Thought I'd post this here as well, in case anyone is looking for reading suggestions...
At the close of the last century, the Modern Library published its ranking of the top 100 novels of the 1900s. This proved to be so popular in sparking debate (and generating page views) that many other publishers and periodicals followed suit. Prominent lists include:
The Modern Library - 100 Best Novels
Radcliffe Publishing - Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century
Time Magazine - All-Time 100 Novels
Waterstone's - Books of the Century
While I saw the Modern Library list when it came out, it slipped my mind as quickly as it entered. I was brought back to the subject, though, by Keith Law, who is known more as a baseball writer for ESPN than a literary critic. However, he developed his own top 100 and, in so doing, indirectly prompted me to do the same.
I decided to do this primarily because it forced me to review all of the fiction I have read in my life to this point - a healthy activity in its own right. At the same time, it has driven me to begin filling in gaps in my own library, for how can I consider my rankings to have any credibility if I haven't read many of the works believed to be great by the "experts"? As such, creating this list has been a lengthy, difficult process. I started tinkering with it almost a year ago. While there are many more works I need to read before I can feel great about this list, I decided that I could always make that excuse. As such, I established the end of this year as a deadline for the completion of my first version.
The guidelines: While the original impetus for this was a list limited to the best novels of the 20th century, I am following Law's approach by including works from earlier centuries. I am not limiting this to novels, as I don't really want to get into the debate over what constitutes a novel. Novellas and novel-length works are fair game; short stories are out. Classics were really hard to work with, as they really deserve their own special treatment. Ultimately, I only chose to include a few works that preceded the 19th century and the vast majority of works included here come from the 20th century. Another challenge for me was choosing how to deal with multiple works by the same author. There are some writers, like Rushdie and Calvino, who I enjoy so much that their works would easily litter a personal Top 100. I decided to emphasize having different authors on this list, which forced me to be selective in isolating the definitive work from each author. At most, there are two novels by a given author on here - never three or more.
Any list obviously falls prey to the personal preferences of its compiler. As such, it's worth knowing those preferences in advance. My early literary tastes - which remain prominent in my views - centered on Latin American magical realism and European modernism. Both are represented quite well on this list. Meanwhile, I developed a very strong distaste for American and British lit. I worked hard to correct that in subsequent years, but there remain some gaps in my knowledge of that area. In my early 20s, I took up an interest in post-modern Eastern European literature, driven in large part by Milorad Pavic. After that, recognizing how little I knew about Asian, Australian, and African literature, I tried to pursue the major works from those areas. Overall, the outcome I suspect is a deep knowledge of Latin American literature and a functional knowledge of literature from other parts of the world.
100 David Lodge - Therapy
A work that functions as a comedy and a contemplation of religion in the contemporary world, Therapy's denouement suitably unfolds on Spain's Camino de Santiago.
99 Norton Juster - The Phantom Tollbooth
Juster picked up the torch from Lewis Carroll in this 20th century masterpiece that appeals on different levels to children and adults. In my case, it's one of two books I recall vividly from my early childhood (along with Tolkien).
98 Emilia Pardo Bazan - The Manors of Ulloa
Think Wuthering Heights set in Galician Spain.
97 JM Coetzee - Life and Times of Michael K
Until he published Disgrace, this was considered Coetzee's masterpiece. It's a jarring, deliberately Kafkaesque portrayal of Civil War-era South Africa, in which even white South Africans appear dehumanized and bereft of meaning.
96 Orson Scott Card - Ender’s Game
One of the most important works of science fiction of all time. Sure, the language is simplistic and the story is cliched at times; however, Card succeeds in creating a venue for the exploration of major ethical dilemmas, excelling where SciFi often feels heavy-handed.
95 George Orwell - Animal Farm
Some of us are more equal than others.
94 Augusto Roa Bastos - I the Supreme
A historical novel from the Paraguayan master, examining one of the most fascinating (and unfairly ignored) figures in history, one time Paraguayan dictator Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia.
93 Junichiro Tanizaki - Makioka Sisters
Set in the 1940s, as Japan struggled with World War II and the complicated process of westernization, Tanizaki focuses here on the impact of those larger developments on the traditional family.
92 Guillermo Cabrera Infante - Three Trapped Tigers
A post-modernist portrayal of pre-revolutionary Havana. Cabrera Infante plays games with the structure, in ways that will be immediately evident by simply flipping the pages.
