# Modern classics from the 20th century



## Luzici (Sep 29, 2007)

I'm searching for new book recommendations, so could you please name me some of your favourite 20th century novels? I'm especially interested in Asian and African literature, just to broaden my horizon a bit.


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## Perpetual♥blockage (Sep 30, 2007)

ENDER'S GAME


Every person I meet who has not read Ender's Game gets a three hour oh-em-gee-best-book-ever-why-haven't-you-read-it-why lecture.

And I don't even like science fiction.

Orson Scott Card = way better than Victor Hugo or Alexandre Dumas or any of those too-obsessed-with-Bonaparte bullcrap French authors. I mean maybe they'd be better if they didn't have to be translated from French to English for me to read them but still GAH.

Okay I just completely derailed the topic. Sorry.


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## Kest (Sep 30, 2007)

Midnight's Children
God of Small Things


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## Edgewise (Oct 9, 2007)

For Whom the Bell Tolls- Hemmingway

Ham on Rye- Bukowski

And of course, can't forget:

One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest- Kesey


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## Buddy Glass (Oct 28, 2007)

Luzici said:


> I'm searching for new book recommendations, so could you please name me some of your favourite 20th century novels? I'm especially interested in Asian and African literature, just to broaden my horizon a bit.


 
Asian:

Yukio Mishima, Kensaburo Oe (spelt wrong, I'm sure), Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Amos Oz. Perhaps even Haruki Murakami.

Sorry, not too familiar with African lit.


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## ClancyBoy (Oct 28, 2007)

Luzici said:


> I'm searching for new book recommendations, so could you please name me some of your favourite 20th century novels? I'm especially interested in Asian and African literature, just to broaden my horizon a bit.



The Snow Country by Kawabata Yasunari is my favorite Japanese novel.  Actually everything he does is just beautiful.  You should read his short stories, too.

When I come across a 20th century Chinese novel worth recommending I'll let you know


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## duston (Nov 2, 2007)

The Outsider by Camus.


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## jesterscourt (Nov 2, 2007)

East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Slaughter-house Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs
At the Mountains of Madness - H.P. Lovecraft (it's a novella, but close enough)


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## Pete_C (Dec 8, 2007)

Confederacy of Dunces - John kennedy O'Toole

Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey

The Mulatta and Misterfly - Miguel Angel Asturias


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## Esoteric Electronic (Dec 8, 2007)

1984 By George Orwell...

IMO he was about 25 to 30 years out with the title. Very scary indeed!


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## mka321 (Dec 8, 2007)

Sorry, I can't help you with the Asian and African literature, but here are some good 20th century novels:

A Clockwork Orange -- Anthony Burgess
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- Ken Kesey
Lord of the Flies -- William Golding
To Kill a Mockingbird -- Harper Lee
Slaughterhouse 5 -- Kurt Vonnegut
Anything by John Steinbeck


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## mka321 (Dec 8, 2007)

Sorry, I can't help you with the Asian and African literature, but here are some good 20th century novels:

A Clockwork Orange -- Anthony Burgess
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- Ken Kesey
Lord of the Flies -- William Golding
To Kill a Mockingbird -- Harper Lee
Slaughterhouse 5 -- Kurt Vonnegut
Anything by John Steinbeck.


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## Realenigma (Dec 11, 2007)

My ultimate favourite has to be The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.


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## lightening@warcraft (Dec 12, 2007)

well, it isnt my favorite-i dont have any that havent already been said but 'the eyes of the world' by Harold Bell Wright.  NOT: 'the eye of the world' by Robert Jordan


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## The Hack (Dec 14, 2007)

mka321 said:


> A Clockwork Orange -- Anthony Burgess
> One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- Ken Kesey
> Lord of the Flies -- William Golding
> To Kill a Mockingbird -- Harper Lee
> ...


 
Can't go wrong with any of those, IMO.  Five of my favorites, for sure.  I would also add that most John Irving books are worth the read (most noteably, _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ and _Ciderhouse Rules_).


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## granty1 (Dec 14, 2007)

A Brave New World 

By Aldous Huxley

Got to be the best science fiction novel ever written

In the same way as '1984' by Orwell some of the future prediction stuff is astonishing...


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## Swift84 (Dec 14, 2007)

These will treat you well:

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
Ulysses, by James Joyce
The Pearl, by John Steinbeck
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
The End of Eternity, by Isaac Asimov
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
Night, by Elie Wiesel


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## ShatteredDreamsSurvived07 (Dec 16, 2007)

Slaughterhouse Five...and most Vonnegut works

Crime and Punishment baby (that's 20th century, right?)

1984

Doors of Perception and Brave New World....Huxley 

And finally one of the best books I have ever read...
East of Eden - Steinbeck Action


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## ShatteredDreamsSurvived07 (Dec 16, 2007)

throw in A Clockwork Orange...so good

so damn good


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## For me with Squalor (Jan 21, 2008)

SALINGER (pretty much anything)

Paulo Coelho - 11 minutes (must read)

Joseph Heller - Catch 22 (LOL)

Douglas Adams - A Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy (not for everyone, but pretty genius)

Milan Kundera - The unbearable lightness of being (amazing book)

(plus mka321-s list) Have fun


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## For me with Squalor (Jan 21, 2008)

Oh and I see no one has put in Orwell's Animal Farm. Also a must.


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## Mishki (Feb 21, 2008)

These are a few Asian writers I've enjoyed: Mahasweta Devi, Weng Ming, Yasunari Kawabata, Khushwant Singh, Kobo Abe

African writers: Chinua Achebe, Bessie Head, Naguib Mahfouz, Ngugi wa Thiong'o


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## Mike C (Feb 21, 2008)

Kobo Abe's Woman of the Dunes was excellent.

I'll Offer Crash (or anything else) by JG Ballard and The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks.


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