Here's the next 10 titles on the list:
51. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer, 1948. Considered the first popular novel about WWII and based on Mailer's own military experiences, this is a painfully realistic and sharply written war novel. Along with deglamorizing war, Mailer also works in some moments of absurd satire, beating Heller's Catch-22 to the punch by years. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? Yes.
52. Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth, 1969. Roth's funny story based on his own years of childhood and young adulthood has a breathless pace and was considered groundbreaking in its extremely honest look at a young boy's puberty. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? Yes, but it's not my favorite Roth novel, I prefer The Human Stain and American Pastoral.
53. Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov, 1962. This novel is more famous for its unusual style than its story. It mostly contains a long poem, with many footnotes. The footnotes wind up telling a story, allowing the reader to either read the whole novel straight through in order, or to jump back and fourth from the poem to the foot notes. (This is not an easy book to read on a Kindle!) And then there's ambiguity beyond that, making this a truly unusual read. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? No, the style may be interesting, but the story itself is not so engaging. I think just Lolita from Nabokov is enough.
54. Light in August, William Faulkner, 1932. Another difficult but rewarding Faulkner novel that avoids traditional narrative as it illustrates the lives of Southern characters in the 1920's and the sexual and racial trauma they endure. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? Yes.
55. On the Road, Jack Kerouac, 1957. Written in 5 parts in a famously immediate style that details the travels of Kerouac and his friends as they take drugs, groove on jazz music, and have a wild time. One of the most famous American novels ever, I think it really holds up well. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? Yes.
56. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett, 1930. Probably the most famous detective mystery novel ever written, Hammett's terse style contains treacherous dames, sadistic villains, a twisty plot, and, of course, a hard boiled, hard drinking hero in a trench coat. Wildly entertaining. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? Yes.
57. Parade's End, Ford Maddox Ford, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1928. 4 Novels detailing the lives of some upperclass English people before during and after WWI. While the war parts are interesting, much of what precedes it is quite dull. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? No, I think that Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms are both better WWI novels.
58. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton, 1920. The only female author to have 2 novels on the list, the American Wharton captured the sexist double standards of the time in both of them. Here, she tells the story of a well off young man who falls in love with an unconventional, "fallen" woman that society prevents him from marrying, DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? Yes.
59. Zuleika Dobson, MaxBeerbohm, 1911. Painfully dated satire about a lovely young female magician's assistant whose arrival at Oxford sends the whole student body into a tizzy of romantic longing. But she only thinks that she can love someone who doesn't love her! I imagine that this novel was the height of wit over a 100 years ago, but now it just feels strange and unbelievable. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? No.
60. The Movie Goer, Walker Percy, 1961. Set in New Orleans, this is about a successful stock broker and Korean war veteran looking for meaning in the changing South. Not a lot of plot, here, instead the book has much philosophizing (Percy was a big fan of Kierkegaard). DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? Yes, as you can guess from the summary, this novel is not for everyone, but its odd style was worth following for me.
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