I wasn't going to post on this, as the topic has already made the rounds. I first came across this NYT article on Dorothy's blog. I was more concerned with the actual list of top American fiction rather than who chose the books or what A.O. Scott had to say about them. Ah, I thought, more books I haven't read yet again, and more books by men, and then put the list from my mind. I finally got around to actually reading the essay, which was sort of interesting.
"IS this quantitative evidence for the decline of American letters - yet another casualty of the 60's? Or is the American literary establishment the last redoubt of elder-worship in a culture mad for youth? In sifting through the responses, I was surprised at how few of the highly praised, boldly ambitious books by younger writers - by which I mean writers under 50 - were mentioned."
Kim also posted about this, and there were some interesting comments following her post. I get the sense that Kim has a fairly international readership, so I found the comments telling. What do other people think of American literature? Is it really in a sad state? Does it matter? Should I care? I say this because I tend to just read what I feel like, award winning novel or not. Of the winning authors I have never considered reading Don Delillo (am I missing out?--and I don't say that to be cocky, but out of curiosity), I really have not wanted to read any of Updike's Rabbit novels, and have just recently considered reading Philip Roth. There were only two women on the list, but I have read both of them (as opposed to a mere two of the male authors out of how many?, and one of them wasn't even the novel chosen). I have seen comments made by non-American bloggers saying they don't like American literature as it is boring (and I am paraphrasing as I can't find the comment now). I also read an article (and again I can't find it, but I think it might have been in The Guardian, about who is currently writing the best books, and it was not only women, but mainly British women writing the really good books--does anyone else remember this article?).
So this has made me think over the last few days. I choose books that sound good irregardless who is writing them (though I will say I do tend to choose female authors over male authors, but this is not always consciously done). Out of my current reads Kate Mosse, Muriel Spark, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Elizabeth Ironside are British, Amy Hassinger, Elizabeth Gilbert, Evan Kuhlman, and Paul Bowles are American--half and half, but not a single international author. So I am not entirely sure what to think, but I hate to think that American authors of the last 25 years have not been writing really good books. I am sure I could look at my bookshelves and pick out many who I consider excellent writers that didn't make this list (though can't we all). Perhaps I need to take another look at some of the authors on this list that I hadn't considered reading up until now--maybe I am missing out on something really good. And It would be interesting to see which contemporary authors are being taught in high schools and colleges these days, and why.