It’s now 2006. I was just looking at psuedotriton ruber ruber’s thread about The Great American Novel, and got to thinking: The Twentieth Century is dead and gone. What would a group as eclectic as The Dope claim for the best novels of the Twentieth Century?
First some definitions: For a book to qualify it must be [ul]
[li]Fiction[/li][li]Initially published in an English Language edition between Janurary 1, 1901 and December 31, 2000. I’m choosing this limitation because, frankly, I don’t think that there would be a sufficient quorum of Dopers to speak about things that are only available in languages other than English. (I realize that by insisting on having the English translation publication date count we’ll have some fuzziness around the edges on my timeline, but I think it’s a reasonable arbitrary cut off.)[/li][li]Title/author citations are acceptable, but I would prefer a sentence or two explaining why the nominator believes that XXX should be included on this list. Likewise, keep your citations to no more than a short paragraph. We’re not looking for Cliffnotes here. [/li][li]Feel free to write your nomination as a chance to sell others towards your view that book X deserves to be on this list. But keep it short. [/li][li]This thread is meant to be a positive one, only: Do not shoot down other poster’s nominations. If this thread takes off, I’ll collate everything in a week, or so, and then put up a full list to allow those interested to vote. (Provided the Mods do not object.) Likewise, if your choices are already nominated, please keep any secondings to a bare minimum. [/li][/ul]
One last word about rules: I don’t really care what book is the best-selling of the titles that end up being nominated. Best-selling books can be great, timeless works that will reward deep thinking, and re-reading. Or they can be flash-in-a-pan phenomena, with no more staying power than that. Don’t avoid nominating a book because it was wildly popular; just don’t use that as the only reason to nominate it, please.
I did take the precaution of getting this idea vetted by C K Dexter Haven, so this poll/discussion shouldn’t cause much ire from the PTB.
Examples: My idea of an ideal suggestion would be along these lines -
One Day in the Life of Ivan Dennnisovitch, by Alexander Solzenhystin. I find this book haunting, with images and a feel that can stick with the reader for years. It’s a book that I enjoy reccomending to other readers, confident that it’s one that will be found worthwhile.
The War of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien. A truly ground-breaking work - one of the more influential works of the twentieth century, almost single-handedly creating a new fiction industry.
Poor nominations would be -
Harry Potter, by J. K. Rowling
The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown. Awesome Book!
A Confederacy of Dunces by William Kennedy O’Toole. (Begin a 2000 word essay about the symbolism, and deep thinking in this work, and then continue it in the next post… Sorry, I’m not up to making it up off the cuff.)
To get the ball rolling, I’m going to include a few titles, here. I hope other Dopers will join in with their suggestions.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Dennnisovitch, by Alexander Solzenhystin. I find this book haunting, with images and a feel that can stick with the reader for years. It’s a book that I enjoy reccomending to other readers, confident that it’s one that will be found worthwhile.
The War of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien. A truly ground-breaking work - one of the more influential works of the twentieth century, almost single-handedly creating a new fiction industry.