What 21st century literature do you think will become a classic in the future?
What 21st century literature do you think will become a classic in the future?
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What 21st century literature do you think will become a classic in the future?
All the Light we can not see
This was my choice too. Just finished it.
Gaiman’s “American Gods”.
Or Good Omens.
Good question. Have to think about it!
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
yes!
@Kristy I have my doubts about that. Loved the art and the characters based in N.Y. The mother was essential. LasVegas and the dad was relevant. The second meeting with Boris seemed to disconnect with the rest of the story. time spent in Amsterdam was jumbled, then a storybook ending afterwards didn’t seem plausible.
Some of the books Ian Mcewan wrote… also the MaddAddam trilogy by Atwood.
I think Pillars of the Earth is from 20th century, but that whole trilogy will one day be as popular as Lord of the Rings.
ATONEMENT for sure!
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
The Book Thief
Barbara Kingsolver books
Harry! duh ?
I think Harry Potter is already there
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Roberto Bolano. 2666. Maybe Kate Atkinson, Haruki Murakami.
Stargirl by Spinelli
Omg Yes!!!! Love this book!
Ordinary Grace.
Lincoln in the Bardo
Life of Pi
hmmm, good question – not sure…..
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Kitchen House
Loved it
Wow, the pickings look slim to me. I don’t feel the same depth in contemporary literature as I do in earlier lit. The best I can think of is Everything is Illuminated, something by Murakami, Egger’s What is the What
I agree. Some good books but not up to the level of previous classics
That depends on where you’re looking. It’s true that there’s not often a lot of depth in the fiction that is domesticated by the Big Six, but that’s why I mainly read stuff published by independent and university presses. It’s not a guarantee of quality, but it’s at least a change from the rather homogeneous fare provided by the larger publishers.
Good point…
The pickings are indeed slim so far, since we’re only in the second decide of this century. Murakami does have promise.
Also, when I look at the titles in the emails from Amazon and new releases at the library, there do seem to be less meaty books than there used to be. Are people reading less? Do they spend more time using social media and watching TV and less time with a book?
Reading What is the What now.
The wind up Bird chronicles?
I’ve always thought questions like these were very interesting and thought-provoking. It depends on the qualifications of a “classic.” Is it based on being a prolific writer, a la Stephen King and Nora Roberts or if the story has meaning that resonates with the masses? Remember that a lot of classic authors were just writing to entertain but have since become part of “the classics.” Honestly, I would put the majority of Stephen King books on a classics list.
I think what becomes a “classic” does so because something in it speaks to timeless aspects of human nature; it’s like the meat in the shell of the story. Also, good writing doesn’t hurt…
A classic might not have been written by a prolific writer (look at Harper Lee). They might have been popular with the masses when written (like Dickens) or not “discovered” as a classic until after their death (like Hurston). So anything is up for grabs. Yeah, I’m positive that at least one Stephen King will be taught as a classic some day.
@Eileen Maybe The Talisman
I was thinking Salem’s Lot.
@Katie I think “Salem’s Lot” was first published as a serial novel in the magazine Cosmo, if I remember correctly…
@Eileen, just like Dickens! It’s a sign!
Sing, Unburied Sing
Harry Potter
Agree
Close enough! ?
@Charlotte the last Harry Potter book was released in 2007, so they span 2 centuries.
Harry Potter
I’d like to see “Erasure” by Percival Everett recognized as a classic, but I fear very much that an experimental novel first published by a university press (UPNE), picked up for a time by a major publisher (Hachette), then just as quickly dropped when it proved unsalable, and finally moved to a small independent press (Graywolf) is not likely to attain the status of a classic. Nevertheless, it fully deserves the accolade. It’s a combination satire on academic obscurantism (the opening section that parodies Barthes’ S/Z is hilarious), a touching family drama, a wickedly funny parody of urban fiction and “Native Son” in particular, and a meditation on what it means to be “black enough” in America. It’s truly a seven-layer cake of a novel.
Another book that I think is absolutely brilliant is Michel Houllebecq’s “Submission”. I read this back-to-back in a single day with Allie Brosh’s “Hyperbole and a Half” (and that’s another book that deserves to become a classic of the humor genre, at least) and I’d be hard-pressed to say which one was funnier. Houllebecq’s book is an acidly drawn satire of an anomic, middle-class European loser, an expert on the 19th/20th century decadent writer Joris-Karl Huysmans who exists at the periphery of the Sorbonne, and who finds himself adapting quite happily to the establishment of an Islamic theocracy in France, even though he drinks like a fish and phones up escorts for sex. Lacking any principles of his own, he drifts with the prevailing tide and finds that Islamic theocracy is as good a set of principles as any other. At the same time a patriarchy is being established, or at least reconstituted in a different form with mandatory veiling for women and segregation by sex, the main male character is so obviously undeserving of its benefits that it’s difficult to see it in any terms other than a critique. I don’t know how a male-authored novel could skewer male self-interest more viciously.
I think Allie Brosh’s depiction of mental illness in “Hyperbole and a Half” may be the best I’ve come across. I’ve shown it to many people to help them understand exactly what I go through. I think it could be an excellent teaching tool…
@Deborah thanks for the recommendation. Just ordered from my library.
There are other parts unrelated to depression that are ok, & her depression resolution os unusual, but, her description of her experience was so like mine; it helped me show those around me that I’m not just “lazy”…
I have heard of neither. But if they are well written and resonate with enough people, they might be “discovered” at some point in the future.
Gentleman in Moscow
Shadow of the Wind.
The Help? The Art of Racing in the Rain? The Book Thief? The Martian?
