ey yo that dude proper looks like trotsky yo

>Jeanetter Winterson
>Jeanetter
Anyway she scores low

Based on what I've read by them.

Dave Eggers 2/10
Amy Hempel 6/10
Jhumpa Lahiri 5/10
Lorrie Moore 7/10
Richard Russo 6/10
Zadie Smith 4/10
William T. Vollmann 1/10

>>2109846
Thanks.

>>2109826
For real yo.

>>2109844
How comes? I haven't read her yet myself, but a friend recommended 'Sexing the Cherry'.

Martin, 8/10

Jonathan Safran Foer precociousquirkysenitmental/10
Jhumpa Lahiri yawn/10
Lorrie Moore 7/10
Jeanette* Winterson 8/10

Weight is a damned good novella. Some Lorrie Moore stories are pretty good while others are dumb. Did not like Lahiri at all. Foer is interesting at times but almost universally too cloying and/or gimmicky for me to say I really "liked" any of his books.

Anne Carson 1/10
Dan Chaon 1/10
Lydia Davis 1/10
Dave Eggers 1/10
Joshua Ferris 1/10
Jonathan Safran Foer 1/10
Amy Hempel 1/10
Jhumpa Lahiri 1/10
David Mitchell 1/10
Lorrie Moore 1/10
Richard Powers 1/10
Tom Rachman
Richard Russo 1/10
Zadie Smith 1/10
Amy Tan 1/10
Deb Olin Unferth
William T. Vollmann
Jeanetter Winterson 1/10

The ones I haven't read are probably 1/10 also.

Has anyone here read J. Robert Lennon? I just read one of his short stories and I enjoyed it

I wouldn't mind seeing more discussion of contemporary authors on /lit/ but I'm not sure grading them like you're writing a capsule review of an Atari Lynx game on Usenet in 1993 is the way to go

the echo maker by powers is really really really bad

Dave Eggers 8/10

>Dave Eggers -10/10
He is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with modern literature.
>Jonathan Safran Foer -9/10
Same as above. His "novels" are what I imagine would be the aborted child of Schindler's List and Family guy but the doctor fucked the procedure up so it's some sort of hellish abomination.
>Amy Tan -9001/10
Cruises by with "I am Asian! Look at me! Minority!" Murdered minority fiction as a genre.

I don't know any of these other fucks but I assume they're all terrible by association with these three goons. Postmodernism is a cancer on contemporary literature.

>>2110161
Powers in general is shockingly poor.

I mean Anne Carson is the only one in the list that has any real merit. Out of the others, I don't mind Lorrie Moore and Russo on a good day, and once in a blue moon, Vollman achieves something nice. Mitchell I've yet to determine, he has potential.

Otherwise, this pick sucks hard, particularly Davis (Tao Lin's inspiration).

I'll always rep for Zadie Smith. Even at her worst and sloppiest she taps into that irrational "fuck yeah I could read this person's half-baked musings every day for the rest of my life and enjoy it" part of my brain

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. But what I'd really like to know is, are there any contemporary authors that are particularly goood? (By contemporary I mean like under the age of 60 or so.) Because this is literally what my 21st century English language literature folder actually looks like. I really only included Eggers and Foer because they're popular. I'll probably still end up reading these authors because I've had most of them recommended to me by people whose opinions I trust.

>Otherwise, this pick sucks hard, particularly Davis (Tao Lin's inspiration).
Now this is odd, because I've always heard good things about Lydia Davis, and I've always thought you to have pretty good taste. Any more thoughts on that?

>>2110390
I'm really hoping you're wrong about Richard Powers, though.

>Contemporary authors
>no Mieville
kthxbai

tao loves lorrie moore too. of course so do i.

>>2110186
>>2109846

Just curious, why don't you like Dave Eggers? Some people I know really like him and keep recommending him. The few pages I read seem pretty interesting. What's up? Too much "experimentation" for experimentations sake?

>>2110647
Too much experimentation for experimentation's sake that is really oh-shucks no it's not and hey guys I'm the narrator still. Love me! Donate to my charity!

>>2110556

David Mitchell is one of the best British writers at the moment. And Jim Crace is a fantastic writer - I recommend Arcadia, The Gift of Stones and above all Quarantine. His prose is just beautiful. Similarly, Ronan Bennet is an awesome writer - the Catastrophist is incredibly affecting.

Despite what /lit/ seems to believe, good writing did not stop at 1911.

