The Best Fiction

It's always difficult to name the "best" in literature. Awards try to do it. Newspapers at the end of each year and decade try to do it. It's always controversial because what speaks to people is so highly subjective and you'll getting people to agree to one offering or one list can be a Herculean task.

That didn't stop the New York Times from attempting to determine what was the best piece of American fiction for the past 25 years. They consulted critics, editors, and writers and asked them to come up with the single best piece of fiction.

The winner? Toni Morrison's Beloved.

The runners-up were Underworld by Don DeLillo, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels by John Updike, and American Pastoral by Philip Roth.

They list other books that received multiple votes as well. They make a decent reading list and it will be interesting to see whether time upholds

posted by Book Help Web Editorial Team at 7:33 AM |