Two critics from Time magazine have made a list of the “100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.” I counted, and of the 100, I’ve read fifteen. Another four or five I started and never finished. Two of the books are on The List, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
One of the fifteen I’ve read is Judy Blume’s Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret. I read it over thirty years ago, but I still feel qualified to say that the book probably hasn’t improved with time. In fact, I read the book when I was member of the group of adolescent and pre-teen girls that formed its primary audience, and I wasn’t impressed then. So now this book about a 12 year old girl who talks to God about when she’s going to reach puberty is one of the best English-language novels of the twentieth century?
Either someone was out to lunch when that one slipped in, or there’s something I don’t know about literature or Judy Blume or both. So read the list. Which books that you have read would you subtract from the list? What books would you put in the place of those removed? I’m working on my list of the 100 best fiction books of all time, and I can promise you that nothing by Judy Blume appears on the list. As for Time’s list, I would suggest, instead of Judy Blume, Dorothy Sayers–if her books were published after 1923–and if not, how about Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton or Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns or anything by P.D. James or Hawaii by James Michener or if you want YA fiction, Homecoming by Cynthia Voight? Any of those plus half a hundred others could beat Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret hands down.
More questions about Time’s list. Which of those you’ve read would you recommend and why? I think everyone should read Tolkien and Lewis, of course. And I remember important things from both Animal Farm and 1984 even though I read them many years ago. The Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, and An American Tragedy are all good books, too, and deserving of your time if you’ve never read them. I like Gone with the Wind, although I’ve heard it denigrated. Oh, and I remember Thornton WIlder’s Bridge of San Luis Rey very fondly, and I think it brings up important questions for Christians to ponder. (You were wondering which ones I had read, weren’t you? That makes ten if anyone’s counting. The other five are: The Great Gatsby, The Son Also Rises, I., Claudius, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and The Big Sleep. I might have read The Grapes of Wrath or The Assistant; I can’t remember.)
My comments were so long I had to post it on my own blog so as not to hog your space.
Oh, you’d remember The Grapes of Wrath if you’d read it. Trust me.
By the way I have read thirteen of the books on the list.
Well, of the ones I read, I never did see what the big deal was about Tropic of Cancer–a most forgettable novel in my mind. Also, I wouldn’t include Herzog (although I don’t know if I’m qualified to comment on it, since I read only the first 240 pages or so and decided it was so uninteresting that I would cut my loses and stop reading).
Ones that I would add: Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (near the top), Jewell by Bret Lott, Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. and something by Pat Conroy, in this order: The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, and The Lords of Discipline. Conroy never seems to get much “literary” credit, perhaps because he sells so many books. But he’s an outstanding writer in terms of plot, character development, and language.
Also, I don’t know why the Lord of the Rings counts as one novel while The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is considered separate from the Chronicles of Narnia. If considering them seperately, I would rank L, W & W third among the Chronicles after The Silver Chair and The Last Battle.