s/o from Reddit -- Which novel published after the year 2000 will be considered a classic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Surprise for all those votes for Life of Pi. I thought it was good but not a classic really. My kid is reading it in HS English though.

What about Jonathan Strange and Mr Norre? I really liked that when I read it.

This is also a little off topic, but can anyone tell me which of the suggested books are least depressing? I’ve had to swear off a lot of real literature because it really affects my mood. It’s like seasonal affective disorder but with literature. So I am constantly looking for good fiction that is not filled with rape, death of children, generally morose characters, etc.

PP’s comment about the Poisonwood Bible….i loved the first half of it. I was so gutted by the end part that I had to give up reading for a while afterward. So I haven’t dared reading her new one!

I’m the same way. I end up re reading Jane Austen or something sometimes because I’m afraid of newer books. FWIW- don’t follow the advice above me for “a little life”. Not a classic , it’s literally like porn for someone who wants to read horrible things happening to someone. I truly side eye anyone who thinks it’s a good book because I think it speaks to something dark in their character.

I recommended A Little Life because from a literary standpoint it was beautifully written and offered a window into, yes pain and suffering, but also friendship. Your take is yours alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since 2015:

Paul Auster (RIP): 4 3 2 1
Claire Keegan: Foster
Maggie O’Farrell: Hamnet
Barbara Kingsolver: Demon Copperhead

I absolutely loved 4-3-2-1 and Foster. I just finished basically everything Claire Keegan has written.

I don't think those will be well known enough even though I agree with you, taste-wise.

[Anonymous]

Already mentioned, but what comes to mind for me-

Middlesex
Never Let Me Go
Corrections

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Surprise for all those votes for Life of Pi. I thought it was good but not a classic really. My kid is reading it in HS English though.

What about Jonathan Strange and Mr Norre? I really liked that when I read it.

This is also a little off topic, but can anyone tell me which of the suggested books are least depressing? I’ve had to swear off a lot of real literature because it really affects my mood. It’s like seasonal affective disorder but with literature. So I am constantly looking for good fiction that is not filled with rape, death of children, generally morose characters, etc.

PP’s comment about the Poisonwood Bible….i loved the first half of it. I was so gutted by the end part that I had to give up reading for a while afterward. So I haven’t dared reading her new one!

Actually isn't reading a book in HS English the definition of a classic to some degree? It's sitting alongside Austen, Shakespeare et al

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:omg none of those listed above. You guys are reading absolute trash. go back to the classics and stop wasting your brains

Any suggestions?

DP but 19th century British Classic literature for starters: all of Trollope, Brontë Sisters, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, William Thackeray, Jane Austen. Then move on to Zoya and Balzac. I wish I wasn’t stuck in eternal reread mode.

Guess it explains why you did not read the question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homegoing. A Fine Balance.

I was going to mention both these books. A Fine Balance really stayed with me and I thought about that book for a long time.

A Fine Balance 100%. I’m surprised it’s not talked about more on this site. Absolutely amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
North Woods by Daniel Mason

Agree with A Fine Balance, but it was published in the 1990s.

Ha! I was writing my post before you replied, and we have some good overlap. (I also meant to add “Never Let Me Go”!)

I love your list too! I tried to think of some that filled a new niche or updated a niche. Wolf Hall with a new take on historical fiction, Gilead as the midwestern American religious vibe, the inventiveness of Lincoln in the Bardo, sci-fi dystopian but literary Ishiguro, and North Woods with setting as a link through generations plus the ecological piece.

I should have added something by Adichie - maybe Half a Yellow Sun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since 2015:

Paul Auster (RIP): 4 3 2 1
Claire Keegan: Foster
Maggie O’Farrell: Hamnet
Barbara Kingsolver: Demon Copperhead

I absolutely loved 4-3-2-1 and Foster. I just finished basically everything Claire Keegan has written.

I don't think those will be well known enough even though I agree with you, taste-wise.

What are some you’ve loved, since we have similar taste? Others can feel free to ignore.

[Anonymous]

I’ll add Sing, unburied, sing
Station 11
Nothing to see here
2666 or the savage detectives

[Anonymous]

Adding Milkman by Anna Burns

I also loved Station 11

[Anonymous]

All of these are missing the mark. I’ve enjoyed many of the books suggested (Namesake is my favorite, adored Middlex, Hamnet was a page turner)…but would they be considered classics? No.

Maybe there’s nothing?

[Anonymous]

Interesting- Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy will make the cut, but Beloved and Blood Meridian were both published in the 1980’s. Agree with Ishiguro Kazo- perhaps The Buried Giant?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homegoing. A Fine Balance.

I was going to mention both these books. A Fine Balance really stayed with me and I thought about that book for a long time.

A Fine Balance 100%. I’m surprised it’s not talked about more on this site. Absolutely amazing.

It’s been a couple of years since I read it and I still think about it all the time.

[Anonymous]

If A Little Life has no haters, I’m dead. I passionately hate that fckn book.

[Anonymous]

Olive Kitteridge