The Complete List | TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels

Home , American Pastoral, Edmund White, Ed the Happy Clown, Oscar Hijuelos, The Berlin Stories

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Complete List

In Alphabetical Order L - N PRINT Light in August

A - B William Faulkner

The Adventures of Augie March Read the Original Review

Saul Bellow The Lion, The Witch and the All the King's Men Wardrobe Robert Penn Warren C.S. Lewis

Read the Original Review About the List

Lolita » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the American Pastoral Vladimir Nabokov

Philip Roth list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Read the Original Review

Read the Original Review (which didn't make

Lord of the Flies the cut). An American Tragedy William Golding

Theodore Dreiser » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and

The Lord of the Rings the pain) behind stacking up Animal Farm J.R.R. Tolkien George Orwell 100 novels. Read the Original Review

Read the Original Review Loving Reader's Choice Appointment in Samarra Henry Green 1: John O'Hara Read the Original Review 2: Lolita Read the Original Review

3: A Passage to India Lucky Jim Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Kingsley Amis 4: A Death in the Family Judy Blume Read the Original Review 5: Ubik The Assistant The Man Who Loved Children Bernard Malamud See the full list Christina Stead

Read the Original Review Read the Original Review

At Swim-Two-Birds Midnight's Children Flann O'Brien

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html (1 of 6)7/3/2008 12:37:51 PM The Complete List | TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels

Best Graphic Novels Salman Rushdie

TIME's Andrew Arnold Atonement Ian McEwan Money picks Watchmen and Martin Amis Read the Original Review nine other comix Read the Original Review

masterpieces Beloved The Moviegoer Toni Morrison Walker Percy Archive Trivia Read the Original Review Read the Original Review Who was the first author to The Berlin Stories appear on a TIME cover? Christopher Isherwood Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf Get the answer and much Read the Original Review

Naked Lunch more on our trivia page The Big Sleep William Burroughs Raymond Chandler Talk Back Read the Original Review Read the Original Review Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Native Son

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! The Blind Assassin Richard Wright Margaret Atwood —Robin; Seattle, Wash. Read the Original Review Read the Original Review

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I Neuromancer

Blood Meridian William Gibson checked your list twice, I can't believe you did Cormac McCarthy

not list either author. Never Let Me Go

Brideshead Revisited Kazuo Ishiguro —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. Evelyn Waugh

Read the Original Review Read the Original Review Send us your thoughts » 1984

The Bridge of San Luis Rey George Orwell From the TIME Archive Thornton Wilder Ernest Hemingway Read the Original Review "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is Read the Original Review somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' O - R transcriber of life...." C - D Writer 1/18/26 On the Road Call It Sleep More Writers in TIME Jack Kerouac Henry Roth Read the Original Review Search the Archive from 1923 - Present Read the Original Review

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Catch-22 Ken Kesey http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html (2 of 6)7/3/2008 12:37:51 PM The Complete List | TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels

More From TIME.com Joseph Heller Read the Original Review All-TIME 100 Movies » Read the Original Review The Painted Bird TIME critics Richard The Catcher in the Rye Jerzy Kosinski Corliss and Richard J.D. Salinger Pale Fire Schickel offer their list of 100 great films Read the Original Review Vladimir Nabokov

50 Coolest Websites » A Clockwork Orange Read the Original Review Anthony Burgess Best and Worst of 2004 » A Passage to India Read the Original Review E.M. Forster

The Confessions of Nat Turner Play It As It Lays William Styron Joan Didion

Read the Original Review Portnoy's Complaint

The Corrections Philip Roth

Jonathan Franzen Read the Original Review

Read the Original Review Possession

The Crying of Lot 49 A.S. Byatt

Thomas Pynchon Read the Original Review

Read the Original Review The Power and the Glory

A Dance to the Music of Time Graham Greene Anthony Powell The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Read the Original Review Muriel Spark

The Day of the Locust Read the Original Review Nathanael West Rabbit, Run

Read the Original Review John Updike

Death Comes for the Archbishop Read the Original Review Willa Cather Ragtime

A Death in the Family E.L. Doctorow

James Agee Read the Original Review

The Death of the Heart The Recognitions Elizabeth Bowen http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html (3 of 6)7/3/2008 12:37:51 PM The Complete List | TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels

William Gaddis

Read the Original Review Read the Original Review

Deliverance Red Harvest James Dickey Dashiell Hammett

Read the Original Review Revolutionary Road

Dog Soldiers Richard Yates Robert Stone S - T Read the Original Review The Sheltering Sky

Paul Bowles F - G

Falconer Read the Original Review John Cheever Slaughterhouse-Five

Read the Original Review Kurt Vonnegut

The French Lieutenant's Woman Read the Original Review John Fowles Snow Crash

Read the Original Review Neal Stephenson

The Golden Notebook The Sot-Weed Factor

Doris Lessing John Barth

Read the Original Review The Sound and the Fury

William Faulkner Go Tell it on the Mountain

James Baldwin The Sportswriter

Read the Original Review Richard Ford

Read the Original Review Gone With the Wind

Margaret Mitchell The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Read the Original Review John le Carre

Read the Original Review The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck The Sun Also Rises

Read the Original Review Ernest Hemingway

Read the Original Review Gravity's Rainbow

Thomas Pynchon Their Eyes Were Watching God

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html (4 of 6)7/3/2008 12:37:51 PM The Complete List | TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels

Read the Original Review Zora Neale Hurston

Read the Original Review The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald Things Fall Apart

Read the Original Review Chinua Achebe

H - I To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee A Handful of Dust

Evelyn Waugh Read the Original Review

Read the Original Review To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

Carson McCullers Read the Original Review

Read the Original Review Tropic of Cancer

Henry Miller The Heart of the Matter

Graham Greene Read the Original Review

Herzog U - W Saul Bellow Ubik

Read the Original Review Philip K. Dick

Housekeeping Under the Net

Marilynne Robinson Iris Murdoch

Read the Original Review Under the Volcano

Malcolm Lowry A House for Mr. Biswas

V.S. Naipaul Read the Original Review

Read the Original Review Watchmen

Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons I, Claudius

Robert Graves White Noise

Read the Original Review Don DeLillo

Read the Original Review Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallace White Teeth

Read the Original Review Zadie Smith

Read the Original Review http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html (5 of 6)7/3/2008 12:37:51 PM The Complete List | TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels

Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys Read the Original Review

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html (6 of 6)7/3/2008 12:37:51 PM ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Read the complete list | How we picked the list | Tell us what you think

The Adventures of Augie The Man Who Loved Children (1940) March (1953) Christina Stead Saul Bellow Midnight's Children (1981) (1946) All the King's Men Salman Rushdie About the List Robert Penn Warren Money (1984) » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the (1997) American Pastoral Martin Amis Philip Roth list and shares his John Le Carre favorite The Moviegoer (1961) (1925) An American Tragedy Walker Percy (which didn't make Theodore Dreiser Mrs. Dalloway (1925) the cut). (1946) Animal Farm Virginia Woolf George Orwell » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Naked Lunch (1959) Appointment in Samarra (1934) the pain) behind stacking up William Burroughs John O'Hara Native Son (1940) 100 novels. Are You There God? It's Me, Richard Wright Margaret (1970)

Reader's Choice Judy Blume Neuromancer (1984) William Gibson 1: The Assistant (1957)

Bernard Malamud Never Let Me Go (2005) 2: Lolita Kazuo Ishiguro At Swim-Two-Birds (1938) 3: A Passage to India Flann O'Brien 1984 (1948) George Orwell 4: A Death in the Family Atonement (2002)

Ian McEwan On the Road (1957) 5: Ubik Jack Kerouac Beloved (1987) See the full list Toni Morrison One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) Ken Kesey The Berlin Stories (1946)

Christopher Isherwood The Painted Bird (1965) Jerzy Kosinski The Big Sleep (1939)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/ (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:37:56 PM ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Raymond Chandler Pale Fire (1962)

TIME's Andrew Arnold Vladimir Nabokov The Blind Assassin (2000) A Passage to India (1924) picks Watchmen and Margaret Atwood E.M. Forster Blood Meridian (1986) nine other comix Cormac McCarthy Play It As It Lays (1970) masterpieces Joan Didion Brideshead Revisited (1946)

Evelyn Waugh

Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to

appear on a TIME cover?

Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page

Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

—Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/ (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:37:56 PM ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/ (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:37:56 PM Top-Rated - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Readers Top Rated Current Issue Your rankings of our ALL-TIME best novels

RATING TITLE 5 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

5 The Adventures of Augie March 5 Invisible Man 5 A Death in the Family 5 Lolita Table of Contents 5 Blood Meridian 5 A Passage to India About the List 5 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - 5 A Clockwork Orange list and shares his John Le Carre favorite 5 Beloved 5 At Swim-Two-Birds (which didn't make 5 Ubik the cut). 5 Watchmen 5 Appointment in Samarra » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and 5 Money the pain) behind stacking up 5 Gone With the Wind 5 Under the Volcano 100 novels. 5 Gravity's Rainbow 4.57 The Catcher in the Rye Reader's Choice 4.17 1984 1: 4 To Kill a Mockingbird

2: Lolita 4 Rabbit, Run 4 The Sound and the Fury 3: A Passage to India 4 The Sheltering Sky

4: A Death in the Family 4 Housekeeping

5: Ubik More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) See the full list

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,ratethis,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:00 PM Top-Rated - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

TIME's Andrew Arnold Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

picks Watchmen and Harry Potter Archive Collection

nine other comix Writers in TIME Archive Collection

masterpieces

● Most E-Mailed Stories

Archive Trivia ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Who was the first author to ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● appear on a TIME cover? How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - TIME Get the answer and much ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

more on our trivia page ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed |

Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

—Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,ratethis,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:00 PM Top-Rated - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,ratethis,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:00 PM Graphical Novels - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

All-TIME Graphic Novels Current Issue "Graphic novel" is a vague moniker that gets applied to any

extended form of comics, including non-fiction and short story

collections. But here, at least, the term fits. Following the rules of

the All TIME 100 books — focusing exclusively on book-length

fictional stories originally written in English — here are the All

TIME top ten graphic novels, in alphabetical order by title. Table of Contents

About the List — Andrew D. Arnold

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - Berlin: City of Stones by Jason Lutes list and shares his John Le Carre favorite (Drawn & Quarterly; 2000) (which didn't make Part of an incredibly ambitious, years-in- the cut). the-making project, this is just the first » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and volume of a series of novels that will all take place during the the pain) behind stacking up combustible Weimar era of the titular city. Drawn with clean lines 100 novels. and an attention to architectural detail that pays homage to such

Reader's Choice European comics as Hergé's "Tintin," City of Stones follows a

1: young woman art student who starts an affair with a weary leftist

2: Lolita journalist against a background of boiling politics and decadence.

3: A Passage to India Filled with rich characters and period detail, even if the follow-up

4: A Death in the Family books never come, it will still be one of the premier works of

5: Ubik historical fiction in the medium.

See the full list Blankets by Craig Thompson (Top Shelf;

2003)

This semi-autobiographical novel set in the

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,graphic_novels,00.html (1 of 6)7/3/2008 12:38:04 PM Graphical Novels - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels snowy hinterlands of Wisconsin tells the TIME's Andrew Arnold story of a lonely, artistic young man who picks Watchmen and struggles with his fundamentalist Christian upbringing when he nine other comix falls in love. Fluidly told over 582 pages, Blankets magically masterpieces recreates the high emotional stakes of adolescence. Thompson

has set new bars for the medium not just in length, but breadth. Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to TIME.comix: Curl up with a Great Book

appear on a TIME cover? Bone by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books; 2004)

Get the answer and much A series of black-and-white comics about

more on our trivia page three odd-looking creatures lost in a valley

Talk Back of dragons, talking bugs and rat creatures

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on published over twelve years are collected

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! here as a 1,300-page soft cover. Bone combines the humor and

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. look of early Disney movies with the scope of the Lord of the

Rings cycle. Smith draws characters that are both cute and scary, Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

infusing every panel with dynamic energy. The best all-ages novel checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

yet published in this medium, while children will read Bone for its not list either author.

breathless adventure and sight gags, older kids and adults will —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

appreciate the themes of blind fanaticism and corrupting power. Send us your thoughts » TIME.comix: No Bones About It

From the TIME Archive The Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is Kim Deitch (Pantheon; 2002) Deitch, an somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' overlooked veteran of the 1960s transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26 "underground" comix movement, finally More Writers in TIME got his due with this trade-published

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present novel. It follows the career of Ted Mishkin, a brilliant animator of

the 1930s driven to madness by a (possibly imaginary)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,graphic_novels,00.html (2 of 6)7/3/2008 12:38:04 PM Graphical Novels - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

malevolent, bipedal cat named Waldo. Using a charming drawing More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies » style reminiscent of 1930s cartoons Deitch explores the nature of

TIME critics Richard reality, the mystery of inspiration, the exploitation of pop culture

Corliss and Richard and the redemptive power of art.

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films TIME.comix: The Transgressive Comix of Kim Deitch

50 Coolest Websites » The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

Best and Worst of 2004 » (DC Comics; 1986)

One of the best-selling graphic novels of all

time, this black comedy version of

Batman's latter days masterfully combines

satire with superhero antics without betraying it's central

character's core of danger. Along with Alan Moore & Dave

Gibbon's Watchmen, it redefined the concept of "superhero," and

helped spark the first wave of "serious" interest in comics.

David Boring by Daniel Clowes

(Pantheon; 2000)

Although best known for his book Ghost

World, thanks to the movie version,

Dan Clowes' David Boring, about a guy

in search of a woman while the world may be ending, marked his

first truly novelistic approach to graphical storytelling. Peerless in

his ability to create offbeat characters and write sardonic humor,

Clowes has lately gotten more experimental in his form, but David

Boring remains his most readable and unified book.

TIME Magazine: Boring's Exciting Ride

Ed the Happy Clown by Chester

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,graphic_novels,00.html (3 of 6)7/3/2008 12:38:04 PM Graphical Novels - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME Brown (Vortex; 1989)

Brown, who has sustained a career as

one of comicdom's maverick creators,

first became known with this

fantastically funny, violent and absurd

debut novel, a bizarre farce that includes Martians, vampires,

Ronald Reagan and a doleful, miserable protagonist named Ed

the Happy Clown. Montreal's Drawn & Quarterly has just begun

re-publishing the chapters as individual comics with new covers.

TIME.comix: The Weird World of Chester Brown

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid

on Earth by Chris Ware (Pantheon;

2000)

The most perfect novel yet seen in this format, Ware innovates in

form and in content to create a uniquely American story, both

tragic and gut-splittingly funny. Neither smart nor a kid, Jimmy

reunites with his long-lost dad, finds him a great disappointment,

and discovers an African-American sister he never knew about.

