BEST LISTS OF IICONTEMPORARY" FICTION

In 1~83 the distinguished British novelist and provocateur, Al1thonyBurgcss, decided to issue a list of
thp 99 Best Novels in English since WW H. Prc-sumablytht, hundredth slot was available for his readers to
add one of his own. IA· :,i1e this is all merely parlor games on a slightly higher level than "Trivial Ptlrsuit"
or "Jcop~rdy", such '~oing~-on do providp somp provocative rcading lists for English Majors and/or
people who love to read fiction. So herc arc BurgL'Ss' choices followed by the choices of the CSUS
profossors teaching contemporary fiction on a regular basis since thpy were hired.
ANTHONY BURGESS·
1939: Party Going by Henry Green. After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous
Huxley. Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce. At Swim-Two-Birds byFlann O'Brien.
. 1940: The Power & The Glory byGraham Greene.'For Whcml The Bell Tollsby Ernest
Hemingway. STRANGERS & BROTHERS(a series of novels to 1970) bye. P.
Snow.
1941: The Aerodrome by Rex Wainer.
1944: The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
1945.: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
1946: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
1947: The Victim by Saul Bellow. Under the \Iolcanoby Malcolm Lowry
1948: The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene. The Naked and the Dead by
. Norman Mailer. No Highway by Nevil Shute . .
1949:The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen, Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley,
1984 by George OrwelL The Body by William Sansom'
1950: Scenes From Provincial q{e by William Cooper. 'The 'Disenchanted by Budd
Schulberg.
1951: A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME(aseries of novels to 1975) by Anthony
Powell. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. SalingerA CHRONICLE OF ANCiENT
SUNLlGHT(a series of novels until 1969) by Henry Williamson. The Caine Mutiny
Court Martial by Herman'Wouk. ,..
1952: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. The Old Mtln and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. SWORD 6F HONO~(a series to 1961) by
Evelyn W a u g h . '
1953: The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler: The Cro'l'esOf Academe by Mary

McCarthy. .,.

1954: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis.

1957: Room at the Top by John Brame. The lXJexandriaQuart(~t(aseries to 1960 by
Lawrence Durrell. The London Novels by Colin MacInnes. The Assistant by
Bernard Malamud.
1958: The Bell by Iris Murdoch. Saturday Night and Sunday, Morning by Alan

Sillitoe. The Once & Future King by T.lf.White.

 1959: The Mansion by William Faulkner. Goldfinger by Ian Fleming

1960 Facial Justice by L. P. Hartley. Tf{E BALKAN TRTLOGY(a series to 1965) by
Olivia Manning. " " "'
1961: The Mighty & Their Fall by Ivy Compton-:Burnett. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. The
Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes. Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White. The
Old Men at the Zoo by Angus Wilson.
1962: Another Country by James Baldwin. An Error ofJudgment by Pamela Hansford
Johnson. Island by Aldous Huxley. Pale Fire byVladimir Nabokov
1963: The Girls ofSlender Means by Muriel Spark,
1964: The Spire by William Golding. H~a~,tland by Wilson Harris. A Single Man by
Christopher isherwood. The Defense by Yladimire Nabokov. Late Call by Angus
Wilson " .':, ' , " '
'1965: The Loch{oodConcern by John O'Hara. Cocksure by Mordechai Richler. The
Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark. T~e Magus by John Fowles
1966: A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe. The Anti-Death League by Kingsley
Amis. GileS' Goat·Boy by John Barth:'r~e ~~te Bourgeois World by Nadme
Gordimer. The Last Gentleman by Wal~errerLY,
1967: The Vendor of Sweets by R. K. Narayqn .,""
1968: The Image Men by J. B. Priestley. Pavane py K,eith Roberts
1969: The French Lt.'s Woman by John Fowles. Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth.
1970: Bomber by Len Deighton
1973: Sweet Dreams by Michael Frayn. Gravity~~RainbowbyThomas Pynchon
1975: Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow. The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury
, 1976: The Doctor's Wife by Brian Moore. Falstaffby Robert Nye , '
1977: How to Save Your Own Life by Erica Jong. Farwell Companions by James
Plunkett. Staying On by Paul Scott.
1978: The Coup by John Updike ,,'
. 1979: The Unlimited Dream Company by J.G. ,Ball~rd. Dubin's Lives by Bernard
Malamud. A Bend in the River by V. S. NaipauL • "
1980: Life in the Westby Brian Aldiss. Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. How Far Can
You Go? by David Lodge. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
1981: Lanark by Alasdair Gray. Darconville's Cat by Alexander Theroux. The Mosquito
Coast by Paul Theroux. Creation by Gore Vidal.