91 Willa Cather - My Antonia
Considered the finest of Cather's accounts of frontier life in America, this follows the struggles of a Bohemian immigrant girl in Nebraska.
90 Machado de Assis - Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas
It is difficult to isolate one of Assis's novels, as this is certainly rivaled by Dom Casmurro, Quincas Borba, and Esau and Jacob. Bras Cubas was critical to the career of the great Brazilian writer, though, and has the clever narrative device of the dead man reflecting on his life story.
89 Oscar Zeta Acosta - Revolt of the Brown Buffalo
Hunter S. Thompson's wingman and lawyer outlines the development of his own sense of Chicano consciousness.
88 Ernest Hemingway - Old Man and the Sea
I worked very hard to cultivate an appreciation for Hemingway, working through all of his major works. I was even inclined to like him, given our shared appreciation for the Basque country. Despite that, though, I fail to see the greatness. He writes English as though it were a poor translation of Spanish, loaded with passive voice and even using words like molest in the sense of "bother" (molestar is Spanish for "to bother"). And, while the uncertainty and doubt that plagued post-WWI Europe was certainly a popular subject at the time, Hemingway approaches it with a level of resignation and impotence that feels self-indulgent.
The Old Man and the Sea, though, seems to operate on a more universal level, an allegory that, while ending in defeat, feels noble in purpose, the moral obverse of a Pyrrhic victory.
87 China Mieville - Perdido Street Station
The next generation of science fiction, Mieville moves beyond simple moralizing to a darker world that acknowledges that easy answers are hardly the property of the future. The flaws (an obsession with complicated linguistic terminology that borders on pomposity and a somewhat predictable unfolding of the plot that draws lightly on Michael Crichton) are easily over-shadowed by the depth and clarity of Mieville's constructed city.
86 Elie Wiesel - Night
The defining work of Holocaust literature, Wiesel's story is most potent in its exploration of the Nazi system's nefarious ability to turn father and son against each other and, in so doing, shifting the feelings of guilt and immorality to the victims.
85 Doris Lessing - The Golden Notebook
An accidental work of feminist literature, the genius of Lessing's work lies in the innovative structure, in which the story unfolds through the lead character's many different literary journals. Far more than feminism or Marxism, this provides insight into the literary process.
84 Qian Zhongshu - Fortress Besieged
A little like a Chinese Jane Austen, Qian's novel - one of the most famous from 20th century China - explores life in the country in the short-lived time between independence and the PRC.
83 George Eliot - Silas Marner
A moralizing Victorian novel that succeeds in large part due to the appeal of its gruff, unbending central figure.
82 Witold Gombrowicz - Ferdydurke
One of the great - and thoroughly unknown - works of European modernism, this work fits neatly into the tradition of satirical and absurdist commentaries on the simultaneous rise of fascist and communist ideologies in Europe (of particular relevance to Gombrowicz's Poland). Like Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, this was victimized by history and only relatively recently enjoyed a competent English translation.
81 Yasunari Kawabata - Master of Go
Another novel capturing the "moment in time" feel in Asia around World War II, this is based on an actual Go match that took place in Japan in 1938, spanning six months. As the game is played between the long-time master and his young challenger, larger changes are also taking place in Japan.
80 Henry James - Turn of the Screw
A great, short work of suspense, from a time when horror was all in the mind. Or was it?
79 Salman Rushdie - Shalimar the Clown
Shalimar likely benefits from two factors in making this list over other Rushdie novels - it's the most recent one that I've read and it deals with a subject (the conflict over Kashmir) about which I have a great deal of interest. While it stumbles to the finish, the character of Shalimar may be the best vessel Rushdie has created for playing his literary games.
78 Jack Kerouac - On the Road
Kerouac exemplified and transcended the Beat Generation in this novel, capturing many key characteristics of the American existence in the adventures of Sal Paradise. This certainly belongs in the top three candidates for the Great American Novel.
77 Margaret Atwood - Handmaid's Tale
Literary types burned out on the subject of the utopia pretty quickly, but the potential permutations of dystopia seem almost limitless. Atwood's, while not the best, may be the most distinctive of interpretations, with its emphasis on the female experience.
76 Edgar Allan Poe - Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
It is easy to see, just in this short novella, how much influence Poe had on Borges's development as a storyteller. Among other tricky gimmicks, Poe plays with authorship here and manipulates the narrative with a faulty manuscript. Like other classic seafaring texts, Poe also expertly crafts the tale to reflect the slow pace of life in the ocean.