Confronting race, history, and family this book proved

incontrovertibly that the form could be as deep and complex as

any prose novel.

TIME Magazine: Right Way, Corrigan

Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup

Stories by Gilbert Hernandez

(Fantagraphics Books; 2003)

A kind of über graphic novel that

collects a series of smaller graphic

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,graphic_novels,00.html (4 of 6)7/3/2008 12:38:04 PM Graphical Novels - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

novels all situated in a small town "somewhere south of the U.S.

border," this giant tome by a seminal comic artist will likely be the

author's magnum opus. Part of the creative team behind the

deeply influential "Love and Rockets" comic book series (along

with his equally talented brother Jaime) Gilbert has created a pan-

American epic that spans multiple generations of a family run

almost exclusively by women. Hernandez' Palomar combines the

look of Archie comics with Faulkner's richness of character and

place into the melodramatic sweep of a sexy soap opera to create

one of the most remarkable works of any narrative art.

TIME Magazine: Graphic Sketches of Latino Life

Watchmen written by Alan Moore /

drawn by Dave Gibbons (DC Comics;

1986)

Moore, who has become one of the

most successful graphic novelists of the

age (From Hell; League of

Extraordinary Gentlemen), first broke out with this, his

deconstruction of the superhero. Working with U.K. compatriot

Gibbons, Moore created a complex murder mystery with intense,

unforgettable characters that explored the themes of absolute

power, love and the medium of comic books. It is the only graphic

novel to also be included in the All-TIME 100 Novels list.

Andrew Arnold writes the TIME.comix column, covering the world

of graphic literature. For more graphic novel recommendations,

see A Graphic Literature Library: 25 books from 25 years for

smart, sophisticated readers. Thoughts about this list? Write to

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,graphic_novels,00.html (5 of 6)7/3/2008 12:38:04 PM Graphical Novels - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Andrew Arnold at [email protected].

More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection

Writers in TIME Archive Collection

● Most E-Mailed Stories

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed |

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,graphic_novels,00.html (6 of 6)7/3/2008 12:38:04 PM Talk Back - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Tell us your thoughts about

TIME's ALL-TIME 100 Novels Current Issue

This week, TIME presents the All-TIME 100 novels, our list of the

100 best English-language novels published since the magazine

began. What do you think we should have left off the list— and

what would you add instead? Our critics Lev Grossman and

Table of Contents Richard Lacayo will answer questions in this space for the next

About the List week:

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite

(which didn't make Some of Your Responses:

the cut). You guys got about 30 right. You need to rework this list, fast. » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Nomi the pain) behind stacking up Laytonsville, MD 100 novels.

We are so blessed to have too many REALLY GREAT books Reader's Choice from which to choose, that a list of 100 could never begin to 1:

incorporate a fraction of them. But I must say, if you are going to 2: Lolita

narrow it to 100, Ender's Game, Dune and The Wheel of Time 3: A Passage to India

should be in there. Oh and Amy Tan's y Luck Club!!! I could go on 4: A Death in the Family

and on. 5: Ubik

Alison Moore See the full list Bixby, OK

A nice list. There is no way to please everybody, of course - there

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,talk_back,00.htm (1 of 8)7/3/2008 12:38:08 PM Talk Back - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels are too many competing standards for how to judge a book as

TIME's Andrew Arnold one of the greatest of the past 80+ years. That being said, I would

picks Watchmen and have chosen The Long Goodbye over The Big Sleep as

nine other comix Chandler's contribution. The Big Sleep is a great novel, but The

masterpieces Long Goodbye is Chandler at his most mature, transcending the

detective genre and becoming a thriller with the emotional depth Archive Trivia to compare to any novel from any genre. Who was the first author to

Michael Ferges appear on a TIME cover?

Phoenix, AZ Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page The list seems to be too American male-centric. A female view

Talk Back could have included Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, Five

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris, Anna's Book by

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Barbara Vine, The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Glad at least

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. Posession and The Blind Assassin were included.

Maria Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

Manila, Philippines checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author. What about Lonesome Dove? Several McMurtry novels are

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. worthy of the list, but Lonsome Dove is a masterpiece. In it,

Send us your thoughts » McMurtry creates timeless, larger-than-life characters who wrestle

with issues of honor, personal sacrifice & selflessness. From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway David Young "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is

somebody; a new, Benbrook, TX honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26 As with any list, you can never satisfy everyone. Picking the top

More Writers in TIME 100 books is very challenging, do you pick the most socially

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present influential books, the most popular, etc. The criteria used is so

interpretive. My list would include books that influence young

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,talk_back,00.htm (2 of 8)7/3/2008 12:38:08 PM Talk Back - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

readers to read more. While Harry Potter, Series Of Unfortunate More From TIME.com

Events , etc. are not necessarily great literary works like a War All-TIME 100 Movies »

and Peace, they do have significant influence on getting young TIME critics Richard

readers to read more. And this is what writing is all about, getting Corliss and Richard

preople to read more and think about what they have read. Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

Al Bischoff 50 Coolest Websites » Highland, MD Best and Worst of 2004 »

You were right! Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the better John Le

Carre novel! And East of Eden should replace The Grapes of

Wrath too. But I can't believe you left off The Bonfire of the

VanitiesTom Wolfe and Accidental Toursit. Ann Tyler is one of my

favorite authors.

Monica Bouweraerts

Camarillo, CA

What about Anita Diamants The Red Tent? A female opinion is

definitely missing.

Candy

Milwaukee, WI

I'm sure it took a lot of work to come up with this, but leaving out

Paul Auster is a MAJOR mistake. He should be there at least

twice.

Rosa Kruger

New York, NY

You missed The English Patient. What an oversight! Also, you

can tell that this list was compiled by two men; women would

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,talk_back,00.htm (3 of 8)7/3/2008 12:38:08 PM Talk Back - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

have selected a somewhat different list, I think. .

Beth Creveling

Perkasie, PA

Thank you for not including any Harry Potter. I would have lost all

respect for TIME magazine if that had been included (they are

okay books, they're just nowhere near list worthy). The list,

however, seems to be missing Dune, and anything from Asimov,

Bradbury, and HP Lovecraft. These are serious errors of

judgement.

Matthew

Tacoma, WA

One of my 5 favorites that didn't make the list: THE PRINCE OF

TIDES by Pat Conroy. He is one of the few writers who can pull

you right into the characters he writes about and make you feel

that you're involved in what happens to them.

Marsha Striesfeld

Marietta, Georgia

Thank you so much for including Watchmen on your list. It truly is

an important work in English literature, and basically allowed

graphic novels and comic books to take off into the millions of

different directions that they have today. Do not be surprised if

Alan Moore is the first graphic novelist to win a Nobel Prize.

Alexa Dickman

Newton, MA

WHY ISN"T THE HARRY POTTER SERIES ON THERE!!?? IT

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,talk_back,00.htm (4 of 8)7/3/2008 12:38:08 PM Talk Back - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

DEFINITLEY SHOULD BE ON THERE!!

Robin

Seattle, WA

I think you've done a very fine job here. I appreciate the attention

paid to "niche" genres (Sci-fi, childrens lit, graphic novels), and

while I have some personal favorites that didn't make the list;

Watership Down. I think you've captured a great cross-section of

the art of the novel over the past 100 years or so.

