I was wondering if you've got any recommendations for contemporary American fiction
Middlesex by Jefferey Eugenides (he wrote
The Virgin Suicides, if you haven't heard of him). It's a look at the three generations of a Greek family who come to America as refugees from the Greece-Turkey conflict. As the title kinda suggests, another main plot point is sexual identity,
*Pointed response*
I'll say that before I read the book, I had no idea that there were Gleek enclaves in Turkey, though now that I think about it it makes perfect sense. The parts of the book that touch upon racial issues - discrimination by auto companies and riots - are definitely an illuminating insight into Detroit.
Middlesex is also probably the best look I'll get at a largely invisible portion of the population unless I suddenly discover I am part of that population or I switch my major yet again.
Really, that's what good literature is. A dramatic insight into another setting. I wonder what our collective impression of the Holocaust would be without someone like Elie Wiesel? We'd still be aware of the facts, but you can't really even begin to understand - of course, anyone who wasn't there can never fully understand - the terribleness of it unless you hear a personal account of it. And literary works like
Night have helped do that (And if any non-readers have ever wondered - that's why characterization is so important).
Hanging out with Dostoyevsky for a week in Moscow would be great, but it's really not possible. The next best thing I can do is read his works and through them derive understanding and personal enrichment.
Now I'm wondering how contemporary is modern enough. Are the '80s good? I'm trying to drop William Kennedy's name in here,
Ironweed is great.
What else is there?
Gilead is fantastic. Is Philip Roth contemporary? His last one,
Everyman was short, but I liked it a lot.
Neil Gaiman's
American Gods is great. It's basically about the old gods of European legends immigrating to America and fighting off the indigenous American gods like computers, credit cards, etc. There's a nice little allegory there. His last book was
Anansi Boys, I think. I haven't read it, but I've heard good things.
Shit, I just remembered - Colson Whitehead is definitely worth mentioning.
The Intuitionist, which I believe was his first book, is fantastic. It's funny - the book is about two rival philosophies into the art of inspecting elevators - but it's also a pretty deep look into race. It was definitely one of those books that at the end I was like "Oh shit!" and had to reread again in light of what I'd just realized to try to glean what I'd missed. He also has a new one out,
Apex Hides the Hurt. I liked it quite a bit - it's about a small town that's blowing up in a New Economy kind of way that hires a guy to rename the town to make it more marketable.
