Great American novels and a few challengers from abroad

Ask 125 eminent (and graying) writers and editors, as The New York Times did, to name the single greatest American novel of the last 25 years and what do you get? A lot of arguing about what constitutes “American,” what constitutes “a novel,” and what constitutes “great,”—not to mention a few questions about whether it is okay to nominate one’s own work. You get all that and a list heavily weighted by Philip Roth, with a strong dash of John Updike.

The most-named novel surprised none of the editors involved. There is a reason Toni Morrison’s Beloved is read by every college student to walk through an American literature class. It entered the canon so quickly that what is surprising about Beloved’s appearance on the list is that the novel has been with us for less than 25 years. (Beloved, by the way, has a rating of four out of five stars on Amazon.com. Hmmph.)

I have to admit that the list didn’t inspire me to run out to the bookstore to read Updike’s Rabbit Run or Norman Rush’s Mating.

But as I perused the blogosphere’s somewhat predictable reaction to the news of the list, I was intrigued by the reaction of the very off-the-beaten-path Prufrock, of Mumbai, India, to his readers, challenging them to name the best novels by Indians writing in English in the past 25 years. The responses are ongoing but already include The Shadow Lines and The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh, and An Equal Music and A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. I’ve read none of those books, although I would now like to. And it makes me realize that, in the balance, I am interested in a younger, broader sensibility than those offered by the aging lions of the American canon.