The New Classics

This week's Booking Through Thursday question asks what authors are going to last:

Do you think any current author is of the same caliber as Dickens, Austen, Bronte, or any of the classic authors? If so, who, and why do you think so? If not, why not? What books from this era might be read 100 years from now?

This is a graduate-level question. I mean, Dickens, Austen, and Bronte probably did not consider whether anyone would be reading their books 100 years later. And I like to think that all my favorite authors will retain their appeal, as unlikely as that would be. So how can we know? My stab in the dark list includes: Saul Bellow Ian McEwan John Irving My thinking is not subject to close scrutiny. It is not based on thorough knowledge because I have not read everything these authors wrote. Perhaps Bellow does not even qualify because his books already have some years on them and may not count as "this era." But I think that the books by these authors might last because they are character-driven, complex fiction, not tied to a particular period of time. Although the stories may include particular historical events, the books do not depend on those events. They are enjoyable because of the people in them and how those people relate to each other. For instance, I prefer John Updike to John Irving. But I wonder if his Rabbit books will carry the same charge 100 years from now. They so perfectly capture post-WWII America -- the sexual revolution, the Vietnam home front, all of it. But will readers 100 years from now care about, or be able to appreciate the nuances of, the shifting zeitgeist that so shaped Rabbit Angstrom's life? On the other hand, books like Irving's World According to Garp or A Prayer for Owen Meany, or Bellow's Herzog or Humbolt's Gift, are great stories that do not require the reader to have first-hand experience. Like with Dickens' books, there are a lot of characters doing a lot of stuff. These books are entertaining, but intricate. McEwan is more of a flyer, and a couple of his earlier books do not deserve to be read today, let alone 100 years from now. But I included him on the list for a couple of reasons. First, because books like Atonement fit in with the above description. Even though the book is set in a certain time and involves a particular battle, the story does not depend on those events. The story is about the people. Future readers can understand all they need to about the historical events from the book itself -- they do not need independent knowledge. Second, McEwan's books are particularly clever and give the reader some big ideas to chew on after the plot fades. If idea-based novels are going to survive, McEwan's will be among them. Enough. I wish I could be around to learn the real answer.

Review: The Tenderness of Wolves

In the late 1800s, the semi-frozen Canadian territory north of Sault Ste. Marie is no place to go wandering around with winter coming on.  Lakes and bogs are half frozen traps, snow storms obliterate trails and disorient travelers, and wolves are on the prowl.  But after a Scottish pioneer woman finds her trapper neighbor murdered in his cabin and her teen age son goes missing, she and a hodgepodge of others set of in various groups to solve – or cover up – the mystery.

There are several possible motives for the murder, everyone is a suspect, and side stories interweave themselves into the main tale.   But there are deeper levels to the book than simply solving a mystery.   As the characters track each other through the cold, bleak landscape, they ultimately find their own life paths.

 Stef Penney won the 2006 Costa Book of the Year Award for The Tenderness of Wolves. Part mystery, part adventure this is a smoothly written, complicated story that is sure to please readers looking for lots of plot but who want meat on the bones.

OTHER REVIEWS

Caribousmom

If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link to your post and I will add it.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Massacred for Gold

"I listened on a hot July morning in 2003 as a Snake River jetboat captain, idling his boat in front of a cove known as Deep Creek, told two dozen tourists the story, or at least a story, of what happened there in 1887." -- Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon by R. Gregory Nokes This is going to be a good one! It is a historical expose of the murder of over 30 Chinese workers in eastern Oregon, written by one of Oregon's most talented writers.

Teaser Tuesday: Sarah's Key

His eyes were such a pale shade of blue they seemed transparent under thick pink lids. As the group of officers passed them by, the tall thin man reached out with an endless, gray-swathed arm, and tweaked Sarah's ear.

-- Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay Book Club is tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about this one. Like with any first novel, I admire the heck out of the author simply for getting the story written and published. I think it is worth reading, but it is a little clumsy. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

While running errands this weekend, I made a quick stop at one of my favorite hidey-hole library book shops. This one is tucked away in the corner of a strip mall branch library and they sell everything for 50 cents -- hardback, paperback, pristine, or trashed, it is 50 cents. Worth a stop when I find myself out on the urban edges. So for my whopping $2, here is my Mailbox Monday list: The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth (as I continue gathering the Roth bibliography) The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (on the MLA's list of 30 Books Every Adult Should Read, among others, I'm sure) Sacred by Dennis Lehane (from his early Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro mystery series) The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (which I have always meant to read but never got around to it)