Contemporary Authors
 

I've read a lot of "classic" novels (Faulkner, Hemingway, etc.) but I'm looking to read some works by more contemporary writers. I'm open to just about any subject/style, so I'd just like some of your opinions on good books you've read by contemporary authors.

Palahnuik has some pretty good stuff. Fight Club, Choke and Lullaby are all pretty good. I don't know if he counts exactly as contemporary, but Vonegutt also has some really good reads, hard to grasp at times, but really good.

Good authors:

Carl Hiaasen
Haruki Murakami
Michael Chabon
Richard Russo
Jonathan Franzen
David Foster Wallace
Thomas Pynchon

agreed.

Bret Easton Ellis is still writing as well.
and if that doesn't make you ill, then check out Tom Wolfes latest offering.

John Grisham is definately comtemporary. Read any of his novels and you'll probably want to read a couple more.

Thanks for the info. I'll definitely be checking into these.

If you're into Faulkner and Hemingway, check out Alex Garland's novels. "The Tesseract" in particular. He Also wrote "The Beach". Do not confuse with the movie of the same name.

John Irving

Doug Coupland
William Gibson
Kelly Armstrong

Kurt Vonnegut is excellent. I'd recommend him to anyone. In particular, I really like "Slaughter House Five".

I vote for Hiaasen. If you've got half a brain and three-quarters of a sense of humor, he's more than worth your time.

Ann-Marie MacDonald

Gregory Maguire - he's written three books I know of, Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and Mirror, Mirror - -He takes stories we know so well (the wizard of oz, CInderalla, and Snow White) and tells the story of the "villian". The wicked witch was definitely misunderstood :)

Margaret George - A bunch of historical biography types (One on Cleopatra was fascinating, Mary, Called Magdelene I think was partly fiction but didn't read like it, and she's also got one on Henry VIII.

Jeff and/or Michael Shaara - I am partial to For Love of the Game because I love the movie, but there are abunch of Civil War books Gods and Generals (movie of the same name), The Killer Angels (Gettysburg was based on this book if I remember correctly) there are a few other books in the Civil War series. There's also an American Revolution series that's currently sitting on my nightstand.

Armistead Maupin - has a series of books, Tales of the City (PBS did them as a series about a decade ago, and it was wonderfully done) the books were about the residents of an apartment complex in San Francisco in the 70s -- the books were fantastic...

Was Wicked a good read? I remember seeing that months ago at a Barns & Noble and wanting to pick it up. But I was a good girl and only bought 5 books that day instead of 6 :rolleyes:

I loved it -- I'm not a huge fantasy fan -- but I did love the Wizard of Oz, Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, was such a wonderfully written character - I loved the book.

Gotta agree that Wicked was a fairly great read.

That said, I'm proud to be the first to say Neil Gaiman. He's done a lot with graphic novels (The Sandman series is wonderful), but American Gods is one of my favorite books around, and his others are particularly good as well.

Neal Stephenson. He just rocks. Try Snowcrash for some future tense cyberpunk or read Cryptonomicon for something nearer to present day.

Tom Robbins is by far my favorite contemporary author. He always manages to get the right mix of plot and humor to keep me interested. Check out Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, in my opinion his best.

try some latin american authors, especially Gabriel Garcia Marquez (100 Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera) and Alvaro Mutis (The Adventures of Maqroll). They're not younger like some of the American authors mentioned, but have more developed characters and more complelling narratives.

James Ellroy is pretty much my favorite contemporary author. His best novel is probabaly "American Tabloid", but he's best known for his LA Quartet: "The Black Dahlia", "The Big Nowhere", "LA Confidential", and "White Jazz". He's pretty hard boiled, sort of a modern Raymond Chandler with more sex, drugs, and vulgarity, and his prose takes some getting used to. Still, his books usually punch you in the gut, emotionally, in a good way.

George Saunders is an awesome satirist on modern society. Collections include "Pastoralia" and "Civilwarland in Bad Decline." Hilarious and scary.

Brian D'Amato wrote the amazing character study titled "Beauty." Disturbing, literate, and one of my all-time favorites.

Personally, I'm a huge John Irving fan. I'm also very fond of Michael Chabon.

Maleficent: Good call, I LOOVED Wicked. and the musical is awesome, too!

Also, Nick Hornby is pretty good. He wrote About A Boy, High Fidelity and Fever Pitch (the last of which is currently filming). The books are superior to the movies, especially considering that they're making "Fever Pitch" about baseball instead of soccer to appeal to American audiences.

But I agree with Vonnegut, Palahuniuk, Chabon, Robbins and Gaiman All excellent.

Yes! One Hundred Years of Solitude is probably the best book I have ever read.

In addition, Kurt Vonnegut is great, as is Tim O' Brien (The Things They Carried).

I liked it, but it was not an easy read - it actually required me to think...


This book was Oprah's book club book a few months ago, her book list has a lot of really good stuff on it, and is definitely worth checking out for some authors.

Did a search for Richard Russo, hoping to find similiar authors..

I read Empire Falls at the start of summer break, and now plan on reading all of his novels this summer. So far I have read three, and enjoyed them all thoroughly.

So far I've read Empire Falls. Nobody's Fool, and I just finished Straight Man. Next I plan on reading Mohawk, and then see what else he has written.

After reading all of his novels, I will be looking for another contemporary "literative" author to pursue, and would welcome suggestions by any that have any.

Neil Gaiman is a great writer. I've read all of his books as well, minus Good Omens which I just couldn't get into. Neverwhere is my favorite Neil Gaiman novel.

Julia Alvarez--In The Time of the Butterflies, How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

anything by Updike

Irvine Welsh--Trainspotting, Ecstacy

I'll third the John Irving recommendation.

That's about all I like...

Edit: Almost forgot Joan Didion. I like her too.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned David Sedaris yet.

Not exactly fiction, but still a wonderful writer with a great sense of humor and quirky insight in to life.

David James Duncan, especially The Brothers K. A really intuitive, intelligent writer. I was lucky enough to get to do a kind-of workshop thing with him.

I agree on Gaiman, and where there's Gaiman, I would add Pratchett. Also, Hiaasen
I love Umberto Eco, Mary Doria Russell, Amy Tan, and Paulo Coelho. Anything you find by them, I would recommend.
If you like Mystery, I can add some of those later.

Oh, I don't know if John D. MacDonald counts as contemporary (he's kinda dead), but I think he's excellent. Try to get beyond the Travis McGee stuff if you can find copies. I'm trying to figure out how to describe him w/o gushing...

...screw it. I think he's the best U.S. author of the past 100 years or so. There.