![]() ![]() The answer to this question, published on 21 May, came back loud and clear: Beloved by Toni Morrison, a contemporary masterpiece that contributed powerfully to Morrison's nomination for the Nobel Prize in 1993.Įven as it trumpeted its finding, the NYT was quick to admit the quixotic nature of its quest. ![]() The editors of the NYT Book Review had sent a letter to 200 writers 'and other literary sages' asking them to identify 'the best single work of American fiction in the last 25 years'. ![]() Last spring, the New York Times, repeating an exercise from the 1960s that chose Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, announced that it had ventured into the interior of American letters and tracked down 'the best work' of contemporary American fiction. They subscribe to the pursuit of (literary) happiness. We don't really believe in the last word, prefer not to be told what's best and would rather make our own discoveries. ![]() They want to believe in the Great American Novel, the classic exemplar, the last word. We celebrate a literary tradition of astonishing variety. I n the novel, as in everything else, there are Anglo-Saxon and American attitudes. ![]()
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