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What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?
"Beloved," by Toni Morrison, center, was chosen as the best American fiction of the last 25 years. Runners up were, from left: Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, John Updike and Don DeLillo.
This feature will appear in the May 21 issue of the print edition of the Book Review.
- In Search of the Best: An Essay by A. O. Scott
- Forum: Discuss the Choices
Early this year, the Book Review's editor, Sam Tanenhaus, sent out a short letter to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify "the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years." [Read A. O. Scott's essay.] Following are the results.
THE WINNER:
Toni Morrison (1987)
THE RUNNERS-UP:
Don DeLillo
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy
Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels
John Updike
- Review: 'Rabbit at Rest'
- Review: 'Rabbit Is Rich'
- Review: 'Rabbit Redux'
- Review: 'Rabbit, Run'
American Pastoral
Philip Roth
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ALSO RECEIVED MULTIPLE VOTES:
A confederacy of dunces.
John Kennedy Toole
Housekeeping
Marilynne Robinson
Winter's Tale
Mark Helprin
White Noise
The counterlife, where i'm calling from.
Raymond Carver
The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien
Norman Rush
Jesus' Son
Denis Johnson
Operation Shylock
Independence day.
Richard Ford
Sabbath's Theater
Border trilogy.
- Review: 'Cities of the Plain'
- Review: 'The Crossing'
- Review: 'All the Pretty Horses'
The Human Stain
The known world.
Edward P. Jones
The Plot Against America
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