafolini]

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee

Welcome to LitNet

Now we are talking sense. Let's add Twain, Harper Lee, Steimbeck ,,,

[quidoftullamore]

Thank you!

I'll also add Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

[Eiseabhal]

"A Child Possessed" by R C Hutchinson is a great minor work by a major English novelist. It deals with love and exile. Hutchison seldom tackled the mundane and his characterisation was always excellent. This is not my favourite of his but it falls within the period. It is very well executed and moving.

[Eiseabhal]

"The Songs of the Kings" by Barry Unsworth is a clever, ironic novel, beautifully written. Outwardly it seems to be a retelling of the story of Iphigenia but it is also taking the theme and giving it a modern twist. Unsworth abandoned The UK for the "sunny sous" and seems to be overlooked often or looked down on by the highfalutin but he did win the Booker with another novel and any of his work is worth reading. It is more recent than the Hutchinson mentioned above.

[Eiseabhal]

Many thrillers start with a bang and are enjoyable until about half way through when the writer's powers of imaginative realism vaporise and the denouement is a let down but "The Ghost" by Robert Harris bucks that trend. It is a thriller with a satisfying ending, engaging characters, excellent plot and an intelligent take on contemporary Brit politics. There has been a film version made which emphasises even more the link to T Blair ( bleahh as the Susunnaich say)

"The Erl King" by Michel Tournier is an exceptional novel. Quite different from most books that I have read. It is a reworking of myth in the modern age. The main character is an innocent monster. The paradox is intended by Tournier I'm sure. I would not call the proletarian mechanic with his love of children a protagonist since he is more like a twig in the stream than a participant in his own life story. It is at once a picture of the Third Reich and a portrait of an outsider. A marvellous text. I must re-read it at some point. It was published about 1970. It contains a very good joke against Mr H Goering but to retell that would spoil it for you.

"A Perfect Execution" by Tim Binding is a novel about an executioner, based no doubt on the figure of Pierrepointe. It deals with many of the most fundamental human issues and is not only full of good characterisation but is splendidly plotted. It was published about 2000.

[Eiseabhal]

The Australian novelist, Patrick White was one of the great novelists of the 20th century and "The Eye of the Storm" (published 1973) although not my favourite is an excellent novel and is the one that tipped the balance in his favour for a Nobel prize. He is dense, supremely articulate, a superb stylist and a great presenter of character. This would be a good introduction to his work.

[Eiseabhal]

Well that's seven but deciding the next three means being ruthless. So here we go!

"The Channering Worm" by J P McCondach is a linguistic tour-de-force by a writer about whom I know only that following WWII service he was a schoolteacher who published only some sonnets. It is post-modernist (or later!). A Channering worm is a maggot. A brilliant piece of work but very odd and for some it would be very disturbing.

Allan Campbell Maclean was known as a children's writer of adventures but he did write adult texts such as "The Glasshouse" and a fantastic novel entitled "The Islander" which is another coming-of-age text but this deals with death, sex, crime, religion and drink. Perhaps because it was ahead of its time it is seldom mentioned as part of his work. It is time it was republished to a new audience.

So that's nine and at that point I'll pause.

[Ecurb]

From a publishing perspective, here's a list of the top-ten-selling novels since 1950:

http://vendyxiao.com/top-50-best-selling-books-of-all-the-time/


Lord of the Rings
Da Vinci Code
Catcher in the Rye
The Alchemist (Coehlo)
The Name of the Rose (Eco)
Charlotte’s Web
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Angels and Demons
Kane and Abel (Archer)
To Kill a Mockingbird

Another list of best sellers I looked at included "the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe."

It's not surprising that children's novels would be among the top ten: Charlotte's Web, Lion, Harry Potter, To Kill a Mockingbird, and (to a lesser extent) LOTR and Catcher (which are more for teenagers). I haven't read Kane and Abel, Angels and Demons, or The Alchemist. (I finally broke down and read The Da Vinci Code at one point.)

[Eiseabhal]

"The Night Before We Sailed" by A P Campbell is a very good novel full of rich language, allusions and references. It took me a few pages to get into it but after that I began to sail too. At times you might feel there is too much in it but it is certainly a novel of a writer with a gift for words.

[Annamariah]

My personal favourites are, in order or publication:

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute (1950)
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (1950 - 1956)
Katherine by Anya Seton (1954)
Watership Down by Richard Adams (1972)
A Long Fatal Love Chase by L. M. Alcott (1995*)
A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin (1996 ->)
Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling (1997 - 2007)
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins (2008 - 2010)

(*A Long Fatal Love Chase was actually written in 1866 and therefore shouldn't be on this list, but it wasn't published until 1995 so I put it in anyway.)

That's actually much more than 10 books, since several of those are series, but never mind. It was surprisingly hard to come up with this list. Most of my all-time favourites have been published long before 1950.

[WICKES]

Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim is my personal favourite.

[ennison]

Interesting lists and suggestions. Right here are a few.

