Critics Pick Best Novels
(December 21, 2005)
Critics Lex Grossman and Richard Lacayo of Time Magazine have chosen what they consider to be the best English-language novels from 1923 to the present. Most of the 100 novels picked by the critics are in Wolfner Library’s collection. Reader Advisor Ginny Ryan lists some of the critics’ choices.
To order any of these titles, contact the library by email, mail or phone. You may also request these titles online through our OPAC. Happy Reading!
Money: A Suicide Note by Martin Amis.
RC 22896.
A comic-moral novel of the misadventures of a gross but somehow likeable 35-year-old British director of tasteless television commercials. Gorged with money but craving warmth, he is filled with fear and loathing as he tangles with money men, actors, writers, and tarts. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex.
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth.
RC 12388.
Satire of historical novels about the early years of Maryland as a colony. The main characters are Ebenezer Cooke, a scholar and dabbler of verse, his twin sister, and their young tutor.
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow.
RC 58799.
Nobel Prize-winner Saul Bellow’s picaresque novel of Augie March, born to poor Russian Jewish immigrants and growing up in Depression-era Chicago. Recounts his escapades in the world of wealth, war, and sophisticated women. 2001 introduction by Christopher Hitchens. Explicit descriptions of sex and strong language. National Book Award.
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.
RC 56535, BR 14859.
A tale about the exploits of Bishop Jean Latour and Father Joseph Vaillant, French Catholic priests who organized pioneer and Indian missions throughout the newly created diocese of New Mexico in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Falconer by John Cheever.
RC 11974.
In this unusual novel, Ezekiel Farragut, a college professor, is serving time in Falconer Prison for the murder of his hateful brother. His confinement with assorted felons liberates him, instead of dragging him down, and eventually he makes a miraculous escape to freedom. Strong language.
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow.
RC 44378, BR 2822.
A story set in 1906 New York that incorporates luminaries of the period, including Theodore Roosevelt, Sigmund Freud, and Emma Goldman. A ragtime musician from Harlem falls victim to racist vandalism and seeks redress through violence. Strong language, violence, and descriptions of sex.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
RC 56346, BR 14988.
Classic novel of a young black man’s search for identity. Follows the unnamed protagonist from his youth in a Southern town through the depression years in Harlem, where he examines and rejects the values thrust on him by both whites and blacks. Some strong language. National Book Award.
A Passage to Indiaby E.M. Forster.
RC 21242, BR 6076.
A classic novel about social, political, and personal relations between the English and the people of India after the turn of the century. The conflict of cultures and personalities during the wane of British rule reaches near riot proportions when a respectful Indian doctor is accused of sexually assaulting a young Englishwoman.
Neuromancer by William Gibson.
RC 34589, BR 9062.
Chase, a twenty-first century computer interfacer, is caught stealing and receives nerve damage as punishment. When even Japan’s medical minds cannot repair the injury, drug addicted and penniless Chase loses hope, until he is kidnapped by strangers who promise to cure him if he uses his expertise on their dangerous project. Strong language, violence, and explicit descriptions of sex. Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards. Cyberspace Universe, book 1. Series Code CSU.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
RC 48388, BR 9480.
With horrifying implications, a group of English boys are wrecked on a desert island and have to establish their own system of government. Nobel Prize.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.
RC 34114, BR 3615.
A wealthy group of English and American expatriates in post-World War 1 Europe move from the boulevards of Paris to the bullfights of Spain. The disillusioned characters reflect the war-weary "lost generation" of the 1920s. Some strong language.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
RC 31675.
A group of young people epitomize the beat generation as they roam the American continent in a wild, desperate search for identity and purpose. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex.
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey.
RC 56351, BR 12698.
Chief Bromden, a long-term inmate of a mental institution, relates the story of a struggle for control of the ward, centering around the hateful, authoritarian Nurse Ratched and a new patient, the fiercely independent Randle Patrick McMurphy. Fortieth anniversary edition with an introduction by the author. Some strong language.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
RC 36414, BR 12850.
Scout Finch is an outspoken and literate six-year-old tomboy when she begins her tale of growing up in a small Alabama town with her brother Jem and her attorney father Atticus. The children’s intense curiosity about a reclusive neighbor is eclipsed by Atticus’s attempt to defend a black man against charges of raping a white woman. Pulitzer Prize. Also available as a descriptive video, DV 148.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.