75 Voltaire - Candide
Everything works out for the best...
74 Graham Greene - The End of the Affair
Greene is another author about whom a great deal of debate exists in selecting a definitive work. Waterstone's has Brighton Rock. Time favors The Power and the Glory. Law refers Our Man in Havana. Affair, meanwhile, was celebrated by William Faulkner, and his word is good enough for me. In this novel, Greene chronicles the unraveling of an affair, the tension between physical love and spiritual love, and the crippling power of hatred.
73 William Golding - Lord of the Flies
What is human nature? Removed from civilization, would we revert to savagery? Can a piggy see without his glasses? Golding explores the key questions of our age...
72 Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
Speaking of the tension between civilization and savagery... Achebe turns what had been a standard European conceit on its head in this critical novel, showing how a perfectly viable culture was undermined by the "light" of civilization.
71 Eduardo Galeano - Memory of Fire
A remarkable work, telling the history of the Americas over the course of three volumes through a series of potent vignettes.
70 Don Delillo - Falling Man
Perhaps the finest example of 9/11 literature, a very rich subject for many American writers over the last decade. Delillo focuses on the famous photograph of the man jumping from one of the towers, immortalized mid-fall, and the performance artist who reenacted that event all over the city.
69 RL Stevenson - Treasure Island
It was tempting to shine some light on another Stevenson work, perhaps Kidnapped or The Black Arrow, but Treasure Island was clearly the masterpiece. And pirates are awesome.
68 JM Coetzee - Disgrace
An excellent work, though almost certainly undeserving of the exuberant praise it has received (a poll by the Observer called it the greatest non-US English language novel of the last 25 years). As with Michael K, Coetzee succeeds in capturing the downward spiral of South Africa from a white South African perspective.
67 EM Forster - Passage to India
The definitive literary work on Colonial India, showing how even the best intents were blinded by prejudice.
66 Alejo Carpentier - Kingdom of this World
This account of the Haitian revolution is considered the origin of the term "magical realism," if not the genre itself.
65 David Malouf - Remembering Babylon
A fascinating look at residual racism in Australia, cleverly centered on a white community's discrimination of a white boy who was raised briefly by Aborigines.
64 Thomas Hardy - Return of the Native
A talented man is torn by the rugged Wessex moor, a wild and passionate young woman, and his intrusive mother. Things don't end well.
63 F. Scott Fitzgerald - Great Gatsby
Gatsby lands near the top of almost every list of greatest works. It is also the novel I've worked the hardest to appreciate, having recently completed my fourth reading of it. Originally, I hated it. In college, I came to recognize some of its merits. I now see the genius of Fitzgerald as a story-teller, though I would also argue that Gatsby doesn't even rank as his finest work. Fitzgerald's power as a writer is still in its early stages here.
In my most recent re-reading, it finally hit me: Gatsby is Alex Rodriguez, the most recent re-writing of the American Dream and the quest of its winners for acceptance and credibility. Success breeds failure.
62 Isabel Allende - Eva Luna
Latin American novelists seem to be particularly prolific; every year brings a new novel from Fuentes, Vargas Llosa, and Allende, among others, making it difficult to stay on top of their work. Allende is generally recognized as having two masterpieces, one of which is Eva Luna. As is also the case with many Latin American novels, Eva Luna seems to be as much about the art of story-telling as it is about Latin American history.
61 Art Spiegelman - Maus
A work of great literary significance, given its role in legitimizing the graphic novel, Maus also makes the holocaust accessible to a different audience, affecting an emotional resonance that is more difficult in a purely print medium.
60 JRR Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
Setting aside any debate over the allegorical meaning, this trilogy operates quite effectively on a literal level. If only good and evil were always so clearly defined.
59 Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre
I approached the Brontes quite prejudiced, lumping them together with Jane Austen, whose work I find completely underwhelming. In both cases, though, I was pleasantly surprised. Charlotte's work is closer to Austen's in tone and subject matter, though it seems richer and less superficial. Jane Eyre has all of the social commentary that makes Austen so appealing, but it also has a layered heroine who is able to pursue love without sacrificing her independence.
58 Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
The more I learn about the Belgian Congo, the more I appreciate this work. The adaptation of Conrad's story to Vietnam by Francis Ford Coppola undeniably resulted in a brilliant film, but it also distracted readers from the original context. This should be read side-by-side with King Leopold's Ghost.
