/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.22435958]

ITT: Books from the 21st century that are actually good

[Anonymous No.22436014]

>>22435958
Read this to shut my zoomer gf up after I convinced her to read Libra
Wanted to hate it but I actually really enjoyed it. The marxist stuff was gay but other than that, good book

[Anonymous No.22436031]

[Anonymous No.22436036]

>>22436031
No.
>max lawton
>>22436014
Already ruined the thread.

[Anonymous No.22436046]

>>22436036
Guarantee you didnt read either lol kwab

[Anonymous No.22436051]

>>22436046
Okay, Maxy boi, whatever you say. Forgot you’re the arbiter of being well-read

[Anonymous No.22436052]

>>22436031
........and the fag is here shilling himself and his fuck buddies once again.

[Anonymous No.22436061]

>>22436031
>>22436051
Hi Max, I've reported your racist, fascist, Nazi, transphobic 4chan credentials to your publisher NYRB. They plan on dropping your forthcoming translations. Hope it was worth it!

[Anonymous No.22436124]

>>22436036
>>22436051
>>22436052
you guys are massive homosexuals with no taste

[Anonymous No.22436141]

>>22436031

[Anonymous No.22436147]

[Anonymous No.22436154]

>>22436124
>says someone doesn’t have taste
>literally recommends Sally Rooney and Sorokin
Hahahah

[Anonymous No.22436163]

Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The shadow of the wind.

[Anonymous No.22436171]

what is this schizo nonsense
i just want people to post neat books from the past two decades that aren't 2666 or austerlitz

[Anonymous No.22436237]

>>22436154
what do you read faggot

[Anonymous No.22436285]

/lit/ is just not ready for this conversation

[Anonymous No.22436322]

>>22436014
anon that's a horrible trade. I stopped after about 50 pages. Rooney is probably better than most other popular authors today bc I don't get the feeling she's actively trying to scam the pseuds but she can't write. Without the constraints of genre fiction (ie an actual plot) reading more than a couple pages of her writing is incredibly tiresome.

But if ur already this gay and want to score points with your gf you might as well check out normal people.

[Anonymous No.22436327]

>>22436171
Try Ben Lerner or Edouard Leve.

[Anonymous No.22436333]

[Anonymous No.22436336]

[Anonymous No.22436340]

I can keep going but I don’t want to spam

[Anonymous No.22436344]

>>22436340
post another one pls

[Anonymous No.22436349]

>>22435958
I found a book in a small book store once. It was published about 10 years ago. It was called 'My Dad's Penis'

[Anonymous No.22436350]

>>22436340
Go for it. Based on my secondhand knowledge of 21st c. lit, your picks seem very good.

[Anonymous No.22436353]

>>22435958
Picrel, or 2666 if you count it as a 21st century book.
>>22436285
I want to read alan moore some day, i love esoteric stuff and schizo magic systems

[Anonymous No.22436361]

>>22436353
>2666 if you count it as a 21st century book.
why wouldn't you count it? it was released in 2004

[Anonymous No.22436362]

>>22436344
>>22436350
Ok

[Anonymous No.22436369]

I’m post mostly translated stuff because that’s my bias but some of these might have technically been written earlier. If the English translation is this century then I think of it as 21st c I guess

[Anonymous No.22436386]

>>22436369
All good, it's interesting regardless. Ogawa is a new name to me, looks very good. Ge Fei is one I'd heard of but long forgotten, I'm always curious about contemporary Chinese stuff.

[Anonymous No.22436408]

>>22436369
>>22436386
Speaking of which, have you read Yan Lianke? I liked Serve The People a good bit more than I expected to, very real and nuanced stuff.

[Anonymous No.22436469]

>>22436386
I liked Memory Police as much as the popular classics of the dystopian genre, namely Brave New World and 1984. I highly recommend it to any fan of the genre. It lacks the more detailed world building of those novels (the particulars of the society are a little unclear beyond the “forced forgetting” plot device and how it affects the characters), but I feel it has a strong focus on psychology and emotions which help it to shine.

As for Invisibility Cloak, I’ll mention that it’s not a long or very deep book but it’s fun and, forgive the buzzword, it’s comfy. I’ve read that it’s a social portrait of a kind of rising middle class in China but I don’t know a lot of their culture so I can’t attest to that. I have another of his books called Peach Blossom Paradise which is a historical story that seems like it’ll be meatier.

>>22436408
I haven’t yet. I’ve been sleeping on a copy of The Four Books for years which I’ll get around to eventually.