RC 58532, BR 11395.
Deep South, 1930s. John Singer, who is deaf and mute, feels content until his best friend, also mute, is committed to a mental institution. Singer, who can read lips, becomes the confidante of several town residents, all of whom want answers to their problems. Some strong language.
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
RC 33082, BR 11427.
A romantic Civil War epic in which Scarlet O’ Hara, a forceful and ruthless heroine, and Rhett Butler, a war profiteer, play out their tempestuous love affair against the background of the war-torn South. Pulitzer Prize. Also available as a descriptive video, DV 230.
Beloved by Toni Morrison.
RC 26026, BR 7074.
Related in kaleidoscopic fashion and set in rural Ohio during the period immediately following the Civil War, this chronicle of slavery and its aftermath traces the life of Sethe, a former slave. Sethe has a secret in her past so horrific that it has alienated the community, driven off her two sons, isolated her surviving daughter, and threatened her new, loving relationship with Paul, also a former slave. Nobel Prize.
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov.
RC 25448.
Opening with a poem divided into four cantos of one thousand lines, the story itself begins under the title Commentary, which explains the poem. It tells of the escapades of a deposed Balkan king in a New York college town, in a blend of satire, burlesque, and suspense.
Appointment in Samarraby John O’Hara.
RC 58197, BR 15398.
Fast moving first novel by journalist and critic John O’Hara set in 1930s small-town Pennsylvania. As Gibbsville celebrates Christmas with parties, music, and liquor, aristocratic drunkard Julian English breaks with polite society in one rash moment, beginning his rapid descent to self-destruction. 1991 introduction by John Updike. Some strong language.
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy.
RC 11841, BR 1854.
Binx Bolling, an intelligent and successful young businessman, is also an avid movie fan who finds the world on the screen more real to him than life itself. During Carnival Week in New Orleans, Binx’s dreamlike existence is disrupted and he rediscovers his strength and capacity to love. Some strong language.
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
RC 23792.
A demanding novel of comical and terrifying incidents that traces the odyssey of the anti-hero, an American lieutenant stationed in London during World War 2. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. National Book Award.
American Pastoral by Philip Roth.
RC 45488.
After military service in World War 2, handsome, athletic "Swede" Levov weds Miss New Jersey, takes over the family business, and moves to the posh suburbs. His dream life unravels in the late 1960s, when daughter Meredith joins an antiwar terrorist group bent on undermining all that Swede lives for. Strong language. Pulitzer Prize.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
RC 47480, BR 11909.
As Christmas vacation begins, Holden Caulfield recounts his feelings and reactions to flunking out of Pencey, his third prep school. Instead of heading straight home, he wanders around New York City. This account of his adventures conveys his dismay at the adult world. Strong language.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
RC 21574, BR 9954.
The story of the Depression farmers and their families driven from the dust bowl of their Oklahoma farms to the promised land of California to find work, where they face organized opposition to their struggle to survive. Strong language. Pulitzer Prize.
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren.
RC 53553, BR 13840.
Restored edition, reconstructed from the author’s original typescript, recreates the world of a corrupt Southern politician of the 1920s and 1930s. Country boy Willie Talos rises to become governor of his state only to be brought down by his personal failings. 2001 editorial afterword by Noel Polk. Strong language. Pulitzer Prize.
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.
RC 53981.
Waugh’s classic exploration of faith, tradition, and moral values in a rapidly changing Britain. Charles Ryder narrates the story of an aristocratic English Catholic family between the First and Second World Wars. Charles first meets alcoholic Sebastian Flyte at Oxford and later falls in love with his married sister, Julia.
Native Son by Richard Wright.
RC 25087.
Classic work shows the plight of victimized blacks fighting against the political and social conditions of Chicago in the 1930s by focusing on a frustrated and resentful black man, driven to violence and murder.
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.
RC 25236.
Portrays the loss of youth, ideals, and soul in 1950s Connecticut. Alice and Frank marry and move to the suburbs, where meaningless work, empty adultery, futile rebellion, and increasing self-deception lead to the gradual disintegration of both of their potentially rich lives. Some strong language and descriptions of sex.