1982: The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies.

1983: Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer

THE MADDEN LIST

Thl' f(;ilowing is a highly selective, wholly subjective, and admittedly eccentric list. With only'a
couple exceptions (youfind 'rm), I've limited mysel'f to A'fficirican and Irish Fiction since 1960, These, then,
are books I consider inlportant, good, or simply entertaining. So, here, is the Madden addendum to the
Burgess and Gregory h,ts; I've tried to avoid duplication, but some was inevitable.
 1988: Libra/Don DeLillo. The Housegues by Thomas Berger. The Silence in the Garden
by Williar" Trevor
1989: AndAxain? by Sean O'Faolain
1990: The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster
1991: The Women of Whitechapel and Jack The, Ripper, by Paul West Amongst Women,
.'. ·,by Jphn McGahem
1992: Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates. Meeting Evil by Thomas Berger
1993:P~ctures at an Exhibition by D. M. Thomas. The Heather Blazing by Colm Tobin.
A Table ofGreen Fields by Guy Davenport. Disobedience by Michael Drinkwater.
Kill Hole by Jamake Highwater
1994: Going Native! by Stephen, Wright. The Zoo Where You're Fed to God by Michael
Ventura. HQw Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman
1995: The First Man by Albert Camus. Athena byJohn Banville

SELECT BIjJLIOGRAPHY: American fiction: 1972..1995 by Robert Olmstead

Looking over this list, which I've been keeping for the past fifteen years, I see, in
addition,to my cwneclectic tastes, soine shared qualities. First, all of them rely heavily
on IJstqrylJi all of them have a strong narrative impulse; I am not interested intoday's
reflexive fiction which endlessly calls into question the authority of its own textuality so
that the book implodes. Second, these novels are "teachable lJ : they are capable of
reaching a wide audience of intelligent readers. Of the novels listed, I have taught forty
of them, several of them more than once. Third, the list reflects my belief that when the
history of IJpostmodemlJ fiction is written fifty years from now, critics will identify the
emer~ence of a distinct female voice as one of the' hallmarks of the period, seeing tha t
women writers used the conventions of fiction in ways that differed from their male
cOlU1terparts.
My favorite writers? Robert Stone, Richard Ford, Russell Banks, Jane Smiley, Anne
Tyler, rviary GaitskiH. My favorite novel? One that I snuck in, since it was publisshed in
1968: Frederick Exley's A Fan's Notes. Only Charles Gregory and I really understand this
novel, along with Leonard Cohen's Beautijul Losers.
Sue Miller: Tile Good Mother; ,Family Pictures, The Distinguished Guest
JaneSmiley: Ordinary Love and .Good Will, A Thousand Acres, The Age ofGrief, Moo
Bobbie Ann Mason: Shiloh and Other Stories, Love Life, Spence and Lila, In Country
RobertStone: Hall ofMirrors, A Flag for Sunrise, Dog,soldiers, Children of
Light,Outerbridge Reach
Richard Ford: The Sports7vriter, A Piece ofMy Heart Wildlife, independence Day
f

Ann Beattie: L(}Ve Always, Falling in Place"Remembering Will

Ann Tyler: Morgan's Crossing, Breathing Lessons, Celestial Navigation, Dinner at the
Homesick Restaurant, The Accidental Tourist, Saint Maybe, Ladder olYears
 1960: Welcome to Hard Times by E.L. Doctorow. The Magic Christian by Terry

Southern.