Dave Provost

Cape Cod, MA

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I checked your list twice, I

can't believe you did not list either author. Not to be sexist,

perhaps you need a female opinion.

Susan Sayfan

Longwood, FL

I was disappointed that the Kite Runner was left off your list. I

found it to be truly thought provoking and have recommended it to

all my friends. I was glad to see my favorite book, To Kill A

Mockingbird, on your list.

Mary Ann Doerr

Dansville,NY

Great list except for one - how did Possesion get on there? That

book was awful. It was slow, boring, and too long. I had to

struggle to get to the end.

Sara

Johnson City, NY

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,talk_back,00.htm (5 of 8)7/3/2008 12:38:08 PM Talk Back - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Red Harvest may be a seminal novel of the genre, but that

shouldn't qualify it as listworthy. Your list should have either of

Harriet Arnow's two great novels and I'd vote for Hunter's Horn.

Annie Dillard's The Living should be there and at least one of

Thomas Harris' thrillers, Black Sunday or Silence of the Lambs,

representing the best of the thriller genre.

Dave DeInnocentis

Andover, Ma

Where was A Farewell to Arms?

John

Sayville, NY

How can we take this list seriously when you left off the great

American novel: Lonesome Dove? Back to the drawing board for

you.

David Scheiderer

Los Gatos, CA

I like the list, as it gives me some nice titles to seek out when I

have some spare time next, but I am disquieted by the lack of

science fiction titles on it. Neuromancer is a fine choice, but there

are so many fine titles in the genre, Enders Game, Foundation,

and Dune , just to name a few.

Kenneth Alford

San Antonio, Texas

Why did you not include one horror novel on that list? Certainly

Richard Matheson's I Am Legend or Stephen King's The Shining http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,talk_back,00.htm (6 of 8)7/3/2008 12:38:08 PM Talk Back - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

deserve a spot if Snow Crash deserved one???

Andrew

Tampa, FL

John Irving's books are among my favorite novels. The World

According to Garp and A Prayer for Owen Meaney are masterful

stories and I am a better person for having read them. I also find

Richard Adams' book, Watership Down one that I can never

forget. I read the book first in 1979, and think about Hazel and

Bigwig everytime I see a wild rabit.

William Cannon

Coffeeville, AL

It's wonderful that you chose Are You There God? It's me,

Margaret to include in your list. It was a wonderful book for just

the right time in a young girl's life. Every girl I knew read it. And I

think parents were happy that kids were able to get true, accurate

information - without their own embarassment.

Maria

Albany, New York

One title comes to mind when I am asked what is the greatest

book ever written: The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. It celebrates

individuality in the face of societal pressures to constantly

comform and comply. Not only is it a great book, but the

philosophy running through this novel is one that should be

brought forth in schools around the world.

Dina Evanson

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,talk_back,00.htm (7 of 8)7/3/2008 12:38:08 PM Talk Back - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Syosset NY

More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection

Writers in TIME Archive Collection

● Most E-Mailed Stories

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed |

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,talk_back,00.htm (8 of 8)7/3/2008 12:38:08 PM How We Picked the List - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

How We Picked the List Current Issue

By Richard Lacayo

Welcome to the massive, anguished, exalted undertaking that is the ALL TIME 100

books list. The parameters: English language novels published anywhere in the world

since 1923, the year that TIME Magazine began, which, before you ask, means that

Ulysses (1922) doesn't make the cut. In May, Time.com posted a similar list, of 100

Table of Contents movies picked by our film critics, Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel. This one is

chosen by me, Richard Lacayo, and my colleague Lev Grossman, whom we sometimes About the List cite as proof that you don't need to be named Richard to be hired as a critic at TIME, » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - though apparently it helps. Just ask our theater critic, Richard Zoglin.

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite

For the books project, Grossman and I each began by drawing up inventories of our (which didn't make nominees. Once we traded notes, it turned out that more than 80 of our separately the cut). chosen titles matched. (Even some of the less well-known ones, like At-Swim Two

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Birds.) We decided then that we would more or less divide the remaining slots between

us. That would allow each of us to include books that the other might not have chosen. the pain) behind stacking up Or might not even have read. (Ubik? What's an Ubik?) And that would extend the list 100 novels. into places where mere agreement wouldn't take it.

Reader's Choice Even so, there are many titles we couldn't fit here that we're still anguishing over. Djuna

1: Barnes' Nightwood dropped in and out. Aldous Huxley's Point Counter Point hovered for

a while at the edges. There were writers we had to admit we love more for their short 2: Lolita

stories than their novels—Donald Barthelme, Annie Proulx, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora 3: A Passage to India Welty. We could agree that some of Gore Vidal's novels are an essential pleasure, but

4: A Death in the Family it's his non-fiction that's essential period. Then there was the intellectual massif of

Norman Mailer, indisputably one of the great writers of our time, but his supreme 5: Ubik

achievements are his headlong reconfigurations of the whole idea of non-fiction, books

See the full list like Armies of the Night and The Executioner's Song. Dawn Powell, Mordechai Richler,

Thomas Wolfe, Peter Carey, J.F. Powers, Mary McCarthy, Edmund White, Larry

McMurtry, Katherine Ann Porter, Amy Tan, John Dos Passos, Oscar Hijuelos—we

looked over our bookcases and many more than 100 names laid down a claim. This

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,our_choices,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:11 PM How We Picked the List - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels means you, Stephen King.

TIME's Andrew Arnold

This project, which got underway in January, was not just a reading effort. It was a re- picks Watchmen and reading effort. It meant revisiting a lot of novels both of us had not looked into for some

nine other comix time. A few titles that seemed indispensable some years ago turned out on a second

tasting to be, well, dispensable. More common was the experience I had with Saul masterpieces

Bellow's Herzog, about a man coming to terms with the disappointments of midlife by

directing his questions everywhere. It was one of the first adult novels I attempted in late Archive Trivia adolescence. It left its treadmarks on me even then, but this time his experienced heart Who was the first author to spoke to me differently.

appear on a TIME cover?

There were also first time discoveries. Having heard for years that Richard Yates' Get the answer and much Revolutionary Road was one of the great but underappreciated American novels, I

more on our trivia page searched it out. I have spent the months since then pressing it into the hands of

anybody who will take it, including yours. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Talk Back Hurston's great story of a black woman surviving whatever God and man throws at her,

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on was not part of the required reading list when I was in school. It is now part of my

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! personal canon. Henry Green? Hadn't read Henry Green. Finally read Loving. Loved it.

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. Lists like this one have two purposes. One is to instruct. The other of course is to

enrage. We're bracing ourselves for the e-mails that start out: "You moron! You pathetic Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I bourgeoise insect! How could you have left off...(insert title here)." We say Mrs.