"Stoner" by John Williams
"The Spire" - William Golding
"The Woman who Waited" - Andrei Makhine
"A Sport and a Pastime" - James Salter
"Moscow To The End of the Line" - Venedikt Erofeev
"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" - A Solzhenitsyn
"The Orchard Keeper" - Cormac McCarthy
"The Kindly Ones" - J Littell
"Novgorod The Great" - A Drummond
"The MacGuffin" - S Elkin

I think they fall within the period and of course it is highly selective. I would have liked to put in Skvorecky's novel "The Cowards" but it is just prior to this period.

[Eiseabhal]

Se taghadh neo-abhaisteach a th'agad ann a shiud Ennison. Cha d leugh mi ach tri aca. S cha chuala mi m dheidhinn feadhainn aca. Feumaidh mi gan lorg. Did you try "The Tunnel" again? I really hope that books like "The Islander" and "A Taste of Too Much" are republished. I have been amusing myself recently by translating bits of AP's novel. When there are references to other writings (songs, poems etc) that presents a problem . The end of last week was so hot I was glad of the chiller in the John Deere!

[wordeater]

1. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
2. The Quiet American - Graham Greene
3. The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
4. The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende
5. Bonjour Tristesse - Françoise Sagan
6. A Judgement in Stone - Ruth Rendell
7. The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
8. Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carré
9. Snow - Orhan Pamuk
10. Perfume - Patrick Süskind

[tonywalt]

The life and times of Michael K by JM Coetzee
Oracle Night - Paul Auster
Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
Summertime - JM Coetzee
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Catcher in the Rye- JD Salinger
A House for Mr Biswas - V. S. Naipaul
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
After Dark - Haruki Murakami


After Dark and Oracle Night I threw in for fun. Both books: the authors are less famous for these works, but represent a type of writing I personally like - character driven and strong inner narrative.

[Halifaxius]

Not necessarily my favorites--just some that haven't been mentioned yet.

A Time of Gifts - Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell.
House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski (currently reading; only about 150 pages in but it's already becoming one of my favorite books period).
The Book of Sand - Borges.
Pale Fire - Nabokov (has this been mentioned?).
A Soldier of the Great War - Mark Helprin.
Grendel - Gardner.
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco.
Old School - Tobias Wolfe.

There's obviously many, many more.

[Kafka's Crow]

These are the ones that really impressed me:

The Trilogy (Samuel Beckett)
The Tin Drum (Gunter Grass)
Doctor Zhivago (Boris Pastornak)
The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco)
The Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie)
The Birdsong (Sebastian Faulkes)
Midaq Alley (Naguib Mehfouz)
My Name is Red (Orhan Pamuk)
The White Hotel (DM Thomas)
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

[sandy14]

I's like to add Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs.
Cain's Book by Alexander Trocchi
Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 & Something Wicked this Way Comes
Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr.
Lady Chatterley's Lover - whilst written pre-50's, it's publication in 1960 liberalised publishing in the UK.

[R.F. Schiller]

1. Lolita (1955) -Vladimir Nabokov
2. Pale Fire (1961) - Vladimir Nabokov
3. Pnin (1957) - Vladimir Nabokov
4. Ada, or Ardor (1968) - Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Counterlife (1986) - Philip Roth
6. Infinite Jest (1996) - David Foster Wallace
7. Herzog (1964) - Saul Bellow
8. Wise Blood (1952) - Flannery O'Connor
9. Revolutionary Road (1961) - Richard Yates
10. Money (1984) - Martin Amis

[mal4mac]

Ten off the top of my head, that I've read in the last year, and *really* liked:

Stoner - John Williams
Butcher's Crossing - Jon Williams
Sweet Tooth - Ian McEwan
An Artist of the Floating World - Katzuo Ishiguro
Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong
Jonathan Franzen - Freedom
Dave Eggers - The Circle
Donna Tartt - The Little Friend

[mal4mac]

Ones that jumped out at me from looking at the other lists:

"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" - A Solzhenitsyn
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
The life and times of Michael K by JM Coetzee
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco.
1985 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Canada)
1973 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Russia)
Revolutionary Road (1961) - Richard Yates
Cormac McCarthy- Blood Meridian- 1985
1969 Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth (USA)

These really are must reads! (Doesn't everyone agree? :))

[R.F. Schiller]

Ones that jumped out at me from looking at the other lists:

"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" - A Solzhenitsyn
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
The life and times of Michael K by JM Coetzee
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco.
1985 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Canada)
1973 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Russia)
Revolutionary Road (1961) - Richard Yates
Cormac McCarthy- Blood Meridian- 1985
1969 Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth (USA)

These really are must reads! (Doesn't everyone agree? :))

I would've had this one on my list too, but does it count as a post-1950 novel? It was written between 1928 and 1940 but went unpublished until 1967.

[WICKES]

Anthony Burgess: Enderby novels?
Martin Amis?
Edward St Aubyn: 'Mother's Milk' (will be hailed a classic in years to come and should have won the booker)