>>2110647
Eggers has a false sense of artistic skill. He thinks he's presenting truths and enriching mankind, when he really is just a leech, sucking and living off the blood of mangy currs like MTV. He's worse than a sick and lying dog--he's latched onto their fur.

He's the worst kind of hack. The liar with no heart who thinks he's doing good.

>>2110664
The only person who believes that is capsguy

>>2110664
Thanks for the recommendations.

>>2110664
You mean fat comic actor David Mitchell? Please tell me that's not the guy you mean.

>>2110668

this

After his first memoir all his subsequent books involve him leeching off the story of some poor third world refugee to show what a compassionate and sensitive thinker he is

He can eat a dick and die in a fire

Haven't read most of these because I'm a lazy piece of shit.

Amy Hempel
>Thought her stories were hollow as fuck. It's like if Raymond Carver wrote and he wasn't good. Surprised how well-regarded she is. Maybe it's all too deep for me.
>5/10

Jhumpa Lahiri
>Waaaah being foreign is hard.
>6/10

Richard Powers
>Only read a fourth of Gain. Reading that book was like trying to run through sludge. Don't feel I can place a clear numerical value on his writing based on the limited text that I read of his, but I gather that he doesn't know how to make text interesting.

I haven't read any of them and I've barely even heard of most of them. Eggers and Tan are the only ones that ring a bell.

>>2110699

Not that David Mitchell, no. Although I do like him, he doesn't even write Peep Show. Is he fat? He's not much fatter than I am, and I'm not fat. Maybe I need to lay off the curry for a bit.

I mean the one who wroute Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

OK guys, here's another list, enjoy. Got almost all of these names from literary magazines:

Chimandra Ngozi Adichie
Chris Adrian
Nicholson Baker
John Banville
Dennis Cooper
Annie Dillard
Stuart Dybek
Geoff Dyer
Nathan Englander
Brian Evenson
Richard Ford
Nell Freudenberger
Damon Galgut
Allan Gurganus
Alan Hollinghurst
Edward P. Jones
Nicole Krauss
Yiyun Li
Sam Lipsyte
Colum McCann
Maile Meloy
Dinaw Mengestu
Philipp Meyer
Steven Millhauser
Magnus Mills
Téa Obreht
Julie Otsuka
Padgett Powell
Mark Richard
Marilynne Robinson
George Saunders
Lore Segal
Jim Shepard
Paul Theroux
Colm Tóibín
Justin Torres
Colson Whitehead

>>2110746
He's chubby. By American standards he's a GQ cover model. I mean, I'm making a cheap fat joke but now that I think about it I'm pretty sure Seth Rogen has been on the cover of GQ. I really wish that Peep Show David Mitchell and Cloud Atlas David Mitchell were the same dude, that would be impressive. Did you see where the Wachowski Brothers (siblings?) are actually in real life doing a Cloud Atlas movie? I have a soft spot for them but lord that is going to blow.

>>2110748

george saunders rules rules rules rules, if you like dystopian kinda stuff at all read pastoralia and/or civilwarland in bad decline post haste

jim shepard's short story about the hindenburg is fantastic, i've been meaning to read more by him

>>2110748
colm toibin: 7.9/10
sam lipsyte: 6.7/10 but he's funny
paul theroux: good writer who i hate/10
nicole krauss: better than her husband/10
colson whitehead: funny twitter/10

>>2110748

Stuart Dybek
>Great short story writer. Read _The Coast of Chicago_. I've never touched his novels though.
Richard Ford
>Also only read his short stories. They are pretty great in general. I'd recommend finding his story "Puppy." I'll link it below.
>http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/12/24/011224on_onlineonly02
Steven Millhauser
>Great short story writer (starting to see a pattern with what I read?) Lots of his stuff falls sort of in the realm of magical realism. Very creative writer.
George Saunders
>Read this guy. People refer to him as the Vonnegut of our generation. Except he's actually better than Vonnegut.
Jim Shepard
>One of the most underrated writers out there. I recommend his collection _Love and Hydrogen_. Guy covers some very strange topics in his stories. The kind of writer that researches a subject deeply, and then he makes that subject odd and tragic and hilarious. Sort of a writer's writer.
Paul Theroux
>I've only read one of his stories, but it was fucking great. I need to check out more of his stuff.

Where are you getting these names?

I never trust the literary magazines much. As long as you know the right people your name will pop up somewhere. Like, I've read so many shitty stories in the New Yorker that it's ridiculous.

>>2110758
Oh she's married to Foer, that's neat

>>2110668

>He's worse than a sick and lying dog--he's latched onto their fur.