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did Dalloway. You say Mrs. Bridge. We say Naked Lunch. You say Breakfast at Tiffanys.

not list either author. Let's call the whole thing off? Just the opposite—bring it on. Sometimes judgment is

best formed under fire. But please, no e-mails about Ulysses. Rules are rules. —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts » More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, How and What to Read (10/2/72) honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

Writers in TIME Archive Collection

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,our_choices,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:11 PM How We Picked the List - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com ● Most E-Mailed Stories

All-TIME 100 Movies » ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

TIME critics Richard ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - Corliss and Richard TIME Schickel offer their list of 100 great films ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory 50 Coolest Websites » ● Add This RSS Feed |

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,our_choices,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:11 PM Lolita - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Lolita (1955) Author: Vladimir Nabokov Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

It had a troubled birth; Nabokov almost

burned the manuscript of Lolita halfway

through and its first publisher was a Table of Contents French pornographic press. But Lolita

About the List would go on to became a huge best- » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - seller and the unlikeliest of American list and shares his John Le Carre favorite classics. Our hero, who goes by the self-mocking name of (which didn't make Humbert Humbert, is a pedophile. He is a highly cultured, the cut). endearingly ironic man, and he loathes himself about as much as » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and a human being can, but he loves, and can only love, nubile young the pain) behind stacking up girls, whom he calls "nymphets." Lolita is the story of Humbert's 100 novels. romance—if that's the word, which it isn't—with a 12-year-old girl

Reader's Choice named Dolores Haze. Their story is as vile and obscene as one

1: can imagine, but Humbert's voice, an endlessly inventive stream

2: Lolita of angry, cosmopolitan invective, elevates it to the level of a

3: A Passage to India tragic, twisted epic.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik Unlike Oscar Wilde, who earlier at the same port in America

said he had nothing to declare but his genius, Nabokov declared See the full list

a set of boxing gloves

—TIME Magazine, Sept. 1, 1958 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,lolita,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:15 PM Lolita - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: Lord of the Flies » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) Who was the first author to

How and What to Read (10/2/72) appear on a TIME cover?

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Get the answer and much

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) more on our trivia page

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,lolita,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:15 PM Lolita - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,lolita,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:15 PM A Passage to India - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

A Passage to India (1924) Author: E.M. Forster Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

By the time the great Edwardian

novelist, in this last and best of his

novels published in his lifetime, Table of Contents addressed himself to the British

About the List presence in India, his moral sense was » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - more fully equipped than ever. Mindful list and shares his John Le Carre favorite of the imponderables of human conduct, alert to all the reciprocal (which didn't make misjudgments and the wearying false appraisals we make as a the cut). matter of course, he looked at empire and saw its weak » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and foundations. Adela Quested is a British visitor to the Raj who is the pain) behind stacking up anxious to know "the real India." On a visit to the Malabar caves 100 novels. an assault of some kind does or does not happen to her, perhaps

Reader's Choice at the hands of Dr. Aziz, the solicitous Indian Muslim who has

1: arranged the trip. Has she imagined things? Is he not what he

2: Lolita seems? In his other great novel, Howard's End, Forster directed

3: A Passage to India us to "only connect." What he demonstrates here, in a story of the

4: A Death in the Family greatest and saddest subtleties—and comic subtleties, too—is

5: Ubik how nearly impossible that is to do.—R.L.

See the full list

Next: Play It As It Lays »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_passage_to_india,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:19 PM A Passage to India - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive: picks Watchmen and

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) nine other comix

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) masterpieces

How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Who was the first author to Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

appear on a TIME cover? Harry Potter Archive Collection

Get the answer and much Writers in TIME Archive Collection

more on our trivia page

● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Add This RSS Feed | checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_passage_to_india,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:19 PM A Passage to India - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_passage_to_india,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:19 PM A Death in the Family - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

A Death in the Family (1958) Author: James Agee Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Agee was a poet, a penetrating film

critic for TIME and other magazines, an

intricate public conscience, and a man Table of Contents who carried all his life the burden of his

About the List father's death in a car accident when » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - Agee was six. (Forty years later to the list and shares his John Le Carre favorite day Agee would die of a heart attack.) He brought all of that, both (which didn't make his gifts and his psychic injuries, to this grave and lyrical story of the cut). Rufus Follet, a boy whose world is upended by his father's » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and sudden death in an auto accident. What this book lacks in form it the pain) behind stacking up more than makes up for in subtly delineated feeling. Agee's 100 novels. forgiving embrace of the deeply imperfect people he describes, a

Reader's Choice kind of Whitmanesque tenderness, stays with you a long time.—R.

1: L.

2: Lolita

3: A Passage to India

4: A Death in the Family Next: The Death of the Heart »

5: Ubik More From the Archive: See the full list Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_death_in_the_family,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:22 PM A Death in the Family - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) TIME's Andrew Arnold

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) picks Watchmen and

Harry Potter Archive Collection nine other comix

Writers in TIME Archive Collection masterpieces

● Most E-Mailed Stories Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' appear on a TIME cover? ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

Get the answer and much TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch more on our trivia page

● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

—Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_death_in_the_family,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:22 PM A Death in the Family - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_death_in_the_family,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:22 PM Ubik - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Ubik (1969) Author: Philip K. Dick Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

An accident has occurred. Joe Chip and

his colleagues—all but one of

them—have narrowly escaped an Table of Contents explosion at a moon base. Or is it the

About the List other way round? Did Joe and the » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - others die, and did the one fatality, Glen list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Runciter, actually survive? If Glen is dead and Joe alive, why (which didn't make does Joe keep getting weird messages from Glen? Is Joe's the cut). experience of his post-accident life just a hallucination, played out » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and as his flash-frozen body lies in suspended animation? Joe's the pain) behind stacking up reality begins to fall apart, and a mysterious, vaguely mystical 100 novels. substance called Ubik—available in a handy spray can—appears

Reader's Choice to be the only thing that can stabilize it. From the stuff of space

1: opera, Dick spins a deeply unsettling existential horror story, a

2: Lolita nightmare you'll never be sure you've woken up from.—L.G.

3: A Passage to India

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list

Next: Under the Net »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,ubik,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:26 PM Ubik - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From the Archive: Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

picks Watchmen and Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

nine other comix How and What to Read (10/2/72)

masterpieces Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Archive Trivia Harry Potter Archive Collection

Who was the first author to Writers in TIME Archive Collection

appear on a TIME cover?

Get the answer and much ● Most E-Mailed Stories

more on our trivia page ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

Talk Back ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Obama's Historic Victory

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,ubik,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:26 PM Ubik - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,ubik,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:26 PM The Adventures of Augie March - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Adventures of Augie March

(1953) Current Issue Author: Saul Bellow

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Augie comes on stage with one of

literature's most famous opening lines.

"I am an American, Chicago born, and Table of Contents

About the List go at things as I have taught myself,

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the free-style, and will make the record in - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite my own way: first to knock, first

(which didn't make admitted." It's the "Call me Ishmael" of mid-20th-century American

the cut). fiction. (For the record, Bellow was born in Canada.) Or it would

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and be if Ishmael had been more like Tom Jones with a philosophical

the pain) behind stacking up disposition. With this teeming book Bellow returned a Dickensian

100 novels. richness to the American novel. As he makes his way to a full

brimming consciousness of himself, Augie careens through Reader's Choice

1: numberless occupations and countless mentors and exemplars,

2: Lolita all the while enchanting us with the slapdash American music of

3: A Passage to India his voice.—R.L.

