21–30 of 97 posts
Pynchon. DeLillo. McCarthy. Roth...
Edit: Morrison. Updike. Mailer...
> "Donna Tartt, one of the best American novelists to emerge in the last 50 years, has published just three novels since 1992. Jonathan Franzen, the only American novelist who is her equal." Pynchon. DeLillo. McCarthy. Roth... Edit: Morrison. Updike. Mailer...
> "Donna Tartt, one of the best American novelists to emerge in the last 50 years, has published just three novels since 1992. Jonathan Franzen, the only American novelist who is her equal." Pynchon. DeLillo. McCarthy. Roth... Edit: Morrison. Updike. Mailer...
I'd take Philip K Dick over all of them put together.
> "Donna Tartt, one of the best American novelists to emerge in the last 50 years, has published just three novels since 1992. Jonathan Franzen, the only American novelist who is her equal." Pynchon. DeLillo. McCarthy. Roth... Edit: Morrison. Updike. Mailer...
*edit: I didn’t read the quote carefully. Looks like he really is saying those two are the best American novelists, full stop. Bold and kind of interesting statement on King’s part.
I'm reminded of Lovecraft, who would use a thesaurus to pad his paid-by-the-word word counts by inserting various adjectives that sounded scary but didn't actually mean anything in context.
I hadn't heard the postulate "one being that the more one writes, the less remarkable one’s work is apt to be" before. I suppose that outside the world of the literary criticism, there's a bit of an opposite feeling: If you're great, you probably have a reasonably large body of work. A while back, a friend and I both bought a copy of the complete works of Lovecraft; a single volume. It's a pretty thick book, but I wa…
> "Donna Tartt, one of the best American novelists to emerge in the last 50 years, has published just three novels since 1992. Jonathan Franzen, the only American novelist who is her equal." Pynchon. DeLillo. McCarthy. Roth... Edit: Morrison. Updike. Mailer...
Roth didn’t emerge in the last 50 years (otherwise I’d agree with you).* I’ve enjoyed books by all six but I agree with King on this one. The Goldfinch was, page for page, probably the best reading experience I’ve ever had. I adore that book. Franzen is less lovable but undeniably talented and, for me at least, more fun to read than the people who influenced him (Pynchon, DeLillo, etc) *edit: I didn’t read the quote…
> "Donna Tartt, one of the best American novelists to emerge in the last 50 years, has published just three novels since 1992. Jonathan Franzen, the only American novelist who is her equal." Pynchon. DeLillo. McCarthy. Roth... Edit: Morrison. Updike. Mailer...
I'd take Philip K Dick over all of them put together.
> "Donna Tartt, one of the best American novelists to emerge in the last 50 years, has published just three novels since 1992. Jonathan Franzen, the only American novelist who is her equal." Pynchon. DeLillo. McCarthy. Roth... Edit: Morrison. Updike. Mailer...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was wondering the same thing, so I read his book "On Writing" a few weeks ago. I figured there might be some good take-aways for writing software since there seems to be some skill overlap. Here are my (crappy) notes: * The golden rule: read a lot, write a lot. * Have a place for only writing and concentrating. Do nothing else there. * Everyone has an innate talent ceiling. A good writer won't progress beyond being…
> One thing that struck me is how much he reads. He had a list of suggested books to read in the back page, and there were probably hundreds Here's the list, from the ebook I have at least: - Abrahams, Peter: A Perfect Crime - Abrahams, Peter: Lights Out - Abrahams, Peter: Pressure Drop - Abrahams, Peter: Revolution #9 - Agee, James: A Death in the Family - Bakis, Kirsten: Lives of the Monster Dogs - Barker, Pat: Reg…
> "Donna Tartt, one of the best American novelists to emerge in the last 50 years, has published just three novels since 1992. Jonathan Franzen, the only American novelist who is her equal." Pynchon. DeLillo. McCarthy. Roth... Edit: Morrison. Updike. Mailer...
DeLillo - Born 1936, published first short story in 1960, novel in 1971
McCarthy - Born 1933, first short story published 1959, novel 1965
Roth - Born 1933, won award for "Goodbye, Columbus" in 1959
Updike - Born 1932, first published in 50's and 60s
Morrison - Born 1931, first published in 1970
Mailer - Born 1923, first published in 1949
Remember that 50 years ago (from the time this was written) is 1965. Morrison is the only author you mentioned that doesn't have published works from before 50 years ago, and even then she still belongs to that same generation.
King wasn't trying to slight any of them. It's just really has been a very long time.
Edit: To compare, Tartt was born in 1963 and Franzen in 1959. I think this is really the generation he is referring to.