This is going to sound a little bit like a loaded question, though it is not meant to be. I'm a pretty equal opportunity reader and am happy to read a little bit of a lot of different kinds of books. Lately, though, I tend towards comfort reads, which is not to say there aren't some very well done comfort reads (and I have had a string of good reads lately, too). But I feel like I neglect contemporary fiction far too much, and literary fiction seems to end up in my to be read piles without actually ever being read.
So this is a tricky question. I'm looking for some literary fiction to read. I realize "literary fiction" can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people, and genre fiction can be literary, too. So I have gone in search of a definition and Wikipedia describes it as:
" . . . a term principally used for certain fictional that hold literary merit. In other words, they are works that offer deliberate social commentary, political criticism or focus on the individual to explore some part of the human condition. Literary fiction is deliberately written in dialogue with existing works created with the above aims in mind. Literary fiction is focused more on themes than on plot."
That may or not be helpful, but it seems literary fiction is a term everyone understands even if readers have a slightly different take on the books the term encompasses. I'm sort of thinking along the lines of award winners, but not exclusively. There are so many authors I Should Have Read by now, but haven't. I almost hang my head in shame by admitting some of them--like Anne Tyler, or Hilary Mantel or Jane Smiley or Jonathan Franzen or Philip Roth or . . .
So, here is the question--if you could choose two or three contemporary (and what exactly is contemporary? --the last 25 years or so?) authors (or particular books) that everyone should read, who would they be? I'm waiting for a few books to come in the mail including Anne Tyler's latest (which seems to be on every prize list) as well as last year's Booker winner by Richard Flanagan, but for the short term have narrowed the choice down to The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (shortlisted for the Booker, winner of the Costa, the James Tait and Irish Book awards), Academy Street by Mary Costello (Irish Book Award, Costa shortlist), Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler (Orange Prize shortlist), and Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver (Pen/USA West Fiction award, Edward Abbey Ecofiction award). Maybe I'll close my eyes, shuffle the books and randomly pick one up to read now.
Suggestions always welcome, of course.