57 Jose Saramago - Blindness
Eugene Ionesco should sue Saramago for essentially copying the absurdist's Rhinoceros. Nonetheless, this is a compelling allegory begging for a five-paragraph essay.
56 Mario de Andrade - Macunaima
Another candidate for the birthplace of Latin American Magical Realism, de Andrade's much neglected work is wild, absurd, and often hard to follow. But, it is also wonderfully creative and worth the effort.
55 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis
Another open-ended work that allows the interpretive juices to flow freely. It's said that Kafka wrote this over the course of one night and, when he submitted it to his publisher, was laughing riotously. That tells you everything you need to know about Kafka.
54 Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
No book moved me more in high school than this one (and it's not very easy to move a teenage boy). I suspect that was a product of feeling, as a teenager, like I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do with my life but having that clarity doubted by adults - in the same sense that Mack's sanity was questioned by Nurse Ratched.
53 Carlos Fuentes - The Old Gringo
Fuentes is unfairly neglected by most great novel lists. There is some debate over his finest work. Many hold up the Death of Artemio Cruz as the best. I favor The Old Gringo, though, which attempts to tell the story of Ambrose Bierce's late life journey into Mexico.
52 Herman Melville - Moby Dick
One of the most polarizing novels in history, some call this a masterpiece and others a cinder block of tedium. I lean more towards the former, but can sympathize with the latter. Melville does have extensive passages devoted to the monotony of the sea, but it often functions quite effectively as a narrative device, establishing story lines with great subtlety. And, Queequeg is a great character, stealing the show from Ishmael and Ahab.
51 Italo Calvino - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
A masterpiece of postmodernist literature, this is a story about reading a story. Just read the opening paragraph: "You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell the others right away, "No, I don't want to watch TV!" Raise your voice - they won't hear you otherwise - "I'm reading! I don't want to be disturbed!" Maybe they haven't heard you, with all that racket; speak louder, yell: "I'm beginning to read Italo Calvino's new novel!" Or if you prefer, don't say anything; just hope they'll leave you alone."
50 William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying
One of Faulkner's more accessible novels, this story of the Bundgren family rapidly shifts narrators and is perhaps best known for these five little words: "My mother is a fish."
49 Francois Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantegruel
The chronicles of two giants who flood cities with their urine, as told by a French monk? Yes, please.
48 Milan Kundera - Unbearable Lightness of Being
Are our lives unique, or do they merely repeat the lives lived before and the lives that will follow ours?
47 Mario Vargas Llosa - Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
Another author about whom a great deal of debate surrounds his definitive work. Vargas Llosa has an impressive body of work, ranging greatly in tone and theme. Aunt Julia is one of his funnier, more lighthearted works, focusing on the adventures of a scriptwriter for a radio soap opera.
46 George Orwell - 1984
I would hold this up as the finest of the dystopian novels, outshining Huxley's Brave New World and Zamyatin's We. Big Brother told me to.
45 Penelope Lively - Moon Tiger
Despite winning the Booker Prize, this is an over-looked novel. Lively's protagonist, Claudia Hampton, tells the story of her life from her deathbed, focusing on the events that took place in the midst of World War II. Lively plays with both narrator and chronology, jumping between perspectives and years.
44 VS Naipaul - A Bend in the River
While Conrad's Heart of Darkness is generally considered the definitive literary take on the Congo, Naipaul offers a very different perspective, focusing on the Indian immigrant experience which was common in Eastern Africa in the early 20th century but often ignored by a western audience. Both Conrad and Naipaul agree in one area, though - the Congo has a bleak future.
43 Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
I avoided this book for a long time, having been misled by the film adaptations about what to expect. Shelley's novel is a much more compelling work than the vapid horror films, and remains quite relevant in an age of genetic manipulation.
42 Miguel Angel Asturias - Men of Maize
Due to translation challenges, Men of Maize was long unavailable to English speaking audiences. As such, the Guatemalan gained international recognition primarily for his novel, El Senor Presidente. This, however, is his true masterpiece, detailing the deleterious impact of western capitalism on the indigenous population through florid language and layer upon layer of folksy wisdom and mythic figures.
41 Julio Cortazar - Hopscotch
Choose Your Own Adventure for an adult audience.
40 Alan Duff - Once Were Warriors
The finest work of literature to ever come out of New Zealand, Duff focuses on the disintegration of a Maori family, as the loss of cultural meaning produces frustration, impotence, and, ultimately, domestic violence.