1961: The Limr Twig by John Hawkes. The Atieiviegoerby Walker Percy.

.1962: Pu:le Fire by Vladimire Nabokov '.

1963: Second Skin by John Hawkes. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
1964: A Confederate General at Big Sur by Richard Brautigan. Little Big Man by Thomas
Berger.
1965: Everything That Rises Must Converge by FlanneryO'Connor, Tenement of Clay, by
Paul West
C' .' ,1966: The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon .
1967: Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigari. .'
1968: Lost in the Funhouse by 1~h1l Barth. The Universal Baseball Association: J. Henry
Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover. Annies of the Night by Norman Mailer.
1969:Slaughterhl'useFive by Kurt Vonnegut. Ada by Vladimir Nabokov. Portnoy's
Complaint by Philip Roth. Pricksongs and Descants by RobertCt>over. ~
1970: City Life by Donald Barthelme. Play it'As It Lays by Joan'Didion. Blue Movies by
Terry So~:hern.'WhereIs My Wanderihg'BCry Tonight? by David Wagoner.
. . . 1971: Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy. Underground Man by Ross Macdonald
. 1972: Edwin Mullhotl~f by Edward MillhauSer. The Kid by JoM Seelye. Night by Edna
O'Brien
1973: Ninety-two in the Sh~de by Thomas McGuane. Searches lind Seizures by ,
Stanley Elkin. ,. ,

1974: Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone

1975: Cockpit by Jerzy Ko~~ki. Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow.'

1976: Travesty by John Hawkes. ;'.

, .; 1977: The Projes,sor ,oj Desire by Philip Roth. Who Is Teddy Villanova? by Thomas
Berger. True
Confessions by John Gregory Dunne
. 1978: The Stori~s ~j John Cheever. Ladies Man by Reynolds Price." ,,'
1979: The Ghost WriterbY Philip Roth.. the PassionArtist by]ohriHawkes.'·'!'·
1980: Neighbors oy Thomas ~rger. The Very Rich Hours OfCOuntvon Stauffenberg, Paul
West. No Country for Young, Men, Julia OiFaolain .
. I, 1981: Nobody's Angel by Thomas McGuane. Collected Stories, Frank O'Connor
1982: The Collected Stories of SeanO'Faolain . "
1983: The Feud by Thomas Berger. The Fools ojFortune by William Trevor
, 1984: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
1985: North Gladiola by James WilcoXi White Noise, Don DeLillo
1986: Rilt Man oj Paris by Paul West. The Funeral Makers, by Cathie Pelletier.
The Counterlife by Phillip Roth.

1987: World's End, by T. Coreghessan Boyle'