Don't beat around the bush man, tell us how you feel about it.

Zadie Smith's pretty good, although to be honest I usually steer clear of anything that's won a booker or been beloved of the Guardian readers.

I've just thought of another recent book that I loved: Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra - it was incredible. Sweeping and gripping and serious, like a love song to Mumbai with a detective story attached.

Also Geoff Dyer, who I never see mentioned on this board. It's hard to categorise what he writes - he's a kind of self-fictionalising journalist, like Hunter Thompson, but with a more overtly intellectual style. His book about writing a book about Lawrence is pretty cool, and Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It, is very interesting.

And you know what else, fuck the haters, I kind of like Chuck Palahniuk. He's a bit hit and miss, but some of his books have been genuinely good, and he has a habit of representing the zeitgeist. I never understand why he gets all the hate on /lit/ since I'd have thought he would have been perfect for the demographic. He writes good tales that contain a few ideas and he does it efficiently. He's the Ford Madox Ford of his generation. There, I said it, and I'm not sorry.

>>2110763
I've actually gotten most of these names from The New Yorker, The Paris Review and Harper's. A good chunk of them are favorites of people who write stories for The New Yorker.

>>2110748

Nicholson Baker is so mannered and stylised I can't read him. I also often get the feeling he was wanking while he was writing - you can smell the spongle wafting off the page. Read The Fermata (it's about 100 pages long iirc) and you'll see what I mean.

Geoff Dyer I already did while you were posting your list.

Colm Toibin is well over-rated. Middleclass, middlebrow, forgettable.

I used to love Paul Theroux when I was younger. I've travelled a lot in my life, and at least in part his books are responsible. He wrote one book with a scene where he shot his wife's lover in the face with a waterpistol full of piss - that image has stayed with me for a long time since. He's a good writer, I think.

Banville never did it for me - I read The Sea (but I don't like Booker bores as a rule) and it reminded me of a lot of things I don't like about Britlit - he writes to win prizes.

Richard Ford - I read The Sportswriter for a course at university. I say "read", I mean read the first two chapters, hated it passionately then spent a semester telling everyone in my seminar group who liked it what kind of a cunt they were, and precisely why.

Fuck, I too don't know where you got these names from, some of them are pretty obscure. To be continued...

>>2110771

Yeah, gotta take all that with a grain of salt. Big writers probably have so-and-so come and say, LOL PUT IN A GOOD WORD FOR ME BRO.

>>2109826

Salman Rushdie looks like trotsky? What the fuck is that about?

Anyway, to carry on from before, Colm Toibin bores the arse off me - I read somewhere that he was taking over some university gig from Martin Amis and thinking how appropriate it was that the chair should go from one massive cunt to another. Toibin's just ridiculously boringly political and parochial, I think.

Dennis Cooper is challenging, to say the least. I think he's a genuine talent, and a proper intellectual. Probably the closest to Burroughs or Selby that we have still working.

Vollman I've only read his short stuff - he wrote something recently about the aftereffects of the earthquake that was interesting enough. Europe Central is one of those books I've never got round to reading, but I've heard it's good.

Jeanette Winterson's early stuff is OK, if you don't mind strident lesbian politics. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is the only bok of hers that I really liked, and even then I preferred the TV series, I know, I know, it's terrible, I should be ashamed

All the others in your first list are pretty horrible, and very avoidable. I'm man enough to admit that your second list is way 2obscure4me. I need to go back to hipster academy, obiously.

>>2110668
Oh okay. So he's the Hitler of postmodern writing. Got it.

>>2110796
nah, the bono

i don't really have anything against the guy other than he's a cheeseball though

I really appreciate you guys helping me weed out the chaff, or however that saying goes. I'll probably read the more highly recommended authors before the others. Thanks again.

>>2110800
>>2110800

>the bono

Ooh, that's cold, man. Harsh.

I absolutely love how the party hat is hooked onto the peak of Rushdie's eyebrow

>>2110808
I really like how, tomorrow, this post will make no sense AT ALL.

>>2110556
My further thoughts to that are that I will probably react to any writing that facilitated the production of TL's Richard Yates with excessive violence, considering how much I hated reading said book and how much I regret bothering to finish it.

Fine, she's a respected translator (of Proust no less) and has her fair share of plaudits for what she's written herself. That said, people also say that her fiction is deliberately terse, tedious and 'pointless,' serving some sort of potentially abstruse but likewise, potentially fulfilling artistic purpose. If you want to concede to this sort of game-playing, fine, it's probably worth your time. I myself believe that game playing is the preserve of the weak and bid you to avoid her.