39 Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
In 2007, Time asked 125 of the world's greatest writers to submit their personal Top 10 novels. After compiling those lists, Madame Bovary ranked second. While roundly criticized in its initial publication (and actually put on trial for obscenity), it has since been celebrated as one of the greatest works of realism in history for its portrayal of the adulterous Emma Bovary.
38 Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
As noted in the entry on Jane Eyre, I was predisposed to dislike the Brontes, and was ultimately stunned by my enjoyment of their novels, especially Wuthering Heights. This novel combines the suspense of James's Turn of the Screw with the romantic qualities of Jane Eyre.
37 Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
Ellison's Invisible Man has some intriguing parallels with Cuckoo's Nest. Both Ellison's narrator and Mack are talented, compelling figures, unjustly blocked from living the lives they deserve. The failure of American society to afford that opportunity to the invisible man is not just a racist one - it's a deeply foolish and utterly unjustifiable one. That is not to suggest that racism is justifiable, of course, but rather that the elevation of the invisible man's capacity makes the crime seem all the more glaring.
36 James Joyce - Ulysses
This is the most difficult novel to place on the list. Ranked #1 on the Modern Library 100, it is undeniably a work of great brilliance. In terms of structure, style, and language, it would be hard to argue that any other work qualifies as its peer. But, is it worth the major time commitment to actually read it? And, is the act of reading it actually enjoyable, or just intellectually edifying?
99 times out of 100, at least, I would reach for one of the next 35 books before reaching for Ulysses.
35 Fyodor Dostoevsky - Notes from Underground
I should probably be concerned that one of the five characters with whom I most identify is the underground man.
34 Peter Carey - My Life as a Fake
The Australian author is best known for Oscar and Lucinda and the True History of the Kelly Gang, both of which won the Booker Prize. I prefer this modern re-imagining of Frankenstein, though, in which the monster is replaced with a phony poet, particularly over the Kelly Gang which struck me as a bit dry.
33 Albert Camus - The Stranger
You don't really need to cry. Society makes you. Or else.
32 Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels
One of the finest works of satire ever written by a master of the genre. If you think that Gulliver is just the story of a bunch of midgets pinning down a giant, you're missing out on a great deal.
31 Charles Dickens - Great Expectations
I avoided Dickens for many years, anticipating a work of dry Victorian moralizing. When I finally forced myself to pick up Great Expectations, though, I found a legitimately funny novel with a clever plot and a reasonably interesting protagonist in Pip, despite (or perhaps because of) his naive simplicity. It's unfortunate that South Park's recreation of Great Expectations is never replayed.
30 Thomas Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49
The only work I've read by Pynchon and, not coincidentally, the only one that couldn't double as a step stool. The Da Vinci Code of the postal service industry.
29 Juan Rulfo - Pedro Paramo
Considered one of the finest examples of Latin American magical realism, Pedro Paramo is best known for its manipulations of time in the narrative structure.
28 Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote
An uproarious work of imagination and one of the cornerstones of the Western canon. Vargas Llosa tells a great story about how Spanish America was exposed almost exclusively, in its early years, to two books - the Bible and the Quixote. Thus, the rise of magical realism...
27 Mark Twain - Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer
I'm cheating by combining these two works, but they seem to belong together despite some differences in tone. Twain's ability to capture the southern vernacular while remaining accessible to a modern audience is remarkable, as is the universality of his humor.
26 Don Delillo - White Noise
Winner of the National Book Award in 1985, this is essentially a fictionalization of Ernest Becker's writings on death denial. A powerful statement on contemporary American materialism and the deep-seated fears operating underneath this.
25 Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass
As is the case with The Phantom Tollbooth and Gulliver's Travels, there is a tendency to dismiss Alice as children's literature. However, that judgment is misplaced. Carroll's games with language make this a seminal work of semiotics. And his use of the chessboard as the backdrop for Looking Glass combined with his subtle integration of mathematical principles makes this a layered work. The brilliance of Carroll may best be seen through the authors he influenced; Borges's "Circular Ruins," for example, is taken from the Red King's dreams.
24 Kazuo Ishiguro - Remains of the Day
The life of an aged British butler hardly sounds like the most thrilling fare, but Ishiguro's abilities as a story-teller are on full display here. Through an unreliable narrator, Ishiguro methodically develops the plot, always under-stated. And yet, despite the subtlety, the story builds to a sharp climax, made all the more jarring by its surprise. A brilliant novel that exemplifies the finest parts of the British literary tradition.
