I did a search and I don’t think this topic has been done.
Very simply, who are your top five favorite novelists? I’ve read most everything my top five have written, so my purpose here is somewhat selfish. I’m looking for new novelists to read.
Here are my top five:
Larry McMurtry: I will read Lonesome Dove when I’m on my deathbed, if I have a choice. His characters live in my mind long after I read his work.
Pat Conroy: Author of The Prince of Tides, The Lords of Discipline, The Great Santini, Beach Music. I haven’t read South of Broad yet. Conroy is, in my opinion, the most gifted wordsmith in America.
John Irving: Author of The World According to Garp, Cider-House Rules, and A Prayer for Owen Meany. I love Irving’s weird, interesting characters. With most books, I fall asleep in 5-10 pages, but I read 20-30 pages of Irving before I get drowsy.
Annie Proulx: She’s a short story writer these days, and I love her short stories, but damn she wrote a fine novel in The Shipping News. I also liked That Old Ace in the Hole a lot.
Jim Harrison: Old Jim writes novellas about 100 pages or so in length, but I’m including him here. I’ve read his stories over and over again. He’s probably the author whose male characters I relate to the most.
I also read Nick Hornby, Ian McEwan, Dickens, Graham Greene, AC Doyle, Murakami, and several Chinese authors, but I’m an American , and the novelists I list here speak my language better than any other writers I’ve read.
Martin Amis - I love his unabashedly profane take on life.
JM Coetzee - “In the Heart of The Country”, “Dusklands” and “Waiting For The Barbarians” are simply three of the greatest books ever written.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - The true master of Magical Realism. Can make the mundane sparkle like drunken fireflies.
Phillip Roth - The greatest living American writer. And “Portnoy’s Complaint” is the only book that makes me scream with laughter even after the 10th reading.
Salman Rushdie - Never quite lived up to his promise after “Midnight’s Children”, but that book alone is enough for me.
I almost listed Louis L’Amour too, but I haven’t read him for years. Loved him as a kid though. I do like some of London’s work, same thing with Twain. I didn’t realize that TR was a novelist.
John Irving
John Updike
Bret Easton Ellis
James Joyce
John Nichols
One I’ve been meaning to look up is Robert Stone. I read one of his a while back, Dog Soldiers, that was great. He’s on my list. Updike is a bit hit and miss for me, but his good stuff is amazing. Rabbit series and anything related to religion a good starting point. American Psycho was just stunning for me, Ellis’s other stuff is quite different but very laugh out loud for me, like Irving is. Joyce, what more can you say. John Nichols has some great stuff, very under-regarded in my opinion. I’d start with Conjugal Bliss–if it’s even still in print! Robert Jordan gets a mention here, currently reading through his outstanding fantasy series thanks to Urodacus. He could have been on the list above, along with Tolkein for that matter.
TR wrote “The Winning of The West”. It was a great book, and based much on real life experience. TR was a pretty good cowboy, amongst all of the other great stuff he did.
[quote=“jimipresley”][quote=“Tempo Gain”]
James Joyce[/quote]
You must be a very clever lad, Tempo Gain. Most people just SAY they’ve read Joyce. [/quote]
Portrait of an Artist and the parts of Ulysses I could read but that’s enough. I had a bit of Jesuit education which might be influencing me
[quote=“Tempo Gain”][quote=“jimipresley”][quote=“Tempo Gain”]
James Joyce[/quote]
You must be a very clever lad, Tempo Gain. Most people just SAY they’ve read Joyce. [/quote]
Portrait of an Artist and the parts of Ulysses I could read but that’s enough. I had a bit of Jesuit education which might be influencing me [/quote]
So you never grappled with “Finnegan’s Wake”? You LIGHTWEIGHT, you!
John Irving
Tom Wolfe
Salman Rushdie (with basically the same reasoning as jimipresley)
John Steinbeck (although I haven’t read him in over a decade)
Dennis Lehane (his standalone’s not his series ones).
Heck, it’s really hard to name a top five! On any given day, instead of the ones I posted, it could be Alan Moore, Irvine Welsh, Peter Carey, Ian McEwan and Joseph Conrad.
At the risk of offending someone, I will add that IMO the most OVERRATED writer is Ian Banks.
but that’s enough. I had a bit of Jesuit education which might be influencing me