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list

Next: All the King's Men »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_adventures_of_augie_march,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:29 PM The Adventures of Augie March - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels More From the Archive: TIME's Andrew Arnold

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) picks Watchmen and

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) nine other comix

How and What to Read (10/2/72) masterpieces

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Who was the first author to Harry Potter Archive Collection

appear on a TIME cover? Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Get the answer and much

● Most E-Mailed Stories more on our trivia page

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Talk Back ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_adventures_of_augie_march,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:29 PM The Adventures of Augie March - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_adventures_of_augie_march,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:29 PM All the King's Men - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

All the King's Men (1946) Author: Robert Penn Warren Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

More than just a classic political novel,

Warren's tale of power and corruption in

the Depression-era South is a sustained Table of Contents meditation on the unforeseen

About the List consequences of every human act, the » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - vexing connectedness of all people and list and shares his John Le Carre favorite the possibility—it's not much of one—of goodness in a sinful (which didn't make world. Willie Stark, Warren's lightly disguised version of Huey the cut). Long, the onetime Louisiana strongman/governor, begins as a » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and genuine tribune of the people and ends as a murderous populist the pain) behind stacking up demagogue. Jack Burden is his press agent, who carries out the 100 novels. boss's orders, first without objection, then in the face of his own

Reader's Choice increasingly troubled conscience. And the politics? For Warren,

1: that's simply the arena most likely to prove that man is a fallen

2: Lolita creature. Which it does.—R.L.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive: 4: A Death in the Family In all his writing, even at its slickest, there is a sense of doom 5: Ubik and blood on the moon that Warren has gradually shifted into

See the full list religious terms

—TIME Magazine, Aug. 26, 1946 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,all_the_kings_men,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:33 PM All the King's Men - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold Next: American Pastoral »

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix More From the Archive:

masterpieces Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) Archive Trivia How and What to Read (10/2/72) Who was the first author to Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) appear on a TIME cover? Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Get the answer and much Harry Potter Archive Collection more on our trivia page Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Most E-Mailed Stories

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Obama's Historic Victory

not list either author. ● Add This RSS Feed |

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,all_the_kings_men,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:33 PM All the King's Men - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,all_the_kings_men,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:33 PM American Pastoral - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

American Pastoral (1997) Author: Philip Roth Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

To decipher the late 1960's through the

story of Swede Levov, whose life is cast

into the fires of those years, Roth calls Table of Contents again upon the saturnine side of his

About the List disposition. It answers to the purpose » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - as never before. Good-looking, list and shares his John Le Carre favorite prosperous Swede, who has inherited his father's glove factory in (which didn't make Newark, N.J., and married a former beauty queen, is not stupid, the cut). merely fulfilled. Is it this that gives him insufficient means to » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and comprehend the Newark riots of 1967 or the transformation of his the pain) behind stacking up beloved daughter into a venomous teenage radical, a child 100 novels. capable of cold-blooded terrorism? Roth's own means are more

Reader's Choice than sufficient. A writer who is unafraid to linger in the minds of

1: furious men, he leads us fearlessly through this man's grief,

2: Lolita bewilderment and rage.—R.L.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive: 4: A Death in the Family You will search the shelf of contemporary fiction long and hard 5: Ubik to find a parental nightmare projected with the emotional force

See the full list and verbal energy that Roth brings

—TIME Magazine, Apr. 28, 1997 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,american_pastoral,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:36 PM American Pastoral - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold Next: An American Tragedy »

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix More From the Archive:

masterpieces Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Most E-Mailed Stories

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Obama's Historic Victory

not list either author. ● Add This RSS Feed |

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,american_pastoral,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:36 PM American Pastoral - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,american_pastoral,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:36 PM An American Tragedy - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

An American Tragedy (1925) Author: Theodore Dreiser Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Clyde Griffiths is a young man with

ambitions. He's in love with a rich girl,

but it's a poor girl he has gotten Table of Contents pregnant, Roberta Alden, who works

About the List with him at his uncle's factory. One day » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - he takes Roberta canoeing on a lake list and shares his John Le Carre favorite with the intention of killing her. From there his fate is sealed. But (which didn't make by then Dreiser has made plain that Clyde's fate was long before the cut). sealed by a brutal and cynical society. The usual criticism of » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Dreiser is that, line for line, he's the weakest of the great the pain) behind stacking up American novelists. And it's true that he takes a pipe fitter's 100 novels. approach to writing, joining workmanlike sentences one to the

Reader's Choice other. But by the end he will have built them into a powerful

1: network, and something vital will be flowing through them.—R.L.

2: Lolita

3: A Passage to India

4: A Death in the Family

Next: Animal Farm » 5: Ubik

See the full list More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,an_american_tragedy,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:40 PM An American Tragedy - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels How and What to Read (10/2/72) TIME's Andrew Arnold

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) picks Watchmen and

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) nine other comix

Harry Potter Archive Collection masterpieces

Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Archive Trivia

● Most E-Mailed Stories Who was the first author to

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? appear on a TIME cover? ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Get the answer and much ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,an_american_tragedy,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:40 PM Animal Farm - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Animal Farm (1946) Author: George Orwell Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

No writer has ever been more naked in

his contempt for power, or more

ruthless in his critique of those who Table of Contents abuse it, than the Englishman born Eric

About the List Blair, better known to the world as » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - George Orwell. In Animal Farm he list and shares his John Le Carre favorite restages the hypocrisies of the Russian Revolution with the (which didn't make principal figures played by, of all things, farm animals. By the cut). presenting atrocities in the terms of a fairy tale, he makes them » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and fresh, restoring to readers numbed by the 20th century's parade the pain) behind stacking up of disasters a sense of shock and outrage. Paradoxically, by 100 novels. turning Trotsky and Lenin and their followers into pigs and horses

Reader's Choice and chickens, he reveals them as all too human.—L.G.

1: From the TIME Archive: 2: Lolita Britons chuckling at Animal Farm are calling its author the 3: A Passage to India most brilliant political satirist since Swift

4: A Death in the Family —TIME Magazine, Feb. 4, 1946 (Read This Review)

5: Ubik

See the full list

Next: Appointment in Samarra »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,animal_farm,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:43 PM Animal Farm - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive: picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,animal_farm,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:43 PM Animal Farm - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,animal_farm,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:43 PM Appointment in Samarra - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Appointment in Samarra (1934) Author: John O'Hara Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

O'Hara did for fictional Gibbsville,

Pennsylvania, what Faulkner did for

Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi: Table of Contents surveyed its social life and drew its

About the List psychic outlines. But he did it in utterly » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - worldly terms, without Faulkner's taste list and shares his John Le Carre favorite for mythic inference or the basso profundo of his prose. Julian (which didn't make English is a man who squanders what fate gave him. He lives on the cut). the right side of the tracks, with a country club membership and a » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and wife who loves him. His decline and fall, over the course of just 72 the pain) behind stacking up hours around Christmas, is a matter of too much spending, too 100 novels. much liquor and a couple of reckless gestures. (Now Julian, don't

Reader's Choice throw that drink in the well-connected Irishman's face. Don't make

1: that pass at the gangster's mistress.) That his calamity is petty

2: Lolita and preventable only makes it more powerful. In Faulkner the

3: A Passage to India tragedies all seem to be taking place on Olympus, even when

4: A Death in the Family they're happening among the lowlifes. In O'Hara they could be

5: Ubik happening to you.—R.L.

See the full list From the TIME Archive:

O'Hara writes with swift realism, wisely avoids sentimentality

—TIME Magazine, Aug. 20, 1934 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,appointment_in_samara,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:47 PM Appointment in Samarra - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

appear on a TIME cover? How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Get the answer and much Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

more on our trivia page Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,appointment_in_samara,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:47 PM Appointment in Samarra - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,appointment_in_samara,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:47 PM Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Are You There God? It's Me,

Margaret (1970) Current Issue Author: Judy Blume

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

You could almost hear the collective

generational sigh of relief in 1970 when

Blume published this groundbreaking, Table of Contents

About the List taboo-trampling young adult novel:

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the finally, a book that talks frankly about - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite sex without being prim or prurient, and

(which didn't make about religion without scolding or condescending. A few months

the cut). shy of her 12th birthday, Margaret Simon is starting school in a

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and new town and asking God some serious questions. Like, when is

the pain) behind stacking up she going to get her period? What bra should she buy? And if her

100 novels. mom is Jewish and her dad is Christian, is she supposed to join

the Y or the Jewish Community Center? Blume turned millions of Reader's Choice

1: pre-teens into readers. She did it by asking the right

2: Lolita questions—and avoiding pat, easy answers.—L.G.