23 F. Scott Fitzgerald - Tender Is the Night
No writer, I suspect, has ever been in such command of his language as Fitzgerald was in this novel. His word choice is impeccable. Whole paragraphs are crafted with the precision and genius of a Van Eyck painting, demanding a level of attention and appreciation far greater than the simplistic act of reading.
And yet, for all of the brilliance (or perhaps because of it?), the characters operating in here do not resonate with me. The world Fitzgerald inhabited and focused on in his writing, of fabulously wealthy Americans ruining their lives with alcohol, petty rivalries, and affairs, evokes little sympathy and even less interest. Sure, such a description is a little over-reductive and a little unfair, but it remains central to the dissonance I feel between the language and the content here.
One question that comes to mind in all of this is whether a successful author is obligated to create characters who are universally sympathetic or likable. Is this a necessary conceit, or the crutch of a lazy storyteller? And, on the flip side, am I displaying my limits as a reader by complaining of the inaccessibility or shallowness of the characters?
22 Michael Ondaatje - English Patient
Ondaatje, like Fitzgerald, is a master of language; in his case, though, his background as a poet greatly influences his prose, providing key passages with a lyrical quality. That language, combined with a fragmented narrative and shifting perspectives, suits the story well, as four central characters, all fractured by their experiences in World War II, seek solace and rehabilitation. Drawing elements from the mystery, the tragic drama, and the war story, Ondaatje crafts a powerful work that shakes convention through its complicated characters.
21 Joseph Heller - Catch-22
The finest war novel ever written, capturing the absurdity of the soldier's experience without trivializing it. Catch-22 is unusual, at least to my knowledge, in the sense that it parodies the war effort in WWII, which has historically received near universal praise, setting it as the polar opposite of WWI. The message here is unequivocal - war, no matter how just or successful it seems, is an immoral, perverting endeavor in which there are no winners.
20 Carson McCullers - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Literary critics have made a big deal about the fact that McCullers wrote this novel at the age of 23, marveling at her ability to develop a group of characters and insights that seemed beyond her years. And, indeed, the tender sentimentality evoked throughout Heart is as nuanced as it is sincere, making this a work of universal relevance. And, it has one of the literary world's all-time sucker punches, made all the more gut-wrenching by McCullers's cautious narrative build.
19 Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Some critics would disagree with my claims of Fitzgerald's linguistic supremacy in Tender Is the Night and many of them would hold up Nabokov's in/famous work as the quintessential example of the English-language novel. It is, without question, a remarkable effort, a surprisingly touching conspiracy between the protagonist and the author's language to fool you into sympathizing with the lead character's bumbling yet despicable pedophilia. I criticized Fitzgerald for producing unsympathetic characters; Nabokov manages to create despicable characters who are highly likable and almost defensible.
18 Umberto Eco - Name of the Rose
A medieval mystery, set in a Benedictine monastery. When the bodies start hitting the floor, an inquisitor, William of Baskerville, and his assistant begin peeling back layers of secrecy. For those who don't understand the difference between fiction and literature, read the Da Vinci Code and then this novel. While Brown's operates on one level - the attempt at unpacking a conspiracy - Eco's functions on multiple levels - mystery, theological commentary, philosophical examination of the nature of truth, and the typical Eco-ian game of semiotics.
17 Franz Kafka - The Trial
Kafka's finest effort, as universal in feel as the rest of his works but also a compelling story in its own right. The parable on the law remains relevant and piercing in its perceptiveness.
16 Alan Paton - Cry, The Beloved Country
The greatest work of literature to come out of South Africa, a powerful denunciation of the inhumanity of the developing apartheid system, and an often beautiful reflection on man's capacity for generosity in the most difficult of times. Dating from 1946, it is a fascinating glimpse at a turning point in South African history; Paton actually expresses some optimism here that things may turn for the better. As we know, however, within a couple of years the Afrikaner Nationalists gained full control of the country and made permanent the apartheid policies.
15 William Faulkner - Absalom, Absalom
Faulkner enthusiasts would criticize the absence of the Sound and the Fury from this list, but I consider Absalom, Absalom to be his finest work. I suppose I'm a sucker for the multi-generational family narrative (which will become particularly apparent as I move through the rest of this list), but Faulkner is able to build so elegantly to the culmination of the family's tragedy - and, by extension, the southern tragedy - that it evokes an overwhelming sense of pathos.
