The Republic of Heaven

Like any grouping, this one is probably pretty dubious - by it I mean the work of authors like Philip Roth, Ian McEwan, Iain Banks, Zadie Smith, etc. I've recently really got into reading these kinds of novels (Roth especially) - anyone else here read much of this sort of thing?

I've read a few (I'm kind at that transition between childhood and adult reading ). Why not try Corpsing by Toby Litt?

I just finished a fascinating book called Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen--about a postulate in a convent who may or may not be recieving the stigmata. It was a bit heavy on the Catholic/Christian indoctrination, but a really, really good read--surprisingly!

Does Dougie Coupland count? Girlfriend In A Coma is still his zenith, but Hey Nostradamus! and Eleanor Rigby are fantastic. The rest of his output is more adolescent/late adolescent/late late adolescent type stuff, but fine all the same.

Two books I re-read in the past year and once more knocked my socks off - The Great Ideas by Suzanne Cleminshaw and The Winter Inside by Christopher Kenworthy. Anything by Michel Faber, but particularly Under The Skin, which was both very creepy and very moving. I'd also recommend Ethan Hawke - The Hottest State and Ash Wednesday make me glad he's ageing poorly.

Any fans of James Michener here? Recommendations?

Looking through the topics on this board, I have to say you are all incredibly well read!

David F wrote:Does Dougie Coupland count? Girlfriend In A Coma is still his zenith, but Hey Nostradamus! and Eleanor Rigby are fantastic. The rest of his output is more adolescent/late adolescent/late late adolescent type stuff, but fine all the same.

canadians ftw: the cbc is adapting jpod for a television series.

i enjoyed nicole kraus' history of love, the book within the book especially. i've liked what i've read of mcewan and am working my way around getting into grown-up literature and assigned readings (some of which falls under that dubious category of "world fiction").

what sort of contemporary are we speaking of? authors active from the 80s forward? the 21st century? i read milan kundera's the unbearable lightness of being a few months ago (upon the inspiration of sraffie nix, and i believe moony's reading it now too) and it was beautiful writing.

Max wrote:Like any grouping, this one is probably pretty dubious - by it I mean the work of authors like Philip Roth, Ian McEwan, Iain Banks, Zadie Smith, etc. I've recently really got into reading these kinds of novels (Roth especially) - anyone else here read much of this sort of thing?

I don't understand - this is mainstream fiction, why wouldn't anybody read it?

As someone who read only 'classics' of the Dickens/Austen variety for most of her life, I think I know what you mean. Ian McEwan and Zadie Smith are two of my 'contemporary' loves. Here are my others: Jhumpa Lahiri, Michael Cunningham, Michael Ondaatje, Jeffrey Eugenides. Cormac McCarthy is a current author who I admire but don't love, and John Irving is one who I love but don't admire...

delta10 wrote:Any fans of James Michener here? Recommendations?

Looking through the topics on this board, I have to say you are all incredibly well read!

I enjoyed Centennial, but it was a bit too long, and I was able to skim the firts four chapters and the last two without missing abything necessary to the plot. Caravans, about pre-Soviet invaded Afghanistan was excellent, though. Don't touch Tales from the South Pacific though, it's not good, and it makes me wonder why a musical was made out of it.

Michener is a decent author, though not one of my favorites. Anyone read the newer Mark Haddon book, A Spot of Bother?

I have A Spot of Bother on my shelf and hopefully plan to read it at the end of this month. Will get back to you on it

I tend to prefer the books that verge more on 'magical realism' from this sub-genre. So, Zadie Smith, Arundhati (sp?) Roy, Salman Rushdie, Isabel Allende, Gabriel García Marquez. However, I read a really brilliant book called The Emperor's Children by Clair Messud which was very good, although it used September 11 as a plot device, which always irritates me. I tend to mainly read fantasy, horror, historical fiction, 'classics', history and biography, though.

Aletheia Dolorosa wrote:However, I read a really brilliant book called The Emperor's Children by Clair Messud which was very good, although it used September 11 as a plot device, which always irritates me.

to what extent does it use it?

I can't write anything more without it being spoilerish. Read the book if you're interested, apart from the September 11 thing, it was quite good.

Like any grouping, this one is probably pretty dubious - by it I mean the work of authors like Philip Roth, Ian McEwan, Iain Banks, Zadie Smith, etc. I've recently really got into reading these kinds of novels (Roth especially) - anyone else here read much of this sort of thing?

I don't understand - this is mainstream fiction, why wouldn't anybody read it?

This is a forum for a fantasy novel, so readers of contemporary adult fiction are likely to be in a minority. Plus, the only books that are really 'mainstream' these days are celebrity biographies, memoirs of childhood abuse, and anything that happens to have a Richard & Judie sticker on it. Even high profile authors like those I listed scarcely register on sales charts; McEwan is, I think, the only one to feature in the top 100 of the last couple of years.

The author who has excited me most this year (although his novels have been around longer than that) is David Mitchell. Not the comedian.

Four novels to date:
Ghostwritten - multi voiced tale, set all over the place
Number9Dream - slightly fantastic mystery set mostly in Tokyo
Cloud Atlas - multi voiced set of stories with highly unusual structure!
Black Swan Green - 'coming of age' story of a teenage boy in the 80s

All are really good. His writing just makes me smile, in the way Rushdie's did in the early days.