Contemporary authors

Mattlock · 10-23-2007, 05:57 PM

Most of what I read is because it is considered classic, and thus I haven't read very much modern literature. Who are some good authors from the last 10-15 years? My favorite authors are Kerouac, Salinger, Hemingway, Orwell, Dave Eggers, and Vonnegut.

Thanks.

**meatfinger** · 10-23-2007, 10:41 PM

I haven't personally read him, but I've heard that Cormac MacCarthy is the best writer making books these days.

Mattlock · 10-24-2007, 09:19 PM

I've also heard good things about him as well.

Amanda · 10-26-2007, 10:27 PM

I just read Mr. McCarthy's The Road and was very impressed; he deserved that Pulitzer. Be prepared, though, for a major lack of quotation marks and some very depressing landscape.

*Douglas Coupland
*Ian McEwan
*Flannery O'Connor (not exactly contemporary, as she published during the late '50s, but modern, at the very least)
*Tim O'Brien (writer of The Things They Carried, but I've only read his book Going After Cacciato, which is fantastic)
*J.M. Coetzee
*Sandra Cisneros
*I dig Vonnegut quite a bit, too.
*Marilynne Robinson
*Greg Garrett (full disclosure: he taught me screenwriting in college. But his books are lovely)
*Jonathan Safran Foer
*Michael Chabon

**meatfinger** · 10-27-2007, 01:42 PM

Quote:

*Tim O'Brien (writer of The Things They Carried, but I've only read his book Going After Cacciato, which is fantastic)

The Things They Carried is phenomenal. I will be teaching it to my 11th graders this spring.

thelitguy · 10-27-2007, 11:56 PM

Jonathon Franzen is probably my favorite author of the past 10-15 years. The Corrections is a perfect novel in every way imaginable.

Brent Easton Ellis is possibly the only writer of our time that fully understands everything going on. Books like American Psycho, the Rules of Attraction, and Less Than Zero are cultural studies (fictional, of course) that also double as masterpieces.

T.C Boyle writes some absolutely brilliant short stories, although I don't enjoy his novels as much. He writes often about the absurdity of (what he believes to be) modern liberal concerns, such as animal activism and environmentalism.

John Kennedy Toole wrote only one full novel (there was a novella, but I'm not counting it), the Confederacy of Dunes. It was written in the 60s, but published around the early 80s. It's without a doubt the funniest book I have ever read. And smart too.

Some other contemporaries I enjoy (in alphabetical order):

Margaret Atwood
J.G Ballard
Alain De Botton
Mark Z. Danielewski
Dave Eggers
Jhumpa Lahiri
Robert Lasner
Cormac MacCarthy
Toni Morrison
Arthur Nersesian
Tom Perrotta
John Welter

Mattlock · 10-28-2007, 09:21 PM

Dave Eggers might be the greatest satirist since Vonnegut. In fact, he very well might be the greatest satirist of all time. I haven't read any Twain, though.

**meatfinger** · 10-28-2007, 11:55 PM

Quote:

T.C Boyle writes some absolutely brilliant short stories, although I don't enjoy his novels as much. He writes often about the absurdity of (what he believes to be) modern liberal concerns, such as animal activism and environmentalism.

I also really enjoy Boyle's short stories. I've never read any of his novels. I use one of his short stories (the name of which escapes me) when I teach satire.

Quote:

Dave Eggers might be the greatest satirist since Vonnegut. In fact, he very well might be the greatest satirist of all time. I haven't read any Twain, though.

You've got to go with Jonathan Swift for greatest satirist of all time. "A Modest Proposal"... Gulliver's Travels...

Mattlock · 10-29-2007, 02:58 PM

Quote:

I also really enjoy Boyle's short stories. I've never read any of his novels. I use one of his short stories (the name of which escapes me) when I teach satire.

How much freedom do you get in regards as to what you teach your students?

Send a message via MSN to meatfinger

Quote:
T.C Boyle writes some absolutely brilliant short stories, although I don't enjoy his novels as much. He writes often about the absurdity of (what he believes to be) modern liberal concerns, such as animal activism and environmentalism.
I also really enjoy Boyle's short stories. I've never read any of his novels. I use one of his short stories (the name of which escapes me) when I teach satire.

Quote:

You've got to go with Jonathan Swift for greatest satirist of all time. "A Modest Proposal"... Gulliver's Travels...

I'll look into him.

Thanks for the suggestions.

thelitguy · 10-29-2007, 08:40 PM

Dude. I totally forgot about John Updike.

bethany. · 11-06-2007, 02:16 PM

I like what I've read by Kent Haruf and A.S. Byatt.

And I agree with whoever recommended Flannery O'Connor, I just love her.

**meatfinger** · 11-09-2007, 06:12 PM

Oh right, and Annie Dillard because she's easily the best writer in the past 50 years. She's pretty contemporary.

Mattlock · 11-11-2007, 03:00 PM

I bought "A Confederacy of Dunces" yesterday, I plan on reading it as soon as I finish "All the Pretty Horses."

Amanda · 11-17-2007, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meatfinger

Oh right, and Annie Dillard because she's easily the best writer in the past 50 years. She's pretty contemporary.

Yes. Yes.

Also, I'd like to throw out a "woohoo" for Vladimir Nabokov's book Pale Fire.

**dogfood** · 11-18-2007, 12:30 AM

Enid Blighton.....loved her stuff