The Next Great Authors

[Whosis]

What authors would you consider the best classically (or otherwise) from the last part of the twentieth century or the twenty-first century?

My list of authors has not included any authors from this century. Rather, it includes some of the following (mostly living) authors:
Amy Tan
Thomas Pynchon
Don DeLillo

I'm wondering who you think will be the next big names in literature after the likes of John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway.

[R.F. Schiller]

In terms of authors that will be considered "classics" like Hemingway in 50-100 years:

Philip Roth
David Foster Wallace

[desiresjab]

The best I personally know of, I believe to be Saul Bellow. His stuff had the lasting stamp of real literature on every book. He never wrote a book that will have as broad a public appeal as many others have written, nothing to catch the public's imagination in a big way like war or adventure novels, but he was a world class mind with awesome technique and insight into human character. Many of his lead characters had upper eschelon eductaions, allowing him to talk on virtually any subject within the novel.

[Paulclem]

I like Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk and Hilary Mantel. There are others, and I'll think of them eventually. It must be quite difficult to predict what will become a classic, but I think the factors that will contribute to that have already changed. There's been a discussion before, and some posters thought that other media, such as film, will have a lot of influence. These might include The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, whilst the TV series of A Game of Thrones has got to be good for the books.

[stlukesguild]

Jose Saramago (d. 2010)
Geoffrey Hill
Anne Carson
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (RIP... died today)
Homero Aridjis
Adam Zagajewski
Don DeLilo
Cormac McCarthy
Philip Roth
Yves Bonnefoy
Yehuda Amichai (d. 2000)
James Merrill (d. 1995)
Thomas Pynchon
Mario Vargas Llosa
Gunter Grass
Carlos Fuentes (d. 2012)
Augusto Monterroso (d. 2003)
...

and if we are going back as far as WWII, we might as well add:

J.L. Borges
Italo Calvino
Eugenio Montale
Saul Bellow... and a good many others.

[mal4mac]

The best I personally know of, I believe to be Saul Bellow. His stuff had the lasting stamp of real literature on every book. He never wrote a book that will have as broad a public appeal as many others have written, nothing to catch the public's imagination in a big way like war or adventure novels, but he was a world class mind with awesome technique and insight into human character. Many of his lead characters had upper eschelon eductaions, allowing him to talk on virtually any subject within the novel.

I've read a couple of his novels and rate him so highly that I've set out to read his novels from the beginning - Library of America have produced a really nice multi-volume hardback edition. So far, I'm half way through his second novel, "The Victim", which is really gripping, and (as you say) has the lasting stamp of real literature, with real insight into human character. But I'm also finding it more thrilling than most adventure novels I've read; the lead character really is a victim, and you (and he!) are continually wondering how his stalker is going to victimise him next, all the while going through a fascinating interior monologue, and demanding external events, including a persecuting boss and a death in the family for which he is blamed. A victim indeed! Bellow himself was rather dismissive of his first two novels, along with several critics, but I can't fault them. What a start to a career! What riches to come...

I also think that Philip Roth is a contender. I've read several of his latest novels (Nemesis stands out...) and I think he's going through a remarkable Indian summer, although the earlier novels I've read by him were also excellent. (Is there anything funnier than "Portnoy's complaint"...)

Jose Saramago I also find remarkable, especially "Blindness". And Cormac McCarthy (e.g., "The Road", and especially "Blood Meridian")

[Seasider]

John Updike's "Couples" could go on my list?A bit like Port oy without the laughs. Also "a Confederacy of Dunces"

[mal4mac]

John Updike's "Couples" could go on my list?A bit like Portnoy without the laughs...

What do you have left? Bad sex? Sounds like Updike... (I gave up half way through the rabbit trilogy, so he's certainly not a favourite of mine... Though I always give an author a second chance. I have "Witches of Eastwick", someday I'll try it...)