"The 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English Language Books of Fiction" by Larry McCaffery
I think this list, from American Book Review, provides an interesting counterpoint to the Modern Library's 100 Best Books. Not that I have a problem with the Modern Library's list; quite the opposite. I like this list, though, because unlike the other it includes much more of the experimental, the avant-garde, the controversial, the scatological, and the obscene. Because of space, I've left off most of McCaffery's comments, but you can read them in their entirety at http://www.litline.org/ABR/Issues/Volume20/Issue6/abr100.html
1. Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov, 1962. ("The most audaciously conceived novel of the century")
2. Ulysses, James Joyce, 1922.
3. Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon, 1973.
4. The Public Burning, Robert Coover, 1977.
5. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner, 1929
6. Trilogy (Molloy (1953), Malone Dies (1956), The Unnamable (1957)), Samuel Beckett.
7. The Making of Americans, Gertrude Stein, 1925.
8. Nova Trilogy (The Soft Machine(1962), Nova Express (1964), The Ticket that Exploded,
(1967)), William S. Burroughs. ("Burroughs's atomic powered strap-on... probes the asshole of society")
9. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955. ("this century's most passionate and most memorable love story")
10. Finnegans Wake, James Joyce, 1941. ("The greatest unreadable novel ever written")
11. Take It or Leave It , Raymond Federman, 1975. ("the greatest of all American road novels")
12. Beloved, Toni Morrison, 1986.
13. Going Native, Stephen Wright, 1994.
14. Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowery, 1949.
15. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, 1927.
16. In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, William H. Gass, 1968.
17. JR, William Gaddis, 1975.
18. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, 1952.
19. Underworld, Don DeLillo, 1997.
20. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway, 1926.
21. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce, 1916.
22. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925.
23. The Ambassadors, Henry James, 1903.
24. Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence, 1921.
25. 60 Stories, Donald Barthelme, 1981.
26. The Rifles, William T. Vollmann, 1993.
27. The Recognitions, William Gaddis, 1955.
28. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, 1902.
29. Catch 22, Joseph Heller, 1961.
30. 1984, George Orwell, 1949.
31. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston, 1937.
32. Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner, 1936.
33. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany, 1975. .
34. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, 1939.
35. The Four Elements Tetrology (earth: The Stain (1984), fire: Entering Fire (1986), water: The
Fountains of Neptune (1992), and air: The Jade Cabinet (1993)), Rikki Ducornet.
36. Cyberspace Trilogy (Neuromancer (1984), Count Zero (1986), Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988)),
William Gibson.
37. Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller, 1934.
38. On the Road, Jack Kerouac, 1957.
39. Lookout Cartridge, Joseph McElroy, 1974.
40. Crash, J.G. Ballard, 1973.
41. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie, 1981.
42. The Sot-Weed Factor, John Barth, 1960.
43. Genoa, Paul Metcalf, 1965
44. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932.
45. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster, 1924
46. Double or Nothing, Raymond Federman, 1972
47. At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien, 1951
48. Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy, 1965.
49. The Cannibal, John Hawkes, 1949
50. Native Son, Richard Wright, 1940.
51. The Day of the Locust, Nathaniel West, 1939.
52. Nightwood, Djuna Barnes, 1936.
53. Housekeeping, Marilynn Robinson, 1981.
54. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1969.
55. Libra, Don DeLillo, 1986.
56. Wise Blood, Flannery O'Conner, 1952
57. Always Coming Home, Ursula K. LeGuin, 1985
58. USA Trilogy (The42nd Parallel(1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936)), John Dos
Passos.
59. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing, 1962.
60. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger, 1951. ("Still holding the record for the book responsible for
the most firings of American high school teachers")
61. Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett, 1929.
62. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver, 1981.
63. Dubliners, James Joyce, 1915.
64. Cane, Jean Toomer, 1925.
65. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton, 1905.
66. Ridley Walker, Russell Hoban, 1982.
67. Checkerboard Trilogy (Go in Beauty (1955), The Bronc People (1958), Portrait of the Artist
with 26 Horses (1962)), William Eastlake.
68. The Franchiser, Stanley Elkin, 1976.
69. New York Trilogy (City of Glass (1985), Ghosts (1986), The Locked Room (1986)), Paul
Auster.
70. Skinny Legs and All, Tom Robbins, 1986.
71. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace, 1995.
72. The Age of Wire and String, Ben Marcus, 1996.
73. Tlooth, Harry Mathews, 1966.
74. Pricksongs and Descants, Robert Coover, 1969
75. The Man in the High Castle, Phillip K. Dick, 1962.
76. American Psycho, Brett Easton Ellis, 1988.
77. The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles, 1969.
78. The Book of the New Sun Tetrology (The Shadow of the Torturer (1980), The Claw of the
Conciliator (1981), The Sword of Lictor (1982), The Citadel of the Autarch (1982)), Gene Wolfe.
79. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess, 1962.
80. Albany Trilogy (Legs(1976), Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (1978), Ironweed (1983)), William
Kennedy.
81. The Tunnel, William H. Gass, 1995
82. Omensetter's Luck, William H. Gass, 1966.
83. The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles, 1948.
84. Darconville's Cat, Alexander Theroux, 1981.
85. Up, Ronald Sukenick, 1968.
86. Yellow Back Radio Broke Down, Ishamel Reed, 1969.
87. Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson, 1919.
88. You Bright and Risen Angels, William T. Vollmann, 1987.
89. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer, 1948.
90. The Universal Baseball Association, J. Henry Waugh, Prop., Robert Coover, 1968.
91. Creamy and Delicious, Steve Katz, 1971.
92. Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M. Coetzee, 1980.
93. More than Human, Theodore Sturgeon, 1951.
94. Mulligan Stew, Gilbert Sorrentino, 1979.
95. Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe, 1929.
96. An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser, 1925.
97. Easy Travels to Other Planets, Ted Mooney, 1981.
98. Tours of the Black Clock, Steve Erickson, 1989.
99. In Memoriam to Identity, Kathy Acker, 1990.
100. Hogg, Samuel R. Delany, 1996. ("The most shocking novel published in the 20th century.")
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