21st Century Literature discussion

It's time for everyone to throw out their suggestions for our April 2013 Open Pick read. Everyone is allowed one nomination, but remember that eligible books must be works of fiction published from 2000-2013. As usual, selections that are overly genre or fail to meet the group standards of literary quality will not be permitted in the final poll.

Nominations will wrap up on March 8th and the poll will run for about a week following. Happy nominating!

Are biographies eligible for nomination as "other fine literature"? (I believe a biography of David Foster Wallace has been among the selections?)

If so, I nominate My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor.

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

Published in 2008, it won the PEN/Faulkner in 2009 and was nominated for the Man Booker in 2008.

From the review:

Netherland gives us both a flawlessly drawn picture of a little-known New York and a story of much larger, and brilliantly achieved ambition: the grand strangeness and fading promise of 21st century America from an outsider’s vantage point, and the complicated relationship between the American dream and the particular dreamers. Most immediately, though, it is the story of one man--of a marriage foundering and recuperating in its mystery and ordinariness, of the shallows and depths of male friendship, of mourning and memory. Joseph O’Neill’s prose, in its conscientiousness and beauty, involves us utterly in the struggle for meaning that governs any single life.

Lily: I admit that the distinction between fiction and fine literature in our masthead certainly does allow for some ambiguity—especially when a DFW biography appears on our bookshelf. That biography was selected for a special reading event last October where all of our usual restrictions on genre or non-fiction were cast to the wind. If we decide to make that an annual event, I would love to see My Beloved World among the nominees.

Until that time, however, only works of fiction will be eligible for our monthly nominations (although there are certainly some biographies I've read that would fit in that category as well...).

Is there another book that you would like to nominate?

Well, I for one am glad that Netherland looks awesome. Because as the only nominee it's got a pretty good chance of sweeping this thing.

I'd love to read Netherland. Be nice to see some more nominations though.

We do need some competition. I nominate
Telegraph Avenue, by Michael Chabon.

Oh, rats. I was hoping for a clean sweep.

Too easy that way!

I'd like to read The Dinner by Herman Koch. Everybody's been praising it... The library copies have been checked out from day one, I'd like to know what all the fuss is about!

Daniel wrote: "Until that time, however, only works of fiction will be eligible for our monthly nominations (although there are certainly some biographies I've read that would fit in that category as well...)

LOL!

Is there another book that you would like to nominate?

Thought I responded. But I guess I sidestepped to something else without posting. Thanks for the offer, Daniel, but the other nominations look strong. I'm still rather immersed in Paradiso , finishing Shirley , and trying to spend some time on some other readings, including Sonia.

I'm pretty excited about a few 21st Century books on my shelf right now, but probably chief among them is Laurent Binet's HHhH:



"Two men have been enlisted to kill the head of the Gestapo. This is Operation Anthropoid, Prague, 1942: two Czechoslovakian parachutists sent on a daring mission by London to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Nazi secret services, 'the hangman of Prague', 'the blond beast', 'the most dangerous man in the Third Reich'.

His boss is Heinrich Himmler but everyone in the SS says 'Himmler's brain is called Heydrich', which in German spells HHhH.

All the characters in HHhH are real. All the events depicted are true. But alongside the nerve-shredding preparations for the attack runs another story: when you are a novelist writing about real people, how do you resist the temptation to make things up?

HHhH is a panorama of the Third Reich told through the life of one outstandingly brutal man, a story of unbearable heroism and loyalty, revenge and betrayal. It is improbably entertaining and electrifyingly modern, a moving and shattering work of fiction."

I found this Amazon comment very interesting about the book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R29LYN...

There seems to be a lot of buzz around it right now, and it seems right up my street in terms of playing around with what it actually is and defying categorisation.

I'm pretty sure it still counts as a novel, though.

I would like to nominate The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna

This book won The Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 2011 and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize the same year.

"The Memory of Love is a towering tale of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, superbly realised and beautifully written, horrifying and exhilarating, unflinching and tender, moving and uplifting. It is the story of four lives colliding; a story about friendship, about understanding, absolution and the indelible effects of the past; about journeys and dreams and loss, and about the very nature of love."

Set in Sierra Leone before and after the Civil War, it is a haunting story of obsessive love, of one human being for another and for a country torn apart. Beautifully written, this author is an exceptional talent.

So much for that clean sweep... ;o)

After things were looking like we might have a clean sweep for Thing Two's nomination, we ended up with yet another embarrasment of riches on our hands. It's certainly going to be a tough choice this month!

P.S. Terry: We had a little mod huddle on HHhH, and we agree that it counts as a fictional novel. No worries on that front.

Ana wrote: "I would like to nominate The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna

This book won The Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 2011 and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize ..."

Okay, this is currently my favorite book! One of the few I've read twice. If my nomination doesn't sweep up at the polls, I'll be just as happy if this one does.

Our poll is up. Everyone please come and vote.

And the winner of the poll is HHhH! Be sure to grab a copy and join us in the discussion!

Nice pick here too, I've just found out that last year HHhH was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (a prize I hugely respect). I really hope I'll be able to join you all ;)!

We hope so, too!