Are there any new classic novels since 1960?

[Exiled_Child]

And by the way, Hankster, have you ever read Graham Greene? He was good, don’t you think?

 

[The_Hankster]

I remember reading somewhere that King writes 2k words a day, but it’s without fail and 2k of stuff he going to use. What strikes me about King is that 5% (I’m pretty much making up these percentages) is really good, 20% is okay, 75% is not worth reading. I think he would do better if he really focused on quality.

I love Greene. The End of the Affair is the most frustrating book I’ve ever read, because it is 2/3 of it is an absolute masterpiece. Even Greene acknowledged he screwed it up, but so much of that book is just so beautiful.

 

[jeannetherese]

The End of the Affair was also made in to a movie. Enjoy!
jt

 

[The_Hankster]

The End of the Affair was also made in to a movie. Enjoy!
jt

Not sure there is anything to enjoy in that adaptation other than naked Julianne Moore (but that is pretty sweet.)

 

[Martin_Pastore]

Ground Ball !!

Joseph Heller- CATCH-22
“That’s some catch, that catch-22”

Also, an underrated work— Joe Haldeman- The Forever War.

Peace.

 

[meteoric]

Just catching up on the thread, and the mention of silly songs reminded me of Silverlock by John Myers Myers, which I probably haven’t read in 30 years. I am by no means suggesting it as a classic; it is, however, a book filled with scenes stolen from classics, as the main character finds himself in the land “The Commonwealth of Letters”. Just checked Wikipedia, and found that it was originally published in 1949, so it can’t include anything post-1960 , but it is a fun read and automatically leads to the game of “what story/legend/myth is that from?”

As to output, Walter Gibson was writing two complete Shadow novels a month at the height of his output. According to one article I read, he hit 15000 words a day (on a manual typewriter, which he would bring on trains to keep writing even while commuting) and sometimes ended up with bloody fingertips at the end of the day from the process.

Good reading,

Tom A.
(From personal experience writing fan fiction, when the inspiration hits and the words come faster than you can get them out, it is an amazing experience, and I can understand why the ancients said it was a supernatural event and attributed it to The Muses.)

 

[ishii]

I was thinking, always a dangerous thing!

You have Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, Gone With the Wind, and many other classics.

The most recent classic I can think of is To Kill A Mockingbird, published in 1960.

Are there any other classics since 1960 ?

The Moviegoer (1961), The Last Gentleman (1962), Confederacy of Dunces (1980). Perhaps something by Tom Wolfe (other than the Right Stuff).

Ishii

 

[oldcelt]

The Moviegoer (1961), The Last Gentleman (1962), Confederacy of Dunces (1980). Perhaps something by Tom Wolfe (other than the Right Stuff).

Ishii

I like your list, particularly the Wolfe suggestion and will add, that only time will tell. It isn’t unheard of for writings that were ignored in their time to become classics later. Though not what I would call a novelist, Thoreau was almost entirely ignored in the 19th century.

 

[John_Lazarus]

Joseph Heller- CATCH-22
“That’s some catch, that catch-22”

I read this one, back in '85. I was working for 2 months in a Radio Relay detachment. My primary duty was just to sit there quietly and make sure the antennae didn’t fall over.

Bored out of my skull (there weren’t even any trees where I was to be bored out of), I read everything I could get my mitts on – mostly these really cheesy war/adventure novels, like “Soldiers of Barabbas” etc, which I think are the alpha-male answer to a Harlequin romance.

Anyway, amongst all this dreck was Catch-22. One of the few modern classics I have ever liked. And as a member of the military, familiar with the bureaucracy and the conflicting orders and the SOPs etc…it really resonated with me. Even more so when I became an NCO flying a desk and got more and more involved with officers and chains of command and policies and procedures. :whacky:

Edit: I would suggest Catch-22 be required reading for recruits in the military. Not for officers, though: They’d probably treat it as “doctrine”.

 

[John_Lazarus]

I read this one, back in '85. I was working for 2 months in a Radio Relay detachment. My primary duty was just to sit there quietly and make sure the antennae didn’t fall over.

Bored out of my skull (in my camp there weren’t even any trees where I could be bored out of), I read everything I could get my mitts on – mostly these really cheesy war/adventure novels, like “Soldiers of Barabbas” etc… which I think are the testosterone-fuelled alpha-male answer to a Harlequin romance.

Anyway, amongst all this dreck was Catch-22. One of the few modern classics I have ever liked. And as a member of the military, familiar with the bureaucracy and the conflicting orders and the SOPs etc…it really resonated with me. Even more so when I became an NCO flying a desk and got more and more involved with officers and chains of command and policies and procedures. :whacky:

Edit: I would suggest this be required reading for recruits in the military. Not for officers, though: They’d probably treat is as “doctrine”.

 

[Arrabella]

I’m not sure if this falls into that category…however, “The Diary of St. Faustina” is pretty wonderful!!
A

 

[Exiled_Child]

I like Michael D. O’Brien’s books: Father Elijah, The Father’s Tale, Strangers and Sojourners. Especially the first, they will not be classics as they are Catholic, but they seem great to me.
Also I just read Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book, an amazing work about a historian transported back to the time of the Black Plague.

