Just finished looking at Time Magazine's 100 Best English Novels and I have to say that I'm a bit surprised. The list doesn't suck. I only buy Time when I know that I'm going to be stuck somewhere for a long time with nothing to do and there is nothing else available. Happens too frequently here as there aren't too many English magazines available, usually. So, when I saw they the editors had made a English novel list, I was a bit wary of the results, but it turns out that the list is not too bad. Actually, any book list that doesn't include The Davinci Code is instantly above average in my opinion. I was especially pleased to see the inclusion of Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, On the Road by John Kerouac, and Neuromancer by William Gibson - books that I can easily see Time deciding against. And am equally pleased that Tom Robbins was not included (although his novels are on many a university reading list. (Why?) There were a couple of really noticeable glitches, such as the omission of Peter Carey, John Irving and Ha Jin, three living authors who are producing outstanding novels. I had to write Time and inform them of their mistake and I anticipate they will be updating the list within days. And the biggest glitch of all was including Are you there God? It's me Margaret. I really don't get that one. Of course I don't agree with all of Time's decisions and in particular the decision to include only books written in English. Here is my list of books that should be included/excluded from their list, as well as some foreign books that I would include.
Included: (in no particular order)
War Trash by Ha Jin
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (pretty sure this was written in English)
The Cider House Rules by John Irving (Not even one book by John Irving!!????)
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (one of the funniest books ever written)
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
Sophie's Choice by William Styron
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Stand by Stephen King (Kidding!)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (OK, I know I'm pushing it. Don't Panic.)
Deleted:
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
(If another Pynchon is needed, V. or Vineland are both better novels.)
The French Lieutenants Woman by John Fowles
The Golden Notebook by
Doris Lessing
A Handful of Dust
by Evelyn Waugh
(I'd be willing to include a different Waugh novel.)
Housekeeping
by Marilynne Robinson
White Teeth
by Zadie Smith
(Quite liked this one, but not sure it's one of the all-time best.)
The Sot-Weed Factor
by John Barth
(Yawn)
Ragtime
by E.L. Doctorow
The Blind Assassin
by Margaret Atwood
(If you need an Atwood, The Handmaiden's Tale is much better.)
Deliverance
by James Dickey
Dog Soldiers
by Robert Stone
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre
And number one must be replaced as soon as possible Are you there God? It's me Margaret by Judy Blume. Is there any reason that this book is on the 100 best list? Why? How? Sure, it's one of those coming of age books that apparently every teenage girl in America reads....And? If a children's book is really needed, what about the Harry Potter series or, even, Alice in Wonderland. Both are infinitely better choices.
A few of the selections I haven't read and some haven't even heard of , so was unable to make the choice.
Foreign Books that I'd include:
Love in the Time of Cholera and 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (both amazing books)
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (of course)
The Stranger by Alfred Camus
The Tin Drum by Gunther Grass
The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz
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