Greatest Living Author? - Page 5

Iain M. Banks

Harlan Ellison

Fuck that guy.

William Hardy McNeill

OK, so he writes nonfiction -- so sue me!

Translations is amazing. Stoppard, IMO, is all about Arcadia.

I like the Murakami pick.

Two that I love that havent been mentioned yet:

William Gibson
Neal Stephenson

Clearly John Grisham.

I'm struck at the lack of female writers on these lists, other than Isabel Allende. What about the likes of E. Annie Proulx, Anita Brookner, Pat Barker, Margaret Attwood, Anne Tyler, Alice Munro, etc?

^^^Are you saying that one of these is, in your opinion, the greatest living author? Or that we must be vigilantly PC even when making a fun list on an anonymous internet forum?


Thanks, I will start checking these out.

Munro is one of the greatest short story writers. Atwood is a fine novelist. Don't know if she belongs amongst the creme de la creme, though.

^...and no Toni Morrison???

Actually, I'm happy to see people have been honest and have left her out. While I think she is a very good writer, I don't think she's the greatest thing since sliced bread as some try to make her out to be. Anybody who teaches english at a university will tell you that the PC patrol makes it almost a requirement that you have to heap the praises onto Morrison to no end. Saying otherwise gets you put on the suspect list (especially if you are a white male).

Jones' "The Known World," on the other hand, is really quite an achievement. It's his first novel, so I look forward to seeing where he goes next, but already out of the gate I think he's eclipsed Morrison. Just my opinion, of ocurse...

To this list I would add only Christopher Moore, my favorite of all favorites for satire/parody.

BTW. I loved Murakami in the mid-90's but the charm started wearing off with each successive book. Hard Boiled Wonderland was exceptional IMO.

Tom Robbins

BonVivant
SavoirVivre New York

Arcadia is great. But Rosenkrantz & Guildenstern is pretty damn brilliant. I first read it no more than a year after reading both Hamlet and Waiting for Godot for the first time, which really sharpened things.

The movie version of R&G with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth (which, IIRC, Stoppard directed) is flawed but enjoyable.

I did mention Ann Patchett, so neener, neener to you.

Annie Proulx wrote one pretty good book and has been unreadable since. I like Barker but wouldn't put her in that class. Atwood at her best is really good, but overall (based on what I've read, which is maybe half of her stuff) it can feel a bit forced and programmatic. A bit too much of the beating you over the head with "this is the theme of this book".

Beloved is a powerful novel. The other Morrison stuff I've read was just ok.
+1 on "The Known World".