I cannot remember the last time I read fiction written by a woman. The last novels I bought were by Witold Gombrowicz: Pornografia, Kosmos, and Trans-Atlantyk, as well as another copy of Ferdydurke to replace the one I loaned out. Polish mid-century adolescence-obsessed Modernism is very much boy
lit and has made me aware that I need to pick up some contemporary women authors: any pics? Don't say JCO—I'm not a fan.
Well: it's not fiction, but I must recommend this.
Posted by: susan at February 27, 2009 4:27 PMJCO spoke at my college graduation. she sucked and got our class year wrong. unfortunately, i've got nothing for you...it's been way too long since i read fiction by a woman too.
Posted by: jgoivh at February 28, 2009 1:52 AMWho's JCO?
Posted by: mcmc at March 2, 2009 12:01 AMShort stories by Lorrie Moore, Mary Gaitskill, or Jhumpa Lahiri. Novels: Lahiri's *The Namesake*, Zadie Smith's *On Beauty*, Catherine O'Flynn's *What Was Lost*, or Anne Enright's *The Gathering*.
Posted by: ac at March 2, 2009 6:33 AMMuriel Spark (The Comforters)
Marilynne Robinson (Home)
Katherine Anne Porter (short stories)
Eudora Welty (short stories)
Rivka Galchen (Atmospheric Disturbances)
Based on your taste, I'd recommend:
Marcy Dermansky, Anne Landsman, Terese Svoboda, Jean Thompson, Min Jin Lee, Lynne Tillman, Lydia Millet, Susan Sontag's teenage diaries, Leanne Shapton, Maureen Gibbon (Swimming Sweet Arrow), Tracey Emin (Strangeland), Kate Braverman
See also: www.mosaicmagazine.org
And I haven't read any Gamel Woolsey, but this makes me want to:
http://www.lostmag.com/issue19/woolsey.php
To start.
Posted by: Lauren Cerand at March 2, 2009 12:26 PMOh. Yeah. I read Rivka Galchen. I guess that was the last book written by a woman I've read. Muriel Spark is on my list.
JCO = Joyce Carol Oates.
Posted by: Kriston at March 2, 2009 1:24 PMI second the Marilynne Robinson suggestion, though I might suggest starting with Housekeeping. On the lighter side, I also really like Stacey Richter's absurdist short stories (My Date with Satan).
This whole issue (contemporary women writers, their relative critical invisibility) has been on my mind recently given all the fantods critics experienced over Updike's death and how THE ERA OF THE AMERICAN NOVEL IS NEARING ITS END. What's amazing about Robinson, is she writes these novels that are nothing if not about being American (in the BIG THEME sense), but the characters, like, barely ever leave the house (see: Home). It's a serious feat, the anti-Roth.
Posted by: sarahb at March 2, 2009 1:58 PMamy hempel is really good -- you should pick up a copy of her collected stories. i just ordered "the autobiography of red" by anne carson on amazon; haven't read anything by her, but i'm really looking forward to it.
Posted by: ben at March 2, 2009 2:08 PMAh. Also not a fan of JCO. But Muriel Spark is fantastic.
Posted by: mcmc at March 2, 2009 8:51 PMHave you read Flannery O'Connor? Byatt?
Of younger novelists, I can think of Maggie Dubris, who has a novel called Skels that I liked a lot. Anyone who publishes with Soft Skull.
As it happens, just before checking to see if your perpetual e-tribute to Malevich and Ryman here was continuing apace, I was reading some reviews of Julia Kristeva's most recent detective novel...
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/murder-in-byzantium-by-julia-kristeva-trans-c-jon-delogu-473058.html
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=202522§ioncode=39
http://www.uel.ac.uk/risingeast/archive04/entertainment/wajid.htm
For whatever it's worth.
Posted by: Dan at March 3, 2009 12:41 AMRecently read The Cleft, by Doris Lessing. It was terrible! Try some Margaret Atwood, though--she's good.
Posted by: Jake at March 3, 2009 7:38 PM