[Anonymous No.22436562]

>>22436322
M8, cmon. Youve not actually read it, like most people on this board you see womeme and wont touch it. The books what, 150 pages of easy prose? You banged out 50 and gave up? Please mate. To say Rooney cant write is just plain seethe. Im not saying shes Tolstoy or even DFW but shes got talent, she can build characters very very well. Bobbi was one of the best characters Ive read in any book this century. I cant think of another author under 40 Ive enjoyed more. Hoping as she gets older she keeps getting better. I could see a truly great novel under her name in another 10-15 years

[Anonymous No.22436585]

>>22435958
Dont speak beaner
>>22436014
Unironically good
>>22436031
L O L
>>22436285
Jerusalem in some parts was good. Moore is much better at the graphic novel though. Antkind fucking blew, unfinishable. Never read the other one.
>>22436336
Trash. This weird greek possible jew could not have been trying harder to be le next postmod genius, except he hasnt half the talent of Pynch or even Gaddis. Legitimatey Joshua Cohen tier
>>22436340
Actually pretty good. Borrowed from a friend and didnt finish but likely will get my own copy. Liked what Id read

[Anonymous No.22436992]

>>22436562
I meant "tiresome" as in boring, not difficult. I read Normal People in a day bc I didn't find it insufferably boring, but I'm still not pretending it's a "great novel", it's just good for what it is.

She's smart and her talent is articulating things her audience already feels in their daily lives. The fact that her prose is so sparse likely helps because if you don't read that much it probably seems sophisticated compared to the melodrama of like a YA novel.

There's parts of Normal People that I found really insightful but clearly we're not her audience and acting like she's some profound universal writer is ridiculous. It's not like I hate her writing I just got tired of this one.

[Anonymous No.22437008]

>>22435958
I read his latest book the Infatuations and was pretty indifferent towards it

>>22436031
this one has been on my to read list for like a year now, I should finally read it

>>22436285
Solenoid is good

>>22436362
Pretty good, though I'm pretty sure this actually came out in the 90s and was translated only recently

[Anonymous No.22437664]

Anyone read picrel?

[Anonymous No.22437764]

Still waiting for you fuckers to read this

[Anonymous No.22437835]

>>22435958
the old cover is better, the current one is shit but its one of the funniest books ever written.

[Anonymous No.22438350]

>>22436163
Mall tier best seller

[Anonymous No.22438365]

>>22438350
It's actually decent though

[Anonymous No.22438384]

>>22436171
e-celeb drama website

[Anonymous No.22438392]

>>22437664
it used to be somewhat popular here

[Anonymous No.22438409]

[Anonymous No.22438494]

>>22436285
Alan moro can't write.

[Anonymous No.22438509]

Can't ignore the Elephant in the room with us. The Road is also a good book but overrated in the mainstream a little bit.

[Anonymous No.22438511]

>>22438509
Tranny I heckin love science books. The Road is good.

[Anonymous No.22438578]

>>22438511
It's time to actually pick up and read, if you can do either. Chud.

[Anonymous No.22438586]

>>22438578
Nice bait, redditor.

[Anonymous No.22438630]

absolute kino if you like characters who are retarded perverts

[Anonymous No.22439987]

>>22438409
This was one of the most promising-looking authors I found when I was searching for contemporary stuff a while ago, I hope she continues to publish and serve as a good example.

[Anonymous No.22439997]

>>22438586
Cope

[Anonymous No.22441341]

Gonna save everyone's and say: nothing

[Anonymous No.22441344]

>>22441341
That’s what you’ve read, yes.

[Anonymous No.22441350]

>>22438409
>>22439987
Sell me on it.

[Anonymous No.22441351]

>>22439997
Dilate

[Anonymous No.22441432]

>>22441350
I just said it seems promising, primarily because it doesn't seem like moralizing schlock, just good, cold, incisive psychodrama/comedy of manners. That's about all it takes to stand out these days.

[Anonymous No.22441446]

>>22441432
>>22441350
She has good polished prose, and a clear eye. First Love is about a nasty relationship, but avoids the expected pitfalls of telling you what to think, making it clear who the 'baddie' is.
It's the sort of novel Sally Rooney thinks she's writing, or Ian McEwan would write if he understood what people are actually like

[Anonymous No.22441576]

My Struggle and A Time For Everything by Knausgård
Various works by Roth
Various works by Houellebecq
Feast of the Goat by Vargas Llosa (although inferior to his 1970s work, still pretty good)

[Anonymous No.22441786]

Technically this was published posthumously but all the stories were written in the 21st century.

[Anonymous No.22441794]

>>22436285
Antkind could have been good if it was at all edited.

