March 24th, 2009 / 5:09 pm
 Author Spotlight & Web Hype

Today at Coop’s Place: Modern & Contemporary English Language Fiction Judgment Day

 

Here’s something everyone here should be able to get down with fighting about. Today at The Weaklings, Dennis put up a long list of writers and invites you to name each of their best and worst work. You can add your lists to his comments section if you want his response, or to ours if you want ours–or both, I guess. He’s smarter and better-read than all of us put together (that’s a guess) but there’s more of us and we have cat-like reflexes (those are science facts). Anyway, here’s his list:
Burroughs: B, The Wild Boys. W, The Western Lands
Faulkner: B, The Sound and the Fury. W, The Town
D. Williams: The Stupefaction. W, This Is About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate
Vidal: B, Myra Breckinridge. W, Hollywood
De Lillo: B, The Names. W, Cosmopolis
Woolf: B, Mrs. Dalloway. W, The Waves
Foster Wallace: B, Infinite Jest. W, Oblivion
Ellis: B, Lunar Park. W, Rules of Attraction
Amis: B, Money. W, Yellow Dogs
Wharton: B, The House of Mirth. W, The Glimpses of the Moon
Joyce: B, Ulysses. W, Dubliners
White: B, Nocturnes for the King of Naples. W, The Farewell Symphony
Morrison: B, Beloved. W, Love
Sotos: B, Selfish, Little. W, Special
Roth: B, Portnoy’s Complaint. W, Everyman
Gaddis: B, JR. W, Agape Agape
Brautigan: B, Revenge of the Lawn. W, An Unfortunate Woman
Updike: B, Couples. W, Gertrude and Claudius
Rechy: B, City of Night. W, Marilyn’s Daughter
Beckett: B, Watt. W, Ill Seen Ill Said
McCarthy: B, Blood Merdian. W, Suttree
Moody: B, Purple America. W, Garden State
Nabokov: B, Lolita. W, Ada or Ardor
Tillman: B, American Genius: A Comedy. W, Cast In Doubt.
Dick: B, Ubik. W, The World Jones Made
Palahniuk: B, Fight Club. W, Lullabye
Hemingway: B, The Sun Also Rises. W, The Garden of Eden
Acker: B, Great Expectations. W, Kathy Goes to Haiti
King: B, Pet Sematary. W, Hearts in Atlantis
Vonnegut: B, Slapstick. W, Hocus Pocus
Capote: B, The Grass Harp. W, Summer Crossing
Didion: B, Play It as It Lays. W, Run, River
Pynchon: B, Against the Day. W, Vineland
Barth: B, The Sot Weed Factor. W, Sabbatical: A Romance
Mailer: B, The Naked and The Dead. W, Ancient Evenings
Welsh: B, The Acid House. W, Porno
Gibson: B, Neuromancer. W, Mona Lisa Overdrive
Delaney: B, Hogg. W, Madmen
Ballard: B, The Atrocity Exhibition. W, The Kindness of Women
Selby Jr.: B, Requiem for a Dream. W, The Willow Tree
Barker: B, The Books of Blood. W, Coldheart Canyon
Brite: B, Exquisite Corpse. W, Plastic Jesus
Oates: B, them. W, Bellefleur

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63 Comments

  1. March 24th, 2009 / 9:18 pm Jimmy Chen—

      Woolf: B, To the lighthouse. W, Mrs. Dalloway

  2. March 24th, 2009 / 9:18 pm Jimmy Chen—

      Woolf: B, To the lighthouse. W, Mrs. Dalloway

  3. March 24th, 2009 / 9:18 pm Ryan Call—

      the only one i feel like ive read enough to comment on is updike:

      for me, i liked centaurs the best. it felt really different than the others in ways i cant really remember. i read it in college. couples used to be one of my favorites of his too, but i think centaurs beats it for me. i have read updike since college, so whatever. i dont know.