The Martian is a good possibility. As with so many classic sci-fi novels, readers might enjoy comparing how close the author got to the reality of colonization of another planet.
Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie
The Joy Luck Club
I’m not sure enough time has elapsed in the 21st Century to judge this.
Well, there were plenty of 20th century authors from the early 1900s to become classics like H G Wells, Kipling, Joseph Conrad, E. M.Forster. D.H Lawrence, G. K. Chesterton, and so on. So the future classic authors are percolating as we discuss this.
OK..then, I choose Ishiguro
This is the first good answer I have seen to this question.
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Such a good question… I think Americanah by Adichie
Harry Potter series…
Yes… Harry Potter- for all ages in so many wonderful formats: Yes??
The Help, Harry Potter, Wicked
For the 21st century I’d say The Lovely Bones and The Hunger Games.
Hunger Games yes. Havent read Bones yet.
@Kathy it’s really good. Sad. But good.
Harry Potter– without a doubt.
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY was 1989 but I had to mention it.
Robopocalypse
Fire in Beulah by Rilla Askew. Brilliant.
Fire in Beulah.
Something by Sherman Alexie. Any of his books, including his YA stuff is brilliant. And he is still churning it out.
Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Epic.
Snow Falling on Cedars
Ditto. Forgot that one. Snow Falling on Cedars is a worthwhile read.
I think it’s 20th century though.
@Vickie oops. U r right.
Oops 20th century
A Man Called Ove
Absolutely loved this book.
A Handmaids Tale.
Probably right. It really speaks to our current mindset.
@Alissa yes. .. unfortunately
Harry Potter
Homegoing
Beartown
Ann Rice, maybe….?
Her novels seem to be evolving form the supernatural to the religious.
@Eileen true. I noticed that as well
Yeah…but that first one hit you….bam!
Lol☺
The Kite Runner
Any of Kahled Hosseini’s books.
Yes! I loved all three.
Books by Zadie Smith and “Lincoln in the Bardo” by Saunders.
John Irving
Middlesex by Euginides. Such a far seeing beautiful novel. My fave.
I might be cheating by a few years, but how about Tuesday’s With Morrie?
anything by Mitch Albom; probably
I think Harry Potter will be the Narnia of our generation… actually it already is.
Wouldn’t go that far.
Catherynne M. Valente’s Fairyland series. The writing is so imaginative and beautiful! Also The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, same reason 🙂
I love that several people on this site have mentioned The Night Circus, one of my favorites.
“All the Light We Cannot See”
The Outsiders
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Great question!
The Robichaux series by James Lee Burke and Fay by Larry Brown
The girl who loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
The Book Thief, Ordinary Grace, Barbara Kingsolver’s Bean Tree series, The Goldfinch, A Little Life, The Thorn Birds. Those are the ones that came right to mind.
The Game of Thrones series.
The author never finished the series. Not good . ?
Gone Girl. It really started a whole need demand for the genre
The Harry Potter Series. I believe JK Rowling is the Dickens of our time!
The Kite Runner
Loved this book
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Hate U Give, Harry Potter. An American Marriage.
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Haruki Murakami’s books.
The Stand
Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Tolles.
The Hate U Give
The Illuminaries.
21st. The known world.
Wonder
Mortal Engines.
The Book Thief
Definitely Stephen King’s writings!
The Harry Potter series!
The definition of a classic is a book which people keep going back to so I believe all of those on the 100 great reads list are classics.
Well yeah, but almost none of the titles on that list are 21st century literature.
@Eileen I found 15 of them from 21st century.
That many? Who would have thunk it! All your suggestions below for future classics will keep tomorrow’s high schoolers busy for a long, long time! 😉
Water for Elephants, Glass Castle, The Secret Life of Bees, Divergent, Me Before You, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Cutting for Stone, A Man Called Ove, Orphan Train, Still Alice, Invention of Wings, Unbroken, Defending Jacob, Room, Sara’s Key, Little Fires Everywhere, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Before We Were Yours, The Great Alone, The Storied Life of A.J.FIkrey, Unbroken, Beneath A Scarlet Sky, and The 100 year old Man Climbs out the WIndow and Disappears.
Also what about Turtles all the Way Down, Speak, The Goldfinch, When Breath Becomes Air, andThose Who Save Us.
Sarah’s Key, The Book Thief, The Help, Unbroken, The Kite Runner, The Other Boleyn Girl.
Wow, Ro Hronchak, all great choices you mentioned!
Twilight Series
Belle Canto by Ann Patchett l
Harry Potter Series.
This Much I Know is True by Wally Lamb
All the LIght We Cannot See
A visit from the goon squad
Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth trilogy (though the first one was in the 1980s).
Also, Big Little Lies…..The Wife……Memoirs of a Geisha…..Atonement……Possibly Call me by Your Name
The wife is from the 90s
@Gwen Oh, is it? I didn’t realize. I just assumed that since the movie just came out, it was more recent.
@Ryan yeah I read it in grad school and loved it! Can’t wait to see the movie!
anything by Rohinton @My
The Sparrow and Children of God by M. Doria Russel
A book that has never been mentioned in here: Ella Minnow Pea, it’s a great little read and is about censorship.
All the Light We Cannot See…just Wow!
I read Ella Minnow Pea. Loved it.
I loved that book too! I donate most books I’ve read to the library used book room, but that’s one I simply can’t part with!
@Eileen, me too!!
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan. The Roundhouse, by Louise Erdrich. The Blind Assassn, Margaret Atwood. Tenth of December: Stories, Saunders.