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The Process: I decided to take on the Modern Library Top 100 Novel list in 2000 when I read Ulysses and saw it was number one on the list. I love a good challenge. I could cross a handful of books off right away, having read them in high school (your Grapes of Wrath and 1984s), and then I treated the list as my fall back - whenever I wasn’t sure what to read, I would pick something on the list that seemed interesting at the time and was available at the public library.
When I got to around 50 left I realized I should probably have a strategy so I wasn’t left with all Faulkner and Hemingway at the end (these are my least favorite authors on the list). So then I started to try to move between shorter and longer lengths, higher and lower on the list, and authors I knew I’d like vs authors I knew I didn’t like. I’m a fan of audio books, so I definitely relied on that for multi-volume entries (A Dance to the Music of Time is counted at one entry on the list, but is 12 separate books, for example). When I had ten left, I decided that Finnegans Wake would be the final book, as a fitting bookend to Ulysses starting the journey.
The Takeaways: One of the primary reasons I tackled the list was cultural competency. These are certainly NOT the top 100 best novels written in the English language in the twentieth century, but they do represent a certain canon and historical record of what many have agreed over time to be important. On this point, I felt the list was worth it. There were books that were everything they promised to be (Ulysses, Lolita), there were books I didn’t necessarily enjoy but understood their importance (the U.S.A trilogy, Finnegans Wake), and there were dozens of moments of “oh, that’s where that reference comes from!” (perhaps my favorite of these being from E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End: “Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.”). There were also books I hated and wanted to throw across the room, but I know others love (Under the Volcano, Scoop, The Ginger Man).
I also saw patterns to what we, as a society, have decided are important themes in literature (at least at certain times). For example, Chicago appeared much more often as the epitome of the American experience earlier in the twentieth century than New York City (Native Son, Sister Carrie, The Adventures of Augie March). There is also a very large strain of nostalgia for class based, colonial society (Brideshead Revisisted, The Ambassadors, The Good Soldier). Non English or American settings are, for better (The Bridge of San Luis Rey) or worse (The Sheltering Sky), portrayed as colonies, not as independent locations. Related and dependent on that strain is the valorization of white male existential dread, primarily through the lens of alcoholism (Under the Volcano, The Sun Also Rises, Tropic of Cancer). Female authors (and main characters) are extremely lacking, but always gems (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Sister Carrie). Humor is rare, but similarly, excellent (Henderson the Rain King, Catch-22). I was surprised that actual combat was rare (The Naked and the Dead, From Here to Eternity) but the effects of combat are pervasive (Parade’s End, Sophie’s Choice).
My Recommendations: I’m not going to include in this list seminal authors that people love or hate. In my case, I’m a huge fan of James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence, despise Hemingway and Faulkner, and am mixed on Conrad and Dreiser. These authors appear the most on the list and most of their books you have had someone recommend to you, so I’m not going to tell you to read Sons and Lovers or A Farewell to Arms. I’m also not going to recommend books I would be shocked if you got out of high school and college unscathed from (Heart of Darkness, The Great Gatsby). These are the top ten books that I loved, but would have never read but for this list (the order is just as they appear on the list, not my ordering):
1. The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler - a biting and sarcastic critique of Victorian society. If you have a dysfunctional family you will be highlighting many quotes in this book. Another one of my favorite stories about a family on the list is The Old Wive’s Tale, focused on two sisters whose live go in drastically different directions.
2. Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow - by far the most hilarious book on the list. Imagine The Dude from The Big Lebowski as a main character in a colonial farce. If you’re looking for more humor Portnoy’s Complaint is a solid (if more offensive) runner up (and Philip Roth passed away this year).
3. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson - one of the more insidiously dark works on the list, this is a collection of connected short stories depicting the darker sides of small town American life. If you are a fan of David Mitchell’s narrative style, you will enjoy this. If you need a humorous chaser, The Wapshot Chronicle delivers a lighter critique of traditional mores.
4. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser - a rare example of a genuine and endearing female main character on the list. It subverts many common themes related to female characters in literature at the time. Carrie is a character you can root for. A runner up in relatable female characters is the main character of The Death of the Heart, a timeless story of teenage angst.
5. Deliverance by James Dickey - you’ve probably seen the movie, but the novel is the best example of poetic prose on the list. Combine it with Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose for a comprehensive and grand portrait of vanishing American landscapes.
6. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad - I’m going to cheat and put Conrad on here, mostly because you probably haven’t heard of this one and it is my favorite by him. It’s an efficient but complex story that is still relevant to today’s “security theater” world. For another timeless take on the dark side of the “war on terror,” Darkness at Noon is pretty terrifying (and, notably, the only book not originally written in the English language on the list, but allowed because the original manuscript has been lost and the English version is all that remained).
7. A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes - when I read The Bell Jar I thought to myself “I should have read this in high school instead of The Catcher in the Rye!” and when I read this I thought “I should have read this in high school instead of Lord of the Flies!” Imagine Lord of the Flies (but written before that more popular book) on the high seas, with a female protagonist, and even more shocking take-aways about human nature. Combine it with Wide Sargasso Sea for a female-focused perspective on colonialism (and also an excellent film).
8. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark - short, extremely witty, and timeless. This is probably the book I recommend the most to people from this list (to add another enticement - the film adaptation stars Maggie Smith). Combine it with I, Claudius for peak witty banter.
9. Ironweed by William Kennedy - I admit to a bias here, as the novel is set in Albany, but I resisted reading it for that very reason. That was stupid. Out of all of the many books about alcoholism on the list, this is by far the best. Also, if you are a fan of magical realism, you will see some precursors in this highly original novel. For a more lovable drunk, Under the Net is a “fun” option.
10. The Magus by John Fowles - this is the trippiest book I have ever read. If you like Cronenberg films, Hesse’s Steppenwolf, and Twin Peaks, you will love this book. It gets so inside your head, you don’t know if you aren’t losing it a little by the end. I think the only book that made me more uncomfortable on the list was Native Son.
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