3: A Passage to India

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik Next: The Assistant »

See the full list

More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,are_you_there_god_its_me_margaret,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:50 PM Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

TIME's Andrew Arnold How and What to Read (10/2/72)

picks Watchmen and Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

nine other comix Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

masterpieces Harry Potter Archive Collection

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to ● Most E-Mailed Stories

appear on a TIME cover? ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Get the answer and much ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● more on our trivia page How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - TIME

● Talk Back Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

● Add This RSS Feed | there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

—Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,are_you_there_god_its_me_margaret,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:50 PM Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,are_you_there_god_its_me_margaret,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:50 PM The Assistant - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Assistant (1957) Author: Bernard Malamud Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Malamud was a writer who always had

one eye fixed on the eternal and one on

the here and now. The eternal was the Table of Contents realm of moral quandaries. The here

About the List and now was usually a world of » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - struggling 20th-century Jews. It was his list and shares his John Le Carre favorite genius to show the two constantly intersecting. In this book, his (which didn't make masterpiece, Morris Bober is a woebegone neighborhood grocer the cut). whose modest store is failing and whose luck actually takes a turn » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and for the worse when he is held up by masked hoodlums. Or is it the pain) behind stacking up worse? When a stranger appears and offers to work without pay, 100 novels. "for the experience", it doesn't take long for the reader to realize

Reader's Choice that the stranger is one of the men who robbed Bober. But just

1: what are his motives in returning? He seems to be seeking to

2: Lolita atone, but he soon begins quietly robbing the till, while also falling

3: A Passage to India in love with Bober's daughter, theft of a different kind. From this

4: A Death in the Family intricate material Malamud builds a devastating meditation upon

5: Ubik suffering, penance and forgiveness, and the ways in which the

See the full list weight of the world can be lifted, just a little, by determined acts of

grace.— R.L.

From the TIME Archive:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_assistant,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:54 PM The Assistant - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Though Malamud's people have a bad time of it, they are

TIME's Andrew Arnold never just helpless victims of life

picks Watchmen and —TIME Magazine, Apr. 29, 1957 (Read This Review)

nine other comix

masterpieces

Next: At Swim-Two-Birds » Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to More From the Archive: appear on a TIME cover? Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Get the answer and much Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) more on our trivia page How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Talk Back Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Harry Potter Archive Collection

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Most E-Mailed Stories checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? not list either author. ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Send us your thoughts » ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory From the TIME Archive ● Add This RSS Feed | Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." 1/18/26 Writer

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_assistant,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:54 PM The Assistant - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_assistant,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:54 PM At Swim-Two-Birds - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

At Swim-Two-Birds (1938) Author: Flann O'Brien Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

O'Brien—in real life Irishman Brian

O'Nolan—would have been

disappointed if anybody could come up Table of Contents with a coherent summary of this

About the List brilliant, beer-soaked miniature » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - masterpiece. One of the best-kept list and shares his John Le Carre favorite secrets of 20th-century literature, At Swim-Two-Birds is ostensibly (which didn't make a novel about a lazy, impoverished college student who's writing a the cut). novel ("One beginning and one ending for a book is a thing I did » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and not agree with," he opines), but his characters won't stay put, and the pain) behind stacking up they get mixed up with all kinds of local Dublin types and figures 100 novels. out of Gaelic myth—it's like Ulysses played out in a comic mode,

Reader's Choice on a more human scale. Dylan Thomas said of it, "This is just the

1: book to give your sister if she's a loud, dirty, boozy girl." Even

2: Lolita better to keep it for yourself.—L.G.

3: A Passage to India

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

Next: Atonement » See the full list

More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,at_swim_two_birds,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:58 PM At Swim-Two-Birds - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) TIME's Andrew Arnold

How and What to Read (10/2/72) picks Watchmen and

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) nine other comix

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) masterpieces

Harry Potter Archive Collection

Archive Trivia Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Who was the first author to

● Most E-Mailed Stories appear on a TIME cover?

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Get the answer and much ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' more on our trivia page ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Talk Back ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

—Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,at_swim_two_birds,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:58 PM At Swim-Two-Birds - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,at_swim_two_birds,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:38:58 PM Light in August - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Light in August (1932) Author: William Faulkner Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

This book, Faulkner's grave meditation

on race, violence and all the fraught

legacies of the South, is the first in Table of Contents which he confronted head-on the

About the List poisons of racism. Joe Christmas » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - believes himself to be of mixed race. list and shares his John Le Carre favorite (His parentage is uncertain.) He has escaped from a miserable (which didn't make childhood to the town of Jefferson, Miss., where he unleashes his the cut). demons. Lena Grove has come there, too, looking for the father of » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and the child she is carrying while Christmas fulfills his wretched the pain) behind stacking up destiny. This book is less daring structurally than The Sound and 100 novels. the Fury or As I Lay Dying. Though time still folds back on itself,

Reader's Choice so that events seem to take place in a zone beyond normal

1: chronology, the flashbacks are easier to follow. But the force of

2: Lolita Faulkner's genius is in entirely in play.—R.L.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive: 4: A Death in the Family Faulkner depends on madmen for his best effects. From the 5: Ubik vasty deep of nightmares and bogeymen he can summon up

See the full list ghosts that haunt nurseries and still frighten some grownups

—TIME Magazine, Oct. 17, 1932 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,light_in_august,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:01 PM Light in August - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Next: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe »

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive:

nine other comix Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

masterpieces Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Who was the first author to

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) appear on a TIME cover?

Harry Potter Archive Collection Get the answer and much

Writers in TIME Archive Collection more on our trivia page

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Robin; Seattle, Wash. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Add This RSS Feed |

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,light_in_august,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:01 PM Light in August - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,light_in_august,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:01 PM The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Lion, The Witch and the

Wardrobe (1950) Current Issue Author: C.S. Lewis

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Four English children playing hide-and-

seek accidentally wander through an

enchanted wardrobe and into Narnia, a Table of Contents

About the List land locked in a deep magical winter by

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the the spells of an evil witch-queen. Only - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite the fierce, benevolent lion Aslan (with a

(which didn't make little help from the children) can vanquish the tyrant and bring

the cut). summer back to Narnia and the talking animals who live there.