[Anonymous No.22441957]

>>22436141
really strange (bad) take on sorokin

he doesn't shy away from sex/drug use/violence/abjection but it's far from the level of many famous western writers (like selby jr/cooper/delany/kane etc) and not even amongst the worst offenders of edgelord russian writers from his time (that's probably limonov)

at the same time, he is simply a way better writer than a hack like palahniuk

and lastly, sorokin is literally a devout christian. read ice trilogy for example - it's all about transcendence of vulgar materialism. when sorokin uses abject stuff there or elsewhere (thinking day of the oprichnik) it's only to satirize the corrupted morals of modernity

maybe he has a different reputation in russia - i wouldnt be surprised if it was more negative, given the fact that he is a vocal critic of the russian state

[Anonymous No.22442052]

>>22441957
>all lowercase
You’re a troon in Max’s cult

[Anonymous No.22442060]

HOW DO I BECOME COOL & SMART ENOUGH TO BE EMOTIONALLY INVESTED IN TWITTER USERS?

[Anonymous No.22442073]

>>22442060
>simply a twitter use
You clearly don’t know shit if you think Max The DYEL Lawton is simply a random twatter user

[Anonymous No.22442075]

>>22442073
Exactly, nobody knows shit about whatever twitch streamer you're talking about

[Anonymous No.22442076]

>>22442073
Who are you quoting?

[Anonymous No.22442079]

>>22442075
>>22442076
Pretending to be retarded still makes you retarded, Mr. Redditor

[Anonymous No.22442083]

>>22442079
What a stupid post.

[Anonymous No.22442086]

>>22442079
Nobody knows your ecelebs, zoomer

[Anonymous No.22442087]

>>22442083
Sounds cope coming from the troon who said Sally Trooney is a good writer lmao

[Anonymous No.22442091]

>>22442086
This eceleb you’re obtusely pretending to not know — or if you do, it’s unsurprising since you have read fewer than 10 books after high school — has practically translated most of Sorokin’s books. See >>22436031 ((You) even posted it)

[Anonymous No.22442093]

>>22442087
If a person has a characteristic he can't pretend to have it.

[Anonymous No.22442147]

[Anonymous No.22442187]

>>22436285
Jerusalem has bright spots but is very flawed

Pic related still the best

[Anonymous No.22443589]

[Anonymous No.22443861]

>ducks, newburyport

Has anyone read this?

[Anonymous No.22443867]

>>22443861
the fact that another man fucked my wife and i liked it the fact that this is somehow considered a normal psychosexual phenomenon the fact that indisputably this is linked to my own self-loathing and the rotten underpinnings of my masculinity, underpin, undercut, wave-cut-ledge, sea defenses and rock armour, the victorians built recurved walls, the fact that he was black, the fact that although i am not a racist, in fact, i am anti-racist, the fact that it was still definitely relevant that he was black, the fact that i probably do in fact think that a black man is more of a man than i am, the fact that i wished he was more muscular, the fact that he was still stronger than me, the fact that his cock was as thick as a rolling pin, the fact that i got into an argument with a man who claimed that black men have larger penises and called him a bigot who credulously bought into 19th-century pseudoscientific notions of the sub-saharan black as brutish and inhuman, the fact that i do still in fact believe black men have larger penises, the fact that a dolphin's penis is like a corkscrew, and that they rape each other, the fact that ducks rape each other too, the fact that the whole of civilisation seems to have been created to stop people getting away with rape

[Anonymous No.22443878]

>>22442091
Sorokin’s original English translator died of cancer, so of course nepo baby Maxy Boy was assigned to translate (with DeepL and Google Translate) the rest of his works.

[Anonymous No.22443885]

>>22442147
I finished Laurus last night. Fascinating brutal descriptions of (post) medieval, superstitious Russian life, as seen through the eyes of an herbalist monk.

[Anonymous No.22443949]

>Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash
>Cherry by Nico Walker
>The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littel
>Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
Stephen Florida was recc'd to me in another thread and i loved it. wish i would've saved that thread, there were a lot of great recs. i'm taking a break from TKOs but it's very good so far. Crossroads was my first Franzen and I don't get why people hate him

[Anonymous No.22443953]

>>22443949
Fagzen sucks and you have bad taste

[Anonymous No.22443966]

>>22443949
No reason to hate Franzen. Critics just label him and call it a day.

[Anonymous No.22444085]

>>22442091
He also only started getting his translations published (accepted) after the Ukraine war. All of his translations are FORTHCOMING (LMAO) excpet for this one, which was recently published. So shut the fuck up you dumb fucking retard. You're probably Max Lawton himself, which is why you're trying to pretend so hard he's a bigshot.