/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2394583]

Can /lit/ recommend some good contemporary literature? Stuff published in like, the last 10 years or so (just a rough limit, don't take it as a hard and fast rule).

I'm less experienced in this area than I'd like to be, and I'm just kind of curious to see what kind of stuff is happening lately in literary fiction.

[Anonymous No.2394586]

The bull's eye implies hitting the target, but it's neon, suggestion psychedelia and hallucination.

I guess contemporary literature does hit imaginary bull's eyes.

Thoughts on dat cover?

[Anonymous No.2394591]

>>2394586

Interesting interpretation, friend. What do you make of the faux wood pattern? A yearning for a less technological era? Perhaps fallaciously associated with a more sincere time?

[Anonymous No.2394596]

Wait for Sunhawk to appear. He makes some very nice must-read top tier patrician contemporary books mosaics.

[Anonymous No.2394603]

Ben Marcus - Notable American Women, The Flame Alphabet
Tom McCarthy - Remainder, C
Sam Lipsyte - The Ask, Venus Drive
Chad Harbach - The Art of Fielding
Paul Auster - Invisible
Wallace Shawn - The Fever, Grasses of a Thousand Colors
Lydia Davis - Almost No Colors, Varieties of Disturbance
J. M. Coetzee - Disgrace
J.M.G. Le Clezio - Desert
Matthew Derby - Super Flat Times

[Anonymous No.2394633]

>>2394603

I have to say, these sound entirely uninteresting.

[Anonymous No.2394638]

>>2394633
Based off of what, the titles?

[Anonymous No.2394639]

>>2394638

The plot summary.

[Anonymous No.2394656]

>>2394639
Well, for better or worse, those are some of the books getting attention in the U.S. I enjoyed most of the books listed, except for the Lydia Davis. There's also Franzen and Gary Lutz, I guess.

I'm not too sure about non-American contemporary lit, though, other than Le Clezio and Coetzee. Maybe somebody else can chime in.

[Anonymous No.2394684]

No mention of DFW? You guys are small time.

[Anonymous No.2394687]

>>2394684

DFW goes without saying. And I'm well aware of his work.

[Anonymous No.2394698]

>>2394639
>2012
>judges books on plot summary

lets be honest, you wouldn't read a dfw book if you only read the description on the back and never heard anything else about it. you need that widespread approval before you do much of anything.

[Anonymous No.2394713]

>>2394698

Fair enough. I was sold on Infinite Jest and others because of the opinions of my peers.

I think this is the problem I have with most contemporary literature. I'm just kind of stumbling in the dark most of the time.

[Anonymous No.2394794]

Chronic City, j. Lethem
The Corrections j. Franzen

[Anonymous No.2395012]

Bump.

[Anonymous No.2395245]

Bump.

[Sunhawk !M9PhF5nIzs No.2395289]

>>2394596

See pic.

[Anonymous No.2395325]

Some that I've liked/am liking from the 21st century:

Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk
An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by Cesar Aira
Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi
Fado by Andrzej Stasiuk
the Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

There are a lot of presses who either focus exclusively on contemporary lit or have series which do. You might look into a few of them, OP, to help with more recommendations - Dalkey Archive, Peirene Press, some of Twisted Spoon Press, and Writings From an Unbound Europe (mostly post 1989).

[Anonymous No.2395332]

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, and Zoo City by Lauren Beukes are two of my recent favorites...

[Anonymous No.2395336]

I second:

House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski
anything Haruki Murakami
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

Also,
The Brief History of the Dead

I know not this DFW of whom you speak. Recommendation??

[Anonymous No.2395334]

I want to read Spurious and Dogma by Lars Iyer. Just check out this opening:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dogma-Lars-Iyer/dp/1612190464/ref=pd_cp_b_3#reader_1612190464

Has anyone read him and can comment?

[Anonymous No.2395424]

>>2395289
Sunhawk delivers, lol.

[Anonymous No.2395486]

Green = Have read or want to read + liked
Red = No desire / sucked
Orange = ambivalent

WTF is Card doing on this at all? He's awful

[Anonymous No.2395505]

Vollman, Sebald, Gass, DeLillo, DFW, Pynchon, McCarthy, Roth, etc.

[Sunhawk !M9PhF5nIzs No.2395506]

>>2395486

How have you never heard of Margaret Atwood or Paul Auster?

[Anonymous No.2395518]

>>2395506
Better question: Why the fuck is Card on there thrice?

Say what you will, but Eggers, Foer, and Chabon deserve to be on there much, much more.

[Anonymous No.2395533]

Am I the only one who thinks Murakami is utter shit?

[Anonymous No.2395534]

>>2395518
How does new Auster read compared to the Trilogy? I fucking loved the trilogy.

[Fergus !hxTvuAIpXU No.2395535]

>>2395486

You don't know Margaret Atwood? This mutt be remedied. Read The Blind Assassin, you won't be disappointed.

[Fergus !hxTvuAIpXU No.2395539]

>>2395486

You don't know Margaret Atwood? This must be remedied. Read The Blind Assassin, you won't be disappointed.