14 Ngugi Wa Thiong'o - Wizard of the Crow
If you want to learn about post-colonial Africa, you could read a handful of historical works on the subject, or you could just read this work of fiction. Set in the fictional republic of Aburiria, Ngugi's novel is a searing satire, ripping apart the failures and fiascoes of so many African dictatorships. As is true of many other prominent works emerging from the former colonial world, it captures the struggle of balancing western capitalism with traditional ways, though Ngugi's approach is much more nuanced and multi-faceted than Achebe's.
13 Isabel Allende - House of the Spirits
This belongs right alongside 100 Years of Solitude in any discussion of the best Latin American novels. it also belongs there because it is a thematic parallel - Allende tells the story of Chile through a multi-generational family narrative while - and a technical one, as she is also quite skilled at magical realism.
12 John Kennedy Toole - Confederacy of Dunces
This is, without question, the funniest book I've ever read, causing me to laugh out loud nearly every chapter. It is an American Pnin, but instead of focusing on a hapless professor its subject is a self-absorbed "intellectual," who spends his post-graduation years reclined on his soiled mattress in his mother's house, railing against a variety of social sins. Fate intervenes, propelling our hero, Ignatius J. Reilly out of his house and into the working world, and high comedy (ok, low comedy) ensues.
As with the most effective (or, at least, the most memorable) comedies, though, there is also a darker side at work. As the novel surges towards its inevitable conclusion, the reader begins to feel a sense of guilt, recognizing that the misadventures of Reilly and his mother are symptomatic of deeper, even tragic, problems, made all the more apparent by a brief biographical sketch of the life and death of Toole.
11 Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections
After reading the Corrections for the first time, I was really excited and eager to speak with other literary types about it. I was stunned to hear it panned - with prejudice - by another English teacher. Even more staggering for me was her explanation - namely, that the characters seemed vapid and thoroughly unlikable. However, I often point to Franzen's character development as one of his strengths; indeed, it's what kept me engaged in his inferior earlier work, the 27th City. Amazon suggests that our divergent views are the norm; out of more than 1000 reviews, 294 score it as a 5-star work, while 253 give it 1 star.
Obviously, disagreements exist on every novel ever written, but Franzen seems especially polarizing. I wonder if, to some extent, it is a generational thing. In reading Franzen, I was struck by the fact that, over the years of reading so many classics, I had come to unwittingly associate fine literature with past eras. New cars, modern air travel, computers - those are all accoutrements of contemporary life and have no place in a literary classic. Relevance is dependent on universal themes, not the specific subject matter.
However, in Franzen, in Delillo, and a handful of other contemporary authors, I came to find a familiar world that continues to explore those same critical themes, but does so in a way that doesn't require a cognitive leap. The Corrections hit me as a defining work of late 20th century American life, for better or worse.
10 Adolfo Bioy Casares - The Dream of Heroes
Bioy Casares has been over-shadowed historically by his close friend Borges, and that's a shame. He's a master of setting tone, establishing tension within the first page of a work and carrying it through to the end without it becoming monotonous. Instead it builds to a crescendo, nowhere better than in this work, where Kafka meets Poe and fate and memory are handled expertly.
While Bioy Casares is neglected, this novel is practically invisible. It doesn't have a single review on Amazon, nor are new copies available for purchase. But, it's well worth tracking down. One of the only good descriptions of the novel online is posted here.
9 Virginia Woolf - To the Lighthouse
How should we think of life? As a series of important events, separated by an indistinct monotony? Or, is life really defined by those seemingly insignificant moments that dominate our existence? Woolf was famous, like many modernists, for shifting the narrative emphasis away from the momentous to the ordinary. Nowhere is that better on display than in To the Lighthouse, where a seemingly innocuous dinner consumes the bulk of the work, while the pivotal event is lost in the shortest, most abstract chapter.
8 Luisa Valenzuela - Black Novel (with Argentines)
Another Argentine gem that is criminally ignored, overshadowed by the greatness of Borges and Cortazar. Valenzuela gained some recognition for her novel, The Lizard's Tale, but this is almost unknown. Like The Dream of Heroes, this is work of dark suspense, borrowing from Kafka and Dostoevsky, but it is a more contemporary, international product.