Thomas McGuane: Ninety Two in the Shade, Nobody's Angel, Something to be Desired,
Nothing But Blue Skies
Frederick Exley' A Fan's Notes.
Lisa Alther, Kinflicks, Original Sins
Toni Morrison: Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved
Alice Walker: The Color Purple
Gloria Naylor, The Women of Bre'lOster Place
Shirley Hazzard: The Transit of Venus
Gale Godwin: The Odd Woman, A Mothrr and Two Daughters
John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces
Stanley Elkin: A Bad Man
Marilyn French: The Woman's Room, TheRleeding Heart
Francis de Plessix Gray: LoiJers & Tyrants
William Wharton: Birdy, Dad, Scumbler, A Midnight Clear
John Irving: Setting Free The Bears, The Water-Method Man, The World According to
Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire
Alice McDermott: A Bigamist's Daughter, That Night, At Weddings and Wakes
Marilynne Robinson: Housekeeping
Carolyn Chute. The Beans of Egypt, Maine, Letorneau's Used Auto Parts
Alison Lurie: The War Between The Tates, Nowhere City, Love and Friendship, The Truth
About Lorin Jones
Ellen Gilchrist: The Anna Papers, Victory Over Japan, Drunk With Love, Light Can Be
Both A Wave and A Particle, I Cannot Get Y0ti.CIose Enough
Raymond Carver: Where I'm Calling From,
Russell Banks: Affliction, Continental Drift, Trailer Park, The S'loeetHereafter,
Josephine Humphries: Dream of Sleep, Rich In Luve
Joyce Carol Oates: You Must Remember This, Because It Is Bitter and Because It Is My
Heart
Alice Adams: Suprrior Women
Tim O'Brien: Going After Cacciato, The Things They Carried, Lake ofthe Woods
Stephen Wright: Meditations in Green
Joan Didion: River, Run; Play It As it Lays
Joan Chase: DIO'ing The Reign of the Queen of Persia, BonnC'oiIIe Blue
Michael Dorris: A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, Working Men
Louise Erdirch: Love Medicien; The Beet Queen, Tracks
Paule Sharp: The Woman Who Was Not All There, Lost In Jersey City .
Mona Simpson: Anywhere But Here, The Lost Father
Walker Percy: The Moviegoer, The Last Gentleman, LUDe Among The Ruins
Barry Hannah: Airships
W.P. Kinsella: Shoeless Joe, The [uwa Baseball Conspiracy
Ha~rietPoerr:The Stones of Ibarra, Consider This, Senora
Bob Shacockis: Easy in the Islands
Barbara KinsC': !er: The Beantree, Animal Dreams, Homeland
Richard Yates: Young Hearts Crying
Sheila Ballantyne: Norma Jean, The Termite Queen
Paul Theroux: The Mosquito Coast, Chicago Loop
Maureen Howard: Before My Time, Natural History
: j

Reynolds Price: Love and Work, Kate Vaden

Frank Conroy: Midair, Stop-Time
. I.,

John Cheever: Falconer

John Updike: Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit at Rest
Jayne Anne Phillips: Machine Dreams, S h e l t e r - .
Susan Kennedy: In Another Country, Sailing
Marge Piercy: Small Changes
Bette Pesetsky: Dig
Don DeLilo: White Noise, Libra, Mac II
Abby Frucht:Licorice, Are You Mine?
Pam Houston: Cowboys Are My Weakness
Lynne Schwartz: Leaving Brooklyn
Tom Robbins: Another Roadside Attraction, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues:
Douglas Unger: Leaving the Land
James Harrison: Legends of the Fall
Rosellen Brown: Tender Mercies, Before and'After
Cormac McCarthy: All the Pretty Horses; The Crossing
Katherine Dunn: Geek Love' ., . " '..'
Amy Tan: The Joy Luck Club ..' . . '\ . '-'.,
Charles Johnson: Middle Passages
Susan Minot: Lust
Mary Gaitskil1: Bad Behavior, Two Girls Fat and Thin
Margaret Atwood: Surfacing, The Handmaiden's Tale, Wilderness Tips
T. Coraghessan Boyle: East is East . . j

Scott Spenser; Endless Love

Tobias Woolf: In theGarden of the North American Martyrs'
Alice Hoffman: Turtle Moon, Fortune's Daughttrs
Tom Drury: The End of Vandalism
Joyce Willliams: Escape
. ,'-,­
Rick Bass: Platte Rivers '-'
Maria Tho~as:, Comelo Africa and StiVe- Your Marriage
Ernest J. Gaines: A Lesson Before Dying
Dennis McFarland: The Music Room
 Seth Morgan: Homeboy

Larry Watson: Montana: 1948

John Casey: Sp'lrtina

SOME OF TH E BEST FICTION OF. THE LAST 25 YEARS AnthQny Burgess forgot
.to menticn(plus the group he couldn't have read since 1983), by Charles Gregory
My list follows the general inclinations. of Burgess. I want to-honor and draw attention to all fiction
written in English and even to provoke by naming some works "V rittcnin the pop genre that snobs would
not lace in a "literature" list. So be prepared to SL'l!a few mystery and 'SF writers as well as writers from
all over tl>.c world - part of that mythical global highway, not of intbrmakm, but of art.
1959: The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth.
1960: Rnbbit,Run (The Rabbit Quartet, finished in )by John Updike. A New Life by
Bernard Malamud. The Householder by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
1961: The Prime ofMiss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch.
1962: On~Fle11lD'{}er The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.
1963: Cat's Cradleby Kurt Vonnegut. Our Mother's House by Julian Gloag.
1964: Little Big Man by Thomas Berger. Last Exit To Brooklyn by Htibert Selby.
1965: Nowhere City by Alison Lurie. The Magus by JOWh PcnNles.
1966: The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen. the
Origin of the Brunists by Robert Coover. The Raj Quartet(series completed in 1971)
by Paul Scott.
1967: The Mind Parasites by Colin WilSOh.'
1968: A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley. Universal Baseball Association by Robert
Coover. Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts by Donald Barthelme.