  4. March 24th, 2009 / 9:18 pm Ryan Call—

      the only one i feel like ive read enough to comment on is updike:

      for me, i liked centaurs the best. it felt really different than the others in ways i cant really remember. i read it in college. couples used to be one of my favorites of his too, but i think centaurs beats it for me. i have read updike since college, so whatever. i dont know.

  5. March 24th, 2009 / 9:18 pm Ryan Call—

      correction: haven’t read updike since college

  6. March 24th, 2009 / 9:18 pm Ryan Call—

      correction: haven’t read updike since college

  7. March 24th, 2009 / 5:18 pm Jimmy Chen—

      Woolf: B, To the lighthouse. W, Mrs. Dalloway

  8. March 24th, 2009 / 5:18 pm Ryan Call—

      the only one i feel like ive read enough to comment on is updike:

      for me, i liked centaurs the best. it felt really different than the others in ways i cant really remember. i read it in college. couples used to be one of my favorites of his too, but i think centaurs beats it for me. i have read updike since college, so whatever. i dont know.

  9. March 24th, 2009 / 5:18 pm Ryan Call—

      correction: haven’t read updike since college

  10. March 24th, 2009 / 9:23 pm matthew savoca—

      the garden of eden was great, im calling bullshit on this

  11. March 24th, 2009 / 9:23 pm matthew savoca—

      the garden of eden was great, im calling bullshit on this

  12. March 24th, 2009 / 5:23 pm matthew savoca—

      the garden of eden was great, im calling bullshit on this

  13. March 24th, 2009 / 9:47 pm Gian—

      I’m calling bullshit on the Faulkner. Sanctuary cannot be messed with. As I Lay Dying can hang out with it and light its cigarettes.

  14. March 24th, 2009 / 9:47 pm Gian—

      I’m calling bullshit on the Faulkner. Sanctuary cannot be messed with. As I Lay Dying can hang out with it and light its cigarettes.

  15. March 24th, 2009 / 5:47 pm Gian—

      I’m calling bullshit on the Faulkner. Sanctuary cannot be messed with. As I Lay Dying can hang out with it and light its cigarettes.

  16. March 24th, 2009 / 9:50 pm Blake Butler—

      dude, Suttree the worst? naw naw naw

      But yes to the Burroughs: Wild Boys is the one

      also glad to see Tillman’s American Genius getting props

      this list is more on point than it would be in most hands, for sure

  17. March 24th, 2009 / 9:50 pm Blake Butler—

      dude, Suttree the worst? naw naw naw

      But yes to the Burroughs: Wild Boys is the one

      also glad to see Tillman’s American Genius getting props

      this list is more on point than it would be in most hands, for sure

  18. March 24th, 2009 / 5:50 pm Blake Butler—

      dude, Suttree the worst? naw naw naw

      But yes to the Burroughs: Wild Boys is the one

      also glad to see Tillman’s American Genius getting props

      this list is more on point than it would be in most hands, for sure

  19. March 24th, 2009 / 10:20 pm darby—

      against the day. hmm.

  20. March 24th, 2009 / 10:20 pm darby—

      against the day. hmm.

  21. March 24th, 2009 / 6:20 pm darby—

      against the day. hmm.

  22. March 24th, 2009 / 10:23 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Beloved. Yeesh.

  23. March 24th, 2009 / 10:23 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Beloved. Yeesh.

  24. March 24th, 2009 / 6:23 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Beloved. Yeesh.

  25. March 24th, 2009 / 10:57 pm Janey Smith—

      This is fun! Although there are a lot writers on that list I haven’t read. It’s funny, but I really liked WSB’s The Wild Boys, too. And although the conditions (her mother’s suicide on Christmas day or something like that) under which Kathy Acker wrote Great Expectations must have been terrible, I still think that Don Quixote is her best book (well, it’s my favorite anyway). Peter Sotos is a totally terrific writer. But, I like the really early stuff like Pure. But I like Index a lot, too. Delany’s Hogg is a masterpiece (for me) of pornographic writing. Awesome. I really liked this day! Thanks, Justin!

