Time magazine has just released their list of the Top 100 Greatest English Language Novels, from 1923 through today. Why such an odd year, one might ask? Because that's the first year Time was in business... and, as one of the critics involved in the selection process, Richard Lacayo, put it: "[this] means that Ulysses (1922) doesn't make the cut."
Time critics Lacayo and Lev Grossman each prepared a list on their own and compared notes — at which point they found that their selections largely matched. That was the easy part. They split the remaining titles, leaving each to come up with ten independantely, to ensure that great books the other might not have read were included. Lacayo wrote an in depth look at the process, so that readers might better understand what went into the list... and why certain books, though great, were not included. After all, in a list of one hundred, there is still only so much space.
While Time's list had no rankings to differentiate between the titles, readers were allowed to rank the novels in a poll, and it's apparent that the "geek" contingent was out in force. Lord of the Rings took the top slot there, with other popular favorites like Alan Moore's fantastic graphic novel Watchmen, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, and the dystopian staple of English classes everywhere, George Orwell's 1984 grabbing places in the reader poll.
Many of the books on the Time list are obvious choices for any list of the "greatest" novels, like F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. But some are recent titles (like Zadie Smith's White Teeth, 2001), and others are a pleasant surprise, like the aforementioned Watchmen. If this list does nothing else, I would hope that it at least helps to spotlight graphic novels, some of which truly are excellent, like Alan's Moore's dark study of power and corruption. Too often, graphic novels are written off as something for children, or equated with mindless action comics, and Moore's work, among that of others, is truly outstanding. If anyone worked to earn their place on this list, it is Alan Moore.
Article comments
1 - Eric Berlin
Man, I hate that Franzen made the list! Overall it's a nice job, though. Happy to see Kerouac and Burgess, two of my all time of all time faves, selected here.
As I just mentioned on Bill Wallo's piece, it would have been interesting to see lists broken out for lit fiction, genre, and perhaps even non-fic.
2 - El Bicho
The list is incomplete without Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.
3 - LegendaryMonkey
No such list will ever be complete, but I can understand their reasons behind many of the choices and applaud the effort.
Like any list, it's subjective, but it gives us something to talk about, and I'd rather argue books than discuss the same stupid news stories again and again.
-LM, who is anti-CNN today, randomly
4 - AT
Where did the original of this 100 best appear? In what issue of Time?