>>2110562
He sounded like a new Pynchon, while I was reading these seemingly cogent and inspired premises (apart from the mixed race marriage one, that sounded shit). Then, I read how the one about the pharmaceutical company has its protagonist die of cancer, caused by the company's illegal chemical dumping. Obviously, it's an insinuation of a more general nature of the malign force of capitalism, but isn't this, a plain contemptible use of metaphor, setting Powers apart as a plain bad writer?

>>2110748
I know few of the people on this list. The ones that I do know, my mum reads which suggests they're terrible...

>>2111070
>The ones that I do know, my mum reads which suggests they're terrible...

This is the mentality of every idiot 16-year-old boy on this board who thinks Jane Austen is a humorless cross between Nora Ephron and a Jezebel editor

>>2111435
>This is the mentality of every idiot 16-year-old boy on this board who thinks Jane Austen is a humorless cross between Nora Ephron and a Jezebel editor

This is the mentality of every idiot on the board who thinks that a cursory examination of any viewpoint without further questioning/exploration grants them the ability to generalize horrendously and to misconstrue way too far as a result.

If you have something stupid to say, bro, you'd look better if you didn't say it... My mum reads genre fiction, particularly the sort of stuff the critics like, Ferris' 'Then We Came to the End' comes to mind.

>>2111554
Then We Came To The End isn't even genre fiction, you fucking mouth-breather. It's mediocre, that's for sure, but it's pure National Book Award-Nominated Brown-Haired White Guy With Glasses Best-Selling Lit Fic

>>2111795
>>2111070
Thanks for your thoughts, guys.

>>2111070

>>2111435
It's probably more of an age-income-class outlook thing than a gender thing IMO but fuck all the idiots who don't like Jane Austen so, in summary, whatever

Rebecca Curtis
Wagner James Au
Sigrid Nunez
Nadine Gordimer
Andrea Barrett
Josip Novakovich
Michael Cunningham
Shelley Jackson
Nick McDonell
Peter Ho Davies
Sheila Kohler
Doug Trevor
David Leavitt
Anne Enright
Rick Moody
Aimee Bender

BTW I have downloaded at least one book by every person I've listed so far ITT

>>2112822
Needs more non-English stuff. You're missing the majority of the world's contemporary lit in these lists.

>>2112825
How do I find out about contemporary non-English stuff? Sometimes the magazines I'm looking through print something translated from a foreign language but it's usually someone older/I've already heard of

>>2112831
I'm talking about people like Calvino, Bolano, Saramago, Levi, etc

>>2112831
Look around the publishers who focus on world literature. Dalkey Archive, Archipelago Press, New Directions, etc. Otherwise, I'm not sure of any one website that lists them.

>>2112842
Thanks, I'll check it out.

>>2112838
check out this ridiculously mean review of a rick moody joint http://www.powells.com/review/2002_07_04.html

>>2112865
>[...]and readers: they, too, bear some responsibility for the condition of fiction — who have long since forgotten what the modernist and postmodernist assaults on linearity were actually about, and as such have lost the ability to tell the difference between ambiguity and inscrutability, ambition and bombast; of writers who are taken at face value when they are being ironic and who are deemed ironic when they are telling it straight — assuming, of course, that they themselves know the difference. Assuming, I should add, that they actually have a subject.

Nice.

>>2112865

told gold pretzels

>>2112896
Everyone already knows him

>>2112865
That guy looks like he knows what he's talking about, maybe I'll read his books

The only one of those authors I've read is Richard Russo, "Empire Falls", and that is one of my favorite books of all time. I love that story, characters and the setting so much. I never get tired of reading it.

>>2112908
Why can't I find a copy of that book on #bookz? Anyone willing to share a copy of Empire Falls?

>>2112923
That's one you'll have to buy or borrow from the library I guess

>>2112865
>It is sort of refreshing, I guess, to see a straight white male taking a hard p.c. line
hahaha yeah right

>>2112934
Oh wait, this was back in 2002, never mind.

>>2110050
>Has anyone here read J. Robert Lennon? I just read one of his short stories and I enjoyed it

There's a distinctive lack of Michael Chabon on that list.

>>2113149
see
>>2112903

>>2111795
I consider it genre fiction in the sense that it's got a target demographic that it cynically plies with, in this case, comedy and wish fulfillment. Like your standard Sci-fi, fantasy or meyer novel basically. Hell, it's genre is ironized realism, if you want one, but you honestly don't need a named genre, just a pulpish tendency.

