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Notes -
Who are the novelists telling state-of-the-world stories right now? I loved Tom Wolfe’s novels for their expansive representation of what he saw as the core story of an era (Bonfire of the Vanities 80s, A Man In Full 90s, I Am Charlotte Simmons 2000s). I have not read all of Philip Roth but got similar vibe from The Human Stain (written in 2000, set in the US of the Clinton/Monica Lewinsky of 1998).
Big, bold, often brilliant novels that take a snapshot of a moment in time and allow readers and the broader culture to make sense of things, and maybe see their own insanity reflected.
Our moment (narrowly: since Covid 2020; more broadly: since Trump/Brexit 2016; broader still: since Lehman Bros/global financial crisis 2008) is in great need of a literature.
Is anyone writing it?
I'm a big fan of Lionel Shriver's The Mandibles (published in 2016). Mania was a fun take on cancel culture. Apparently her latest novel is set to take on immigration.
Thanks! Had heard about The Mandibles but never read it. [This comment from Shriver is exactly the kind of thing I’m seeking: “Having, like the rest of us, gone through the whole 2008 financial debacle I thought I had plenty of material (for a novel set in a dystopian economic near-future). My reading on what happened in 2008 is that we dodged a bullet. I feel as if that bullet is still whizzing around the planet.”]
Feel like I should be taking a fresh look at her whole body of work. (We Need To Talk About Kevin was told from pov of mother of a school shooter. For some reason I never picked it up.)
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