  26. March 24th, 2009 / 10:57 pm Janey Smith—

      This is fun! Although there are a lot writers on that list I haven’t read. It’s funny, but I really liked WSB’s The Wild Boys, too. And although the conditions (her mother’s suicide on Christmas day or something like that) under which Kathy Acker wrote Great Expectations must have been terrible, I still think that Don Quixote is her best book (well, it’s my favorite anyway). Peter Sotos is a totally terrific writer. But, I like the really early stuff like Pure. But I like Index a lot, too. Delany’s Hogg is a masterpiece (for me) of pornographic writing. Awesome. I really liked this day! Thanks, Justin!

  27. March 24th, 2009 / 6:57 pm Janey Smith—

      This is fun! Although there are a lot writers on that list I haven’t read. It’s funny, but I really liked WSB’s The Wild Boys, too. And although the conditions (her mother’s suicide on Christmas day or something like that) under which Kathy Acker wrote Great Expectations must have been terrible, I still think that Don Quixote is her best book (well, it’s my favorite anyway). Peter Sotos is a totally terrific writer. But, I like the really early stuff like Pure. But I like Index a lot, too. Delany’s Hogg is a masterpiece (for me) of pornographic writing. Awesome. I really liked this day! Thanks, Justin!

  28. March 24th, 2009 / 11:26 pm pr—

      Sanctuary was my favorite. I tried to reread it recently and couldn’t get through it. Oh well. Maybe I was too fucked on coffee and couldn’t concentrate. That happens. I liked all of his other shit, too, though.

  29. March 24th, 2009 / 11:26 pm pr—

      Sanctuary was my favorite. I tried to reread it recently and couldn’t get through it. Oh well. Maybe I was too fucked on coffee and couldn’t concentrate. That happens. I liked all of his other shit, too, though.

  30. March 24th, 2009 / 7:26 pm pr—

      Sanctuary was my favorite. I tried to reread it recently and couldn’t get through it. Oh well. Maybe I was too fucked on coffee and couldn’t concentrate. That happens. I liked all of his other shit, too, though.

  31. March 25th, 2009 / 12:43 am Justin Taylor—

      Sure thing, Janey! I started to answer these myself and in so-doing realized how few of these books I’d read. A lot of these cats just aren’t on my radar at all. But I’m with Dennis on the DeLillo- The Names is a masterpiece. Ditto Blood Meridian. I disagree with him on Brautigan- In Watermelon Sugar is, without doubt, Brautigan’s supreme literary achievement. Also, The Waves (Woolf) is one of the three or five greatest novels of the 20th century, if not of all-time. So I guess I’ll go over to his blog and pester him now.

  32. March 25th, 2009 / 12:43 am Justin Taylor—

      Sure thing, Janey! I started to answer these myself and in so-doing realized how few of these books I’d read. A lot of these cats just aren’t on my radar at all. But I’m with Dennis on the DeLillo- The Names is a masterpiece. Ditto Blood Meridian. I disagree with him on Brautigan- In Watermelon Sugar is, without doubt, Brautigan’s supreme literary achievement. Also, The Waves (Woolf) is one of the three or five greatest novels of the 20th century, if not of all-time. So I guess I’ll go over to his blog and pester him now.

  33. March 24th, 2009 / 8:43 pm Justin Taylor—

      Sure thing, Janey! I started to answer these myself and in so-doing realized how few of these books I’d read. A lot of these cats just aren’t on my radar at all. But I’m with Dennis on the DeLillo- The Names is a masterpiece. Ditto Blood Meridian. I disagree with him on Brautigan- In Watermelon Sugar is, without doubt, Brautigan’s supreme literary achievement. Also, The Waves (Woolf) is one of the three or five greatest novels of the 20th century, if not of all-time. So I guess I’ll go over to his blog and pester him now.

  34. March 25th, 2009 / 1:18 am Janey Smith—

      Me, too.

  35. March 25th, 2009 / 1:18 am Janey Smith—

      Me, too.

  36. March 24th, 2009 / 9:18 pm Janey Smith—

      Me, too.

  37. March 25th, 2009 / 12:37 pm David Erlewine—

      O’ Brien: B, The Things They Carried. W, July, July.