Hey, and you can keep your mouth shut. Go back to collecting smegma from eight-year olds or however it is, you spend your time; your contrarianism is tedious.

>>2112314
No one's hating on Austen here, dood.

>>2113184
You have a real fuckin weird definition of genre mate

>>2113184
Really?

>>2113217
Is that the monkey that beat up Caracalla?

No. Its this one.

>>2113213
Define your take on genre, then, you bag of dicks...

>>2113226
Ah. Thanks.

>>2113226
Nah, this is me and him. We're actually best friends lol

>>2113230
You are a friend of a child molester? Shame on you.

>>2113228
that's not very polite of you caracalla... i would define a genre as a group of works having identifiable similarities in theme / aesthetic / worldview / literary or stylistic elements, or as a group of works with a discrete, self-acknowledged fanbase

so for instances we know that science fiction is a genre because science fiction books have common literary approaches, have common aesthetic themes, and have an identifiable group of 'sci-fi' fans. but you can have science fiction which is identifiable as such and is not wish fulfillment, and in general 'wish fulfillment' just seems like a bad / subjective criteria

>>2113232
>lol

>>2113234

>>2113233
poor you, you decided to criticize my views but didn't do so with any substantiation and you were surprised when I lost my patience.

The second step in this is to demonstrate how your definition is seperate or different from mine. Do your best here, anon...

>>2113235

>>2113236
so it seems like you're more interested in being a dickhead / proving that you're 'better' than some internet poster than actually having a debate

later, fool

>>2113241
No, I'm just tired of getting shit from losers who decide to wax critical and then get all burthurt when they're shown the idiocy of their of position making. If someone had a good idea that they submitted politely, in the first place, I'd argue it politely with them, as I've shown throughout my posting history.

You started this, by deciding to say something stupid and non-constructive, so you can take the butthurt and keep the moral low ground as far as everyone's concerned...

>>2113233
>a genre as a group of works having identifiable similarities in theme / aesthetic / worldview / literary or stylistic elements, or as a group of works with a discrete, self-acknowledged fanbase
much too broad I should thin

been a while since i took a look at genre studies but i was under the impression genres were tied more significantly to conventions

>>2113247
i wasn't being a dick to you at all. i said you had a strange idea about genre, because it was strange + opposed to the usual way we think about gender

and you haven't shown me the idiocy of anything. i said a position and then you hurf-durfed all over the place and acted like you know the horrible secret of genre and really my position was the same as yours. really don't care if you're gonna be a dick, was just kind of curious why you held such a strange idea about genre.

>>2113250
yeah, i think that's what i was trying to get at. it's a better way of phrasing it. i do think that looking at it in terms of something having a discrete fanbase or also perhaps in terms of marketing/sales categories can be an useful view to take.

ITT: gay sexual tension

>>2113250
this to an extent.

Genre in general is almost a marketing conceit, these days, so it's made obvious to the right people that this is a book they'd enjoy.

Earlier, it might have been more tied to form. The Epic was a form as well as a genre, as was lyric poetry.

>convention

The honest but permanent escapist means of all social sciences.

Best 4 of 20th century: James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Nabokov, Richard Adams.

Anybody who disagrees is a nincompoop!

>>2113253
>You have a real fuckin weird definition of genre mate (>>2113213)

Your language appears contemptuous of my opinions here, particularly with the 'real fucking weird' and the faux chummy 'mate.'

So, no, it wasn't just that you thought my ideas were 'weird' or 'strange,' you also wanted to contradict and demean my arguments. My reaction was appropriate, I thought, particularly as you had no idea going in of what you thought genre was and were consequently criticizing me for no reason (it's either that or you didn't bother to get a good idea of what I was suggesting that genre was).

Now, you're upset because I got you to fall for the easiest trick in the book, one that undermined your position because it forced you to implicitly admit that your idea of genre was mine, just lacking a few subtleties.

>and you haven't shown me the idiocy of anything. i said a position and then you hurf-durfed all over the place and acted like you know the horrible secret of genre and really my position was the same as yours. really don't care if you're gonna be a dick, was just kind of curious why you held such a strange idea about genre.
Consequently, this is a load of crap. Unsubstantiable and silly.

>>2113265
They're from a million years ago except I don't know who Richard Adamas is

>>2113265
Nah, Nabokov was too much of an aesthete. He should have stuck to poetry rather than narrative.