I’m reading Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book right now, and it’s pretty over-the-top cool and great. It actually reminds me more than a little bit of the mighty Tim Powers and his sheer genius sci-fi novel, The Anubis Gates! High praise, indeed!

So, many thanks for the tip, Viki63!

 

[zaffiroborant]

Right now, I’m reading A Game of Thrones (part of the series "A Song of Ice and Fire) by George R.R. Martin, who is nicknamed “the American Tolkien”.

I just could not like that book, I tried I really tried but I couldn’t finish it and I just can’t compare Martin to Tolkien.

 

[zaffiroborant]

A Canticle for Liebowitz, by Miller,

The First Circle, and One Day in the Life of Evan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn, in the 1960s.

The Once and Future King, by White, in 1958. (close enough to 1960s?)

Dune by Herbert, 1965

And Ladies of the Club, by Santmyer, 1982

As for what “classic novel” means, I would say that a novel is “classic” when a high school English teacher makes it required reading for the class! All of the above qualify!

There are so many more!

I really enjoyed A Canticle for Liebowitz I think I would have liked it more if I had a translation of all the Latin in it. Maybe there is one on-line I could re-read it and see.

 

[Zzyzx_Road]

A personal list:

I consider The Once And Future King is one of the best novels ever written although it falls just prior to the 1960 cutoff date. I used to read everything Arthurian at one time in my life. Including the original Le Morte D’Arthur, yes I slogged through ye olde English language. Probably two to three dozen novels in all. White’s novel stands out head and shoulders above the rest. While many of the others were enjoyable reading, there are none I would put on this list.

Stephen King’s best work was his earliest. Practically everything he’s done after that has been some variation on the work he did in the 70’s; I don’t believe he’s done better work since. His best novels were The Stand and The Shining. His best novelettes were Shawshank Redemption from which the movie of the same name was made, and The Body, from which the movie Stand By Me was made. Both of those novelettes can be found in Different Seasons.

others:
Bonfire of the Vanities
Lonesome Dove
Catch-22
To Kill A Mockingbird
The World According to Garp
The Last Unicorn (one of the best fantasy novels ever written)
A Canticle For Liebowitz
Dune
Slaughterhouse 5

In addition, I’ll throw in a nod for an earlier novel by John Steinbeck: East of Eden, came out in 1952. I consider it his best. His “Travels with Charley” is excellent; though it is non-fiction, it did come out in 1962.

One more from the 50’s, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

And finally, I can’t leave without mentioning that I found Gravity’s Rainbow to be overly long, portentious and just full of itself. A good boat anchor. I still can’t believe I made myself read the whole thing just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. This is coming from someone who enjoyed Joyce and Faulkner. Sorry Pynchon is not in their class. Now donning flamesuit …

 

[Martin_Pastore]

A personal list:

I consider The Once And Future King is one of the best novels ever written although it falls just prior to the 1960 cutoff date. I used to read everything Arthurian at one time in my life. Including the original Le Morte D’Arthur, yes I slogged through ye olde English language. Probably two to three dozen novels in all. White’s novel stands out head and shoulders above the rest. While many of the others were enjoyable reading, there are none I would put on this list.

Stephen King’s best work was his earliest. Practically everything he’s done after that has been some variation on the work he did in the 70’s; I don’t believe he’s done better work since. His best novels were The Stand and The Shining. His best novelettes were Shawshank Redemption from which the movie of the same name was made, and The Body, from which the movie Stand By Me was made. Both of those novelettes can be found in Different Seasons.

others:
Bonfire of the Vanities
Lonesome Dove
Catch-22
To Kill A Mockingbird
The World According to Garp
The Last Unicorn (one of the best fantasy novels ever written)
A Canticle For Liebowitz
Dune
Slaughterhouse 5

In addition, I’ll throw in a nod for an earlier novel by John Steinbeck: East of Eden, came out in 1952. I consider it his best. His “Travels with Charley” is excellent; though it is non-fiction, it did come out in 1962.

One more from the 50’s, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

And finally, I can’t leave without mentioning that I found Gravity’s Rainbow to be overly long, portentious and just full of itself. A good boat anchor. I still can’t believe I made myself read the whole thing just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. This is coming from someone who enjoyed Joyce and Faulkner. Sorry Pynchon is not in their class. Now donning flamesuit …

Hey,
Some good calls there…especially ,Slaughter House 5, I read Catch- 22 and the Vonnegut book about the same time, when I was about 18…shortly before entering govt. service…so Catch-22 became ‘biblesque’ (small b)…Slaughter House 5 was riveting, as it was hard to digest, as I was reading it on the subway to and from work w/o an English professor to explain things…I remember a movie version sometime in the 1980’s that wasn’t bad. Besides rereading Catch, countless times ,and living it ,I picked up Vonnegut for a couple more reads ,with more maturity and experience…and it was still a tough read! LOL
But worth it…thanks for sharing.
Peace…Martin Pastore.

 

[Kindness]

Just missing the 1960 cutoff is “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe published in 1958.

I love “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys (1966) a prequel to Jane Eyre. Very Gothic - but Carribean Gothic rather than European. Gives the perspective of Bertha, Mr Rochester’s wife who is shut up in the attic.