What are your favorite American authors and books from the latter half of the 20th century? Have you read the following any of the following authors and if so, what were your general thoughts on them:>John Updike>Joan Didion>Joyce Carol Oates>John Irving>Tom Wolfe>Norman Mailer>Anne Tyler>Philip Roth>Saul Bellow>Bernard MalamurAnd anyone else you think is worth mentioning ITT. (I didn't include Pynchon, DeLillo, or McCarthy because I know that we all generally like them, I don't really see the other authors listed here nearly as discussed so I wanted to know what /lit/'s general opinions are on them, on account they are some of the most famous names in American fiction and American creative nonfiction/journalism.)
>>25342743>Bernard MalamurMalamud*Funnily, the only author I've read from any of these authors, is The Natural, and somehow the only author I misspelled was the only one I read loliirc I thought it was pretty subpar. Don't have much I can say atm cuz I read it years ago when I wanted to read a literary book about sports and The Natural is probably the most famous? (obv Infinite Jest has tennis but IJ is about a lot more than Tennis while The Natural is ostensibly THE literary sport book). Part of the reason I wanted to read a book about sports was cuz I was curious how, well, sports can be written in a literary way? but I think the scenes that stuck with me the most were the sex/romance scenes
>Norman MailerI read Ancient Evenings without knowing much about it beforehand and I was not prepared for what I got, kek.
>>25342743>John IrvingI started The Cider House Rules, it seemed pretty good but I'm too ADHD to read that kind of thing
>>25342743K.A. Applegate but unironically
>>25342743>>John UpdikeHe rules. Loved the Rabbit series: a character study of the All-American Asshole. His other fiction is worthwhile, but his attempts at poetry were a bad joke.>>Joyce Carol OatesFeminist cunt with a stick up her arse, but capable of affecting writing. The best example is Black Water, which is horrifying and immediate, despite being a heavy-handed feminist polemic.>>Norman MailerI enjoyed The Fight. I would have also enjoyed decking Gore Vidal.>>Philip RothToo full of himself. American Pastoral was a prize-baiting attempt at "muh great American novel," and a long, tedious slog. His better fiction is shorter and to the point. Everyman is my favourite.>>John BarthYou didn't mention him, so I suppose I have to. I've only read Tidewater Tales, and found it an imposing, overlong, self-indulgent wank.Good thread btw.
What's updike?
>>25342743>BellowIt’s been years since I’ve read him but I remember liking him. I think I gave all of his books I owned to my dad.>>25343501>BarthI just picked up used copies of Giles Goat Boy and Sot Weed Factor this weekend. I am looking forward to them>RothI passed up Everyman at the same store. Maybe I should go back and get it
>>25342743Is /lit/ a Mailermaxxed or Gorepilled board?
>>25343687ummmmm not much but that's a fairly problematic question, okay?
>>25342743I enjoy Walker Percy. Never read any of the ones you posted and my other favorite authors from this period are all /lit/ memes already.
>>25342743I wish Updike had a little bit more meat on the bone. As it stands all I've read from him wavers in substance but delivers in prose style. Is his entire oeuvre like this?Anyone enjoy Denis Johnson's work btw?
>>25342743>I run away from my home, wife and all because...jesus boomer core
>>25342743>What are your favorite American authors and books from the latter half of the 20th century?John Hawkes is easily my favorite from that bunch; his book Second Skin is the bomb diggity. I'd also highly recommend>Mary Lee Settle- Blood Tie>Wallace Stegner- Crossing to SafetyAnd plenty of good but lesser books, or books you've already heard of and that don't need me bringing them up.Of the guys on your list, OP, I've read a lone Bellow and it was okay. Frankly none of those guys has much appeal to me right now. There were many different currents flowing at that time and place, and I'm much more drawn to the smaller names.
For me it's Chester Himes, Donald Goines and most importantly Iceberg Slim for Pimp. Sure it's more of a memoirs than a work of fiction but reading it at 16 illuminated me on the state of women and helped me never get emotionally hustled by them, unlike my peers
Do you guys consider stuff like Geek Love or Actual Air to be part of the same post-ww2 but pre-21st century grouping that OP's list comprises, or is it something else entirely? I think it's too sentimental and "rudimentary" to really accord with writers like Mailer, Roth, Didion, etc.
>>25342743I want to like this book, because I quite like the fact that Updike was supremely talented and yet decided to employ that talent in writing about his dick, but the book is such a chore. It has some great stuff, like Rabbit driving on the road. But the character interactions are a slog.
>>25345743Rabbit is not supposed to be a sympathetic character.