A woman lies dead in her apartment. A man emerges from the building, the murder weapon in his pocket. He doesn't know who she is, what happened, or how he got there. As the novel unfolds, the subconscious impact of the Argentine Dirty War on its exiles in America emerges as the dominant theme, steering their lives back towards the violence they had hoped to escape.
7 Toni Morrison - Beloved
Generally acknowledged as the finest American novel from the second half of the 20th century, Beloved focuses on the story of Sethe and her daughter Denver, escaped slaves who have not quite escaped the past. Narrative perspectives shift frequently, as does the chronology, connecting this work structurally with several others on this list, including Moon Tiger and The English Patient.
The seemingly magical return of Sethe's other daughter, Beloved, sets in motion a series of events that unravel the tenuous peace Sethe and Denver had achieved, raising the question of whether any of us can ever escape our pasts.
6 Milorad Pavic - Dictionary of the Khazars
Pavic is one of the most distinctive writers of the 20th (and 21st) century, an unabashed post-modernist who pushes the limits of literary structure. A pioneer in "hyper-fiction," his print works differ dramatically in style.
Dictionary of the Khazars is, as the title suggests, a dictionary devoted to the Khazars, a Turkic tribe that existed in the second half of the first millennium AD. Actually, it is three dictionaries - one Christian, one Jewish, and one Muslim - each of which addresses key components of the Khazar story from its own perspective. Some terms included in the dictionaries are included in all three variations and in those cases they are cross-referenced. Thus, the reader has multiple options for reading this work. He can move straight through in a linear fashion. He can move alphabetically, bouncing between the three dictionaries. Or, he can bounce wildly from term to term and dictionary to dictionary, entirely in the order of his choosing. Ultimately, the meaning he derives will be dependent on the order he chooses. To make matters even more complicated, two different editions of the work are available, Male and Female, with subtle distinctions that also influence the "story."
Like many of Pavic's works, it is a text of nearly infinite possible outcomes.
5 Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita
OK, the novel in a sentence: the devil comes to Russia with his cronies, including a three-foot tall black cat with a gun, and creates all sorts of mayhem, ultimately making a deal with Margarita in which her lover, the master, who has written a novel correcting the history of Pilate and Jesus but has subsequently checked himself into an asylum, is freed to be with her once more. I think one is contractually obligated to describe this as a "carnivalesque romp," and it falls quite firmly into the tradition of Rabelais and embodies Bakhtin's famous theory. The satirical elements may not resonate with a modern American audience, but that's ok - it operates quite well on other levels. And besides, there is an excellent site devoted to the novel, filling in many of the gaps.
4 Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude
The third multi-generational family drama in my top 15 novels (with one still to come!) and almost universally acknowledged as one of the finest novels ever written. Little more needs to be written about this, the exemplary work of magical realism and the second most important Spanish language novel, behind only the Quixote.
3 Italo Calvino - Invisible Cities
There is no work I've read more than Invisible Cities, a twin product of teaching it multiple times and the tantalizing secrets that seem to lurk behind each page. It contains two components. First there are short descriptions of imagined cities, broken into 11 different categories, generally spanning 1-2 pages. These are divided into 9 different chapters. Each chapter is framed by a second component, an imagined conversation between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.
The reader is free (or trapped) in Invisible Cities to move in a variety of interpretive directions. What does Calvino tell us about the nature of travel and discovery, or existence within the modern city? How can we communicate most effectively and meaningfully? How do geography and philosophy shape one another? And what the hell is a "Thin" city, anyway?
2 John Steinbeck - East of Eden
When I read The Grapes of Wrath in high school, I hated it, and subsequently avoided Steinbeck for the next five years. And boy, was I missing out.
English teachers do their students a disservice by sticking with Grapes. East of Eden is Steinbeck's greatest work, a retelling of the Biblical story of Cain and Abel through the Trask family of Salinas, California, in a sweeping narrative that stretches from the Civil War to World War I.
While 100 Years of Solitude is often linked with House of the Spirits (and with good reason), it actually makes a richer partner for East of Eden. Steinbeck and Garcia Marquez really enjoyed using twins as a plot device...
1 Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children
Declared the "Best of the Booker," as the best of the annual literary award's first 40 prize-winning novels, Rushdie's work excels as historical fiction, magical realism, social commentary, comedy, and even familial drama. The seriousness of the story and the complexity of the prose somehow avoid becoming heavy, thanks no doubt to the playfulness of the author and his chief characters. And, once again, we have children switched at birth mucking up the action.
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