·1969: Fat City by Leonard Gardner. Flashman(begirining of series) byGeorge

MatDonald Fraser. Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin.

1970: A Fairly Honorable Retreat by Iris Murdoch. Fifth Business by Robertson Davies.
1971: Farragan's Rrtreat by T<01h MtHale. The Dick Gibson Shmv by Stanley Elkin.
Friends of Eddie Coyle byGeorgeHiggins. Riotous Assembly by Tom Sharpe.
1972: The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith by Thomas Kenneally
1973: Burr by Gore Vidal. The Honorable Consul by Graham Greene
1974: The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols. The War Between the Tates'by Alison
Lurie. The Dispossessed by Ursula Leguin. Winter in the Blood by James Welch.
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley.
1975: Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow.lndecent Exposure by Tom Sharpe. Wife by Bharati
Mukherjee. The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury.
1976: The Bric-a-Brac Man by Russell Greenan. Wilt by Tom Sharpe. A River Runs
Through It by Norman Maclean. Carning Through Slaughtt..,- by Michael Ondaatje.
1977: Territorial Rights by Muriel Spark. Death ofan Old Goat by Robert Barnard.
1978: Final Payments by Mary Gordon. World According to Garp by John Irving.
Billy Phelan's Greatest Game by William Kennedy. Bogmailby Patrick McGinley.
 The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley. The Human Factor by Graham Greene. Tirra
Urra by the Rioer by Jessica Anderson.
1979:The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth. The Pornographer by John McGahern. Legends of
the Fall by Jim Harrison. Your Lover Just Called by John Updike.
1980: Souls & 30dies by David Lodge. Riles oj Passage by William Goldmg. Setting
the World on Fire by Angus Wilson. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.
1981: Death ofa Perfect Mother by Robert Barnard. A Good Man in Ajricaby
William Boyd. Gorky Parkby Martin Cruz Smith. Bliss by Peter Carey.
1982: The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux. Prizzi's Honor by Richard Condon. Cadillac
Jack by Larry McMurtry. Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo. Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella.
1983:Ihe Desert Rose by Larry McMurtry. DeadHeads by Reginald Hill. Famous All
Over Tuum by Danny Santia.go. Waterland by Graham Swift.
1984: Small World by David Lodge.
1985: The Old Forest by.Peter Taylor. Continental Drift by Russell Banks. In Country
by Bobbie Ann Mason. Zuckerman Bound(a trilogy & epilogue) by Philip Roth.
Machine Dreams by Jayne Anne Phillips. Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler.
Flaubert's Purrot by Julian Barnes. The Old Forest by Peter Taylor'
1986: Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen. Roger's Version by J9hnUpdike. An Artist of the
Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
1987: The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally. Dancing at the RascaLFair by Ivan Doig.In
The Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje.
1988: Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey. Baumgartner's Bombay by Anita Desai. .Nice
Work by David Lodge. i, ,
1989: Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee. Where fmCalling From by Raymond Carver.
Remains of the Day by Kasuo Ishiguro.· Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai
Riehler.i'.',.·' ,
1990: The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel William~, ,

1991: Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen. A Thot:fsandAcres by Jane Smiley.

1992: Shmv Business by Shashi Tharoor..'..",.:

1993: The Holder of the World by Bha'ratiMukherjee.

1994:. The Waterworks by E. L. Doctorow'

! .

1995: Moo by Jane Smiley..