Proust, I provisionally agree with, since my reading of him hasn't been extensive enough. Joyce is a definite yes.

Adams, I don't care...

>>2113268
He's actually still alive, so you could call him the only great author of the 21st century.

Anybody who disagrees is a nincompoop!

>>2113269
The plague Dogs was one of my cherished children's books though, lol.

>>2113272
>make post about plague dogs
>use picture of Shardik

I think we understand each other.

>Genre
>Nothing but marketing

Put any classic piece of literature in the setting of a spaceship and the piece will automatically go to the SciFi section. Make the characters elves and it goes to Fantasy.

Prove me wrong.

>>2113276

>>2113283
Cat's Cradle is science fiction, but it is always in the literature section.

>>2113283

But what happens if you have elves in space?

>>2113283
Sure, convention is and has been a constant in genre, but I feel that genre is cyncically plied by book marketers these days, just as genre was a sort of reflection of form in earlier years. These are wider considerations but also kind of shape or force genre fiction into a sort of audience pleasing that's non literary (maybe that's the wrong word; maybe, non artistic or fecklessly crafted). This is what genre fiction is and this is what I was trying to criticize authors like Ferris for.

Think about who they market the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies books because they can deliver what a general geek wants; violent horror/fantasy scenarios, with a certain style of techey sardonic humour that works a nice bit of bathos and parody in with the literary basis they've got going.

>>2113283
Richard Adams would be more famous if he didn't write fantasy and kids books. Go watch Plague Dogs film and tell me if you think that's a kids film.

>>2112923
there are like ten million $3 used paperback copies of empire falls in every used bookstore in any city or town that has a college in it in america, if you've got one of those near you

So does anyone know who the best contemporary poets are? Because I've mostly been asking about novelists and short story writers ITT

>>2114512
Nicki Minaj

>>2114512
nichita danilov
radu andriescu

>>2114544

i sincerely hope this is not sarcasm

>>2114577
i been hot since hedgehog, sonic the

Whoever recommended Jim Shepard, thanks, and I echo your sentiments

>>2109808
I used to be Qing's best friend until I found out who he really was...

All this hate for Eggers sounds fairly reasonable from the little I've read of him, but I still find myself interested in reading Zeitoun. Just because a potentially dishonest man wrote it, does that mean I shouldn't try and get past that to read about Zeitoun? Or does Eggers' voice just ruin it?

I've worked out a new theory of reading. It's genesis is at least in part from /lit/, so I thought I'd share it with you first.

Basically, anything that anyone else likes, or which has ever received a positive review, is inherently shit. So now, I'm only going to read things that people don't like.

So come on /lit/ - tell me what you all fucking HATE. The book that everyone hates most universally is the one I'll read next. Seriously. And I'll provide pics. Thing is, I've only got about 20 euros to spare, so not too expensive.

>>2115603
Twilight. Enjoy.

>>2115598
It really wouldn't hurt anybody on this green Earth of yours for you to check it out from the library and give it a shot. I saw some lady reading it on the train the other day and she seemed like she was a lot more together than I was, so reading that book is probably your pass to a better life.

Jonathan Safran Foer - 4/10
David Mitchell - 4/10
Zadie Smith - 5/10, maybe
Amy Tan - 6/10

Haven't read most of them.

>>2115630
>David Mitchell - 4/10
>Zadie Smith - 5/10, maybe
>Amy Tan - 6/10

SUNHAWWWWWWWKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

>>2115635

Cloud Atlas was boring, I wasn't sure about White Teeth, and The Bonesetter's Daughter was good. What's wrong with this?

>>2115605

I knew at least one person would go Twilight, so I'm prepared to raise the stakes and go NIGHTMARE MODE.

If I get enough votes for Twilight, then I'll read it in Dutch. And I'm not Dutch.


M'n gezicht toen.

Y U NO READ JIM CRACE?

who does this thread exist without mention of Jonathan Franzen and David Foster Wallace. Even if you hate them (/lit/ get's pretty high school sometimes) I've never seen /lit/ speak of contemporary lit without mention of them.

Also, I would like to recommend Douglas Copland and Michael Ondaatje.

This is actually relevant to my interests because I would like to read more contemporary literature but it's never really talked about on here.

>MFW I haven't even heard of any of these

>>2115671

Which ones specifically haven't you heard of, you thick fuck? I'm a doctor, let me enlighten you.

>>2115673

The ones in the OP. All of them.