10 works of contemporary American writers

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Vonnegut's autobiographical novel, Martin's fantasy, the story of life after the Foer terrorist attack, and seven more books that deserve a place on your bookshelf.

1. "Sinlessness" by Jonathan Franzen

Sinlessness became a real sensation last year: it is called the most scandalous and most Russian novel by Franzen. Discussions about acute social problems, the totalitarian nature of the Internet, feminism and politics are intertwined with a deep, very personal history of one family.

In life, a young girl named Pip has a complete mess: she does not know her father, she cannot pay off her debt for her studies, she does not know how to build relationships, she goes to boring work. But her life changes dramatically when she becomes an assistant to the hacker Andreas Wolfe, who most of all loves to publicly reveal other people's secrets.

2. "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Richard Peypen recalls his student years at a closed college in Vermont: he and several of his companions took an eccentric teacher's private class on ancient culture. One trick of an elite circle of students ended in murder, which only at first glance went unpunished.

After the incident, other secrets of the heroes are revealed, which lead to new tragedies in their lives.

3. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Ellis's most famous novel is already considered a modern classic. The protagonist is Patrick Bateman, a handsome, wealthy and seemingly intelligent young man from Wall Street. But behind the good looks and expensive costumes hides greed, hatred and rage. At night, he tortures and kills people in the most sophisticated ways, without a system and without a plan.

4. "Terribly Loud and Extremely Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

A touching story from the face of a 9-year-old boy Oscar. His father was killed in one of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Examining his father's closet, Oscar finds a vase, and in it - a small envelope with the words "Black" and a key inside. Inspired and curious, Oscar is ready to go around all the Blacks in New York to find the answer to the riddle. This is a story about overcoming bereavement, New York after a disaster, and human kindness.

5. "It's Good to Be Quiet," Stephen Chbosky

"Catcher in the Rye" about modern adolescents - this is how critics dubbed Stephen Chbosky's book, which sold a million copies and was filmed by the author himself.

Charlie is a typical quiet man, a silent observer of what is happening, goes to high school. After a recent nervous breakdown, he closed in on himself. To overcome his inner experiences, he begins to write letters. Letters to a friend, an unknown person - the reader of this book. On the advice of his new friend Pete, he tries to become "not a sponge, but a filter" - to live life to the fullest, and not to watch it from the outside.

6. "The Watch", Michael Cunningham

The story of a day in the life of three women from different eras from a Pulitzer Prize winner. The fates of the British writer Virginia Woolf, the American housewife Laura from Los Angeles and the editor of the publishing house Clarissa Vaughan, at first glance, are connected only by the book - the novel "Mrs. Dalloway". But by the end, it becomes clear that the lives and problems of the heroines, despite all the external differences, are the same.

7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

Nick and Amazing Amy are the perfect match. But on the day of the fifth anniversary, Amy disappears from the house - there are all traces of the abduction. The whole city goes in search of the missing and empathizes with Nick, until Amy's diary falls into the hands of the police, because of which her husband becomes the main suspect in the murder. The main intrigue of the novel is who in this situation turned out to be the real victim.

Flynn's novel attracts with a non-standard look at modern marriage: partners marry beautiful projections of each other and then are very surprised when a living person is discovered behind an invented image, whom they do not know at all.

8. Slaughterhouse Five: Children's Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut

The writer's difficult military experience is reflected in this novel. Memories of the bombing in Dresden are shown through the eyes of the ridiculous timid soldier Billy Pilgrim - one of those foolish children who were thrown into a terrible war. But Vonnegut would not have been himself if he had not introduced an element of fiction into the novel: either due to post-traumatic stress disorder, or due to the intervention of aliens, Pilgrim learned to travel in time.

Despite the fantastic nature of what is happening, the message of the novel is quite real and clear: Vonnegut ridicules the stereotypes about "real men" and demonstrates the senselessness of wars.

9. "Sweetheart" by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature for bringing an important aspect of American reality to life in her "novels filled with dreams and poetry." And the novel "Beloved" was named one of the 100 best books in English by Time magazine.

The main character is the slave girl Sety, who, together with her children, escaped from the cruel masters and stayed free for only 28 days. When the pursuit catches up with Seti, she kills her daughter with her own hands - so that she does not know slavery and does not experience the same as her mother. The memory of the past and this terrible choice haunts Seti all her life.

10. A Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin

A fantasy epic about the magical world of the Seven Kingdoms, where the struggle for the Iron Throne does not stop, while a terrible winter is approaching the entire continent. Five novels out of the planned seven have been published so far. The remaining two parts await both fans of the writer's work and fans of "Game of Thrones" - a series based on the saga, which breaks all popularity records.