20th Century Literature

Well, since we have a 19th Century Literature thread, I thought I'd start one for the next century along, which also produced some books thought of as outstanding classics.

At the moment I'm listening to an audio book of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and am about to start reading The Graduate by Charles Webb.

What is it about books such as these that cause them to endure? Or have you read novels such as these and been completely unimpressed? Are there any in particular you would highly recommend, or avoid like the plague? Are you drawn to modern novels, or do you prefer the older classics?

Personally, I'm drawn to the early period of the 20th century, both pre-WWI (which is really the same period as the late 19th Century) and WWI to WWII. So many huge shifts happened right on top of each other. Industrialization, the decline of the aristocracy, the further collapse of colonialism and mercantilism, mechanized warfare.

I tend to think of the books after WWI as the start of 20th century literature in earnest. Two classics that come to mind to recommend if one hasn't read them yet (or in awhile) are All Quiet on the Western Front and The Sun Also Rises. Stylistically, the latter is a huge departure from what was being written just 15 years earlier, and thematically it sets the stage for the rest of the century. To what does an individual turn when all of the old social structures have proven irrelevant and impotent to deal with the new reality?

Other favorites:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (canon-ready)
Shogun (good clean adventure fun)

One to avoid in my opinion:
Atlas Shrugged (narrative reads like directions on a moist toilette packet)

I'm trying to think of other things I might have read from, say, 1970-2000, but I'm only coming up with pulp ... Ceremony was an interesting, well-crafted book. Hmmm, there must be others ...

Interesting point, I read both To Kill a Mockingbird and All Quiet on the Western Front as part of my high school curriculum. And unfortunately both teachers made the mistake of leaning more toward reading and discussing the books in class rather than letting us read the book on our own and discussing it afterwards, which ended up ruining the books for me. In fact, All Quiet on the Western Front draws a blank in my mind; I remember it not at all. And although I'm sure I would greatly appreciate To Kill a Mockingbird were I to read it on my own, having to do "class analysis" of it every couple chapters obliterated any chance there was of me being able to actually read and enjoy the book for what it was.
Buuuuuuuut, thankfully my last English teacher had his wits about him and let us actually read the material ourselves! And I do have to say I enjoyed Animal Farm and Death of a Salesman very much, albeit the latter was a play. Still counts at literature, no?

Edit: Hopefully this thread will bring as big of a spike in activity and memembership as the 19th-century thread did ;)

Ouch. In-class reading is horrible. Nothing like experiencing the classics as voiced by captive, nervous, disinterested readers.

I can remember once volunteering to read Chicago out loud in class just because the instructor couldn't read poetry to save her life. She always ruined the cadence or bounced along like she was reading limericks. "There once was a man from Chicago,"

I love most anything by what I think of as the Big Three: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and my personal favorite John Steinbeck. I'm glad to see these guys on required reading lists, because it keeps their works in print, but as others have said High School isn't the best place to read these classics. If your teacher isn't on the ball, they can come off as boring.

We read The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men in the Academy - fortunately, we had an excellent teacher who made them very exciting for us. I've never read any Hemmingway as yet, but I do plan on doing so, as well as reading more Steinbeck and Fitzgerald.

Mr Dustin, you can do what I did: if you have a reading list, just read it book before the teacher has a chance to ruin it for you.

jmskone, I feel your pain. I had a high school English teacher who insisted on pronouncing Dumas as "Doo-mass." I lost all respect for her and completely tuned out. How can you not know how to pronounce the authors' names? Ugh! High school.

In my high school "advanced" literature class, we read four whole books over 10 weeks.... one of these books was Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, which is about a gay American in Paris. Students had the option to refuse to read the book, based on the subject matter, even though the book, as I recall it, is not graphic at all. I think I was one of a few who actually ended up reading it. It struck me as so stupid. Especially there was no out from The Color Purple, a great but very graphic and traumatic work. I wished that my school would have either picked challenging, eye-opening books and stood by them, or simply stuck with 'safe' works like Shakespeare.

#7: citygirl

For the most part they did things like only giving us the books when we were about to start reading. Some lame idea about making sure that we wouldn't just read the book on our own and not really care about it when doing the "group work" in class, but I'm done high school now and thankfully they won't try those silly tactics when I go to university!

Repeat: ugh! High school. Never miss a chance for some indoctrination. Wouldn't want anyone to learn to think for himself. Anarchy would ensue, no doubt.

Kell,
My experience with Hemingway is that his books are great, but his short stories just weren't my cup of tea, however acclaimed they may be. Try The Sun Also Rises or A Farewell To Arms.

If you've read Fitzgerald, I'm sure you've read The Great Gatsby. After that I'd recommend Tender Is The Night. A terrific book (if you can get past the main character name of Dick Diver!). It must have been heart-wrenching to write since Nicole is so obviously based on Zelda.

Steinbeck... I don't think you can go wrong. Try Travels With Charley In Search Of America or The Moon Is Down if you want to see him writing outside of his usual Central California setting.

I too loved Tender Is the Night - it was really wrenching to read.

The following are authors who have written great books which are now considered classics.
Virginia Woolf',
E.M. Forster,
Malamud, Bellow and Roth,
Evelyn Waugh,
Elizabeth bowen,
Ford Madox ford,
William Faulkner,
somerset maughm
Gertrude Stein,
James Joyce,
D. H. Lawrence,
W.H. Auden,
T.s. Eliot,
Ezra Pound,
Millay,
Elizabeth bishop,
Robert lowel,
Robert frost,
Arthur Miller,
Tennessee Williams,
flannery O'connor,
Eudora Welty,
William Trevor,
Toni Morrison,
Colm Toibin,
Nadine Gordimer,
J.M. Coetzee.

Whatever Henry james wrote in the 20th century. I'm sure there were some things.

Gore Vidal belongs on that list, as does Shirley Jackson, Tennessee Williams, Joyce Carol Oates, Dorothy Parker, Alice Walker, and a half-dozen "sci-fi" writers.

Tennessee Williams is already on it. Does Lit Crit belong?
Edmund Wilson,
James Wood,
William Empson,
Allen Tate,
Wayne Booth,
Susan Sontag,
Hannah Arendt,
Mary Mccarthy,
Randall jarrell,
John Ashberry,
John Berryman,
Theodore Roethke,
Dylan thomas,
Philip Larkin,
Ivy Compton-Burnett,
Isak Dinesen
Tillie Olson,
Raymond Carver,
Grace Paley.
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Christina Stead.
Patrick White
Peter Carey
William Gass,
Guy Davenport,
Sven Birkerts.
Willa Cather

John Updike
Saul Bellow
John Cheever
Philip Roth Barbara KingsolverEdna Ferber Jonathan Franzen Alice Munro Pearl Buck Louise Erdrich
These are addition to those listed above. The 20th century has a lot of good writers. Those from the early part of the century have mostly been filtered out. The mid-century writers are in the process. It will take a while before the last of the last century earn the title of "classic".
(And there will always be disagreement.) Which, IMO adds a bit more spice to the study of literature.