      What a great post.

  38. March 25th, 2009 / 12:37 pm David Erlewine—

      O’ Brien: B, The Things They Carried. W, July, July.

      What a great post.

  39. March 25th, 2009 / 8:37 am David Erlewine—

      O’ Brien: B, The Things They Carried. W, July, July.

      What a great post.

  40. March 25th, 2009 / 3:27 pm barry—

      yeah, hemingway had this really piece of shit of a book, a satire of some sort called, the torrent of spring. just retarded.

  41. March 25th, 2009 / 3:27 pm barry—

      yeah, hemingway had this really piece of shit of a book, a satire of some sort called, the torrent of spring. just retarded.

  42. March 25th, 2009 / 11:27 am barry—

      yeah, hemingway had this really piece of shit of a book, a satire of some sort called, the torrent of spring. just retarded.

  43. March 25th, 2009 / 3:28 pm barry—

      i liked the bluest eye, worst was sula, for sure.

  44. March 25th, 2009 / 3:28 pm barry—

      i liked the bluest eye, worst was sula, for sure.

  45. March 25th, 2009 / 11:28 am barry—

      i liked the bluest eye, worst was sula, for sure.

  46. March 25th, 2009 / 3:31 pm barry—

      everyone always jibber jabbers about the things they carried. not saying it wasnt great. but holy fuck, have you ever read in the lake of the woods. that book kicked a lot of ass.

  47. March 25th, 2009 / 3:31 pm barry—

      everyone always jibber jabbers about the things they carried. not saying it wasnt great. but holy fuck, have you ever read in the lake of the woods. that book kicked a lot of ass.

  48. March 25th, 2009 / 11:31 am barry—

      everyone always jibber jabbers about the things they carried. not saying it wasnt great. but holy fuck, have you ever read in the lake of the woods. that book kicked a lot of ass.

  49. March 25th, 2009 / 10:45 pm Drew—

      Against the Day was good. I like that pick. This list looks pretty unfuckwithable.

  50. March 25th, 2009 / 10:45 pm Drew—

      Against the Day was good. I like that pick. This list looks pretty unfuckwithable.

  51. March 25th, 2009 / 6:45 pm Drew—

      Against the Day was good. I like that pick. This list looks pretty unfuckwithable.

  52. March 25th, 2009 / 10:48 pm Drew—

      Oh wait, I found one. Dick. Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is my favorite.

  53. March 25th, 2009 / 10:48 pm Drew—

      Oh wait, I found one. Dick. Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is my favorite.

  54. March 25th, 2009 / 6:48 pm Drew—

      Oh wait, I found one. Dick. Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is my favorite.

  55. March 26th, 2009 / 12:56 am PHM—

      Trunk monkey.

  56. March 26th, 2009 / 12:56 am PHM—

      Trunk monkey.

  57. March 25th, 2009 / 8:56 pm PHM—

      Trunk monkey.

  58. March 26th, 2009 / 12:52 pm David Erlewine—

      Barry, In the Lake of the Woods is a very close second to me. In fact, if I’d read it before TTTC, it might be number one. I read In the lake nearly straight through. That was the best use of quotes at beginnings of chapters I’ve ever seen.

  59. March 26th, 2009 / 12:52 pm David Erlewine—

      Barry, In the Lake of the Woods is a very close second to me. In fact, if I’d read it before TTTC, it might be number one. I read In the lake nearly straight through. That was the best use of quotes at beginnings of chapters I’ve ever seen.

  60. March 26th, 2009 / 8:52 am David Erlewine—

      Barry, In the Lake of the Woods is a very close second to me. In fact, if I’d read it before TTTC, it might be number one. I read In the lake nearly straight through. That was the best use of quotes at beginnings of chapters I’ve ever seen.

  61. April 23rd, 2009 / 6:45 pm chris—

      i have not read a single book ever

  62. April 23rd, 2009 / 6:45 pm chris—

      i have not read a single book ever

  63. April 23rd, 2009 / 2:45 pm chris—

      i have not read a single book ever