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Lewis was a Christian philosopher, and The Lion, the Witch and

the pain) behind stacking up the Wardrobe (and the six more Narnia novels that followed) can

100 novels. be read as Christian morality tales, but they're not just kid stuff:

Lewis had a surprisingly sharp eye for the dark shades of the Reader's Choice

1: human soul, sin and anger and temptation, and readers of any

2: Lolita faith, or none at all, will feel the enormous power of Lewis's

3: A Passage to India irresistible, transporting sense of wonder.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list

Next: Lolita »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_lion_the_witch_and_the_wardrobe,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:05 PM The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels More From the Archive: TIME's Andrew Arnold

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) picks Watchmen and

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) nine other comix

How and What to Read (10/2/72) masterpieces

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Who was the first author to Harry Potter Archive Collection

appear on a TIME cover? Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Get the answer and much

● Most E-Mailed Stories more on our trivia page

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Talk Back ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_lion_the_witch_and_the_wardrobe,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:05 PM The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_lion_the_witch_and_the_wardrobe,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:05 PM Lord of the Flies - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Lord of the Flies (1955) Author: William Golding Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

The premise: A planeload of young

boys is marooned on a nameless

tropical island and they are forced to Table of Contents fend for themselves. If this novel had

About the List been written in the 19th century it would » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - have been about the cheery, whimsical list and shares his John Le Carre favorite never-neverland the boys created. But in Golding's version, the (which didn't make veneer of childish purity wears away quickly in the absence of the cut). adults, and the boys become two warring tribes, one under the » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and saintly Ralph and his asthmatic sidekick Piggy, one under the the pain) behind stacking up savage ex-choir-leader Jack. Golding tracks the fall of this new 100 novels. Eden with pitiless, meticulous care and total psychological clarity,

Reader's Choice and in the process he ruthlessly strips away the myths and cliches

1: of childhood innocence forever.—L.G.

2: Lolita

3: A Passage to India

4: A Death in the Family

Next: The Lord of the Rings » 5: Ubik

See the full list More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,lord_of_the_flies,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:08 PM Lord of the Flies - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels How and What to Read (10/2/72) TIME's Andrew Arnold

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) picks Watchmen and

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) nine other comix

Harry Potter Archive Collection masterpieces

Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Archive Trivia

● Most E-Mailed Stories Who was the first author to

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? appear on a TIME cover? ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Get the answer and much ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,lord_of_the_flies,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:08 PM The Lord of the Rings - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Lord of the Rings (1954) Author: J.R.R. Tolkien Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

When a tweedy, Catholic, pipe-smoking

Oxford professor named John Ronald

Reuel Tolkien sat down to write a novel, Table of Contents who could have anticipated that his

About the List volcanic imagination would give rise to » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - an entire continent, populated by elves, list and shares his John Le Carre favorite dwarves, orcs, wizards and ambulatory trees? Tolkien drew on his (which didn't make deep knowledge of ancient languages and mythology, and his the cut). agonizing memories of the Somme, to create a 20th-century fable » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and of magic and heroism, misty mountains and mystical forests, the pain) behind stacking up goodness and temptation, wherein a tiny gnomelike hobbit, Frodo, 100 novels. goes on a quest to destroy the One Ring, a malevolent artifact

Reader's Choice that could be the downfall of all of Middle Earth. The founding text

1: of modern fantasy literature, The Lord of the Rings also carries

2: Lolita with it a profound, melancholy nostalgia for the innocent pre-

3: A Passage to India industrial England that was lost forever in the muddy trenches of

4: A Death in the Family World War I.—L.G.

5: Ubik

From the TIME Archive: See the full list This year, the unquestioned literary god on college campuses is a three-foot-high creature with long curly hair on his feet and

the improbable name of Frodo Baggins

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_lord_of_the_rings,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:12 PM The Lord of the Rings - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels —TIME Magazine, Jul. 15, 1966 (Read This Review)

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix

masterpieces

Next: Loving »

Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to More From the Archive:

appear on a TIME cover? Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Get the answer and much Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

more on our trivia page How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Harry Potter Archive Collection

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Most E-Mailed Stories

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

not list either author. ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Send us your thoughts »

● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_lord_of_the_rings,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:12 PM The Lord of the Rings - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_lord_of_the_rings,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:12 PM Loving - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Loving (1945) Author: Henry Green Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Green remains a dim figure for many

Americans. He stopped writing in 1952,

at age 47, with just nine novels and a Table of Contents memoir behind him. In the last years of

About the List his life—he died in 1973—he became a » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - kind of British Thomas Pynchon, list and shares his John Le Carre favorite agreeing to be photographed only from behind. But those who (which didn't make knew him often revered him. W. H. Auden called him the finest the cut). living English novelist. His real name was Henry Vincent Yorke. » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and The son of a wealthy Birmingham industrialist, he was educated the pain) behind stacking up at Eton and Oxford but never completed his degree. He became 100 novels. managing director of the family factory, which made beer-bottling

Reader's Choice machines. But first he spent a year on the factory floor with the

1: ordinary workers, and his fiction is forever marked by an

2: Lolita understanding of the English at all levels of society, something

3: A Passage to India rare in class-bound British literature. Loving is a classic upstairs-

4: A Death in the Family downstairs story, with the emphasis on downstairs. You see the

5: Ubik life of a great Irish country house during World War II through the

See the full list eyes of its mostly British servants, who make a world of their own

during a period when their masters are away. Green's generosity

towards even the most scheming and rascally of them offers a

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,loving_living_party_going,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:15 PM Loving - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels lesson you never forget.— R.L.

TIME's Andrew Arnold From the TIME Archive: picks Watchmen and In each of his works Henry Green has tried to investigate a nine other comix new condition of life. His special "experiment" is to catch his

masterpieces variegated Britons in a situation from which they cannot escape

—TIME Magazine, Oct. 10, 1949 (Read This Review) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to

appear on a TIME cover?

Get the answer and much Next: Lucky Jim »

more on our trivia page

More From the Archive: Talk Back Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

How and What to Read (10/2/72) —Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) checked your list twice, I can't believe you did Harry Potter Archive Collection not list either author. Writers in TIME Archive Collection —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

● Most E-Mailed Stories Send us your thoughts »

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

From the TIME Archive ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Ernest Hemingway ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is TIME somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26 ● Obama's Historic Victory

More Writers in TIME ● Add This RSS Feed |

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,loving_living_party_going,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:15 PM Loving - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,loving_living_party_going,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:15 PM Lucky Jim - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Lucky Jim (1954) Author: Kingsley Amis Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Jim Dixon doesn't feel lucky. He's a

junior lecturer at a no-account college in

provincial England. His daily life is a Table of Contents litany of hilariously (from our

About the List perspective, anyway) petty humiliations » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - at the hands of his superiors—notably list and shares his John Le Carre favorite the odious, conceited Professor Welch—his students and his co- (which didn't make dependent sort-of-girlfriend Margaret. Jim may be the single the cut). bitterest character in all of English literature; Amis certainly crafts » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and the most brutally accurate description of a hangover ever written. the pain) behind stacking up A punishingly, viscerally funny attack on hypocrisy and self- 100 novels. importance in all their many and varied forms, Lucky Jim gave

Reader's Choice rise to much of the angry-young-man fiction that followed, but it

1: never met its equal.—L.G.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive: 3: A Passage to India This display of self-serving clownmanship has catapulted his 4: A Death in the Family saga through 18 printings and left countless Britons alternately

5: Ubik fuming and guffawing

—TIME Magazine, May. 27, 1957 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,lucky_jim,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:19 PM Lucky Jim - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Next: The Man Who Loved Children »

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive:

nine other comix Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

masterpieces Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Who was the first author to

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) appear on a TIME cover?

Harry Potter Archive Collection Get the answer and much

Writers in TIME Archive Collection more on our trivia page

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Robin; Seattle, Wash. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Add This RSS Feed |

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,lucky_jim,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:19 PM Lucky Jim - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,lucky_jim,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:19 PM The Man Who Loved Children - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Man Who Loved Children

(1940) Current Issue Author: Christina Stead

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Though it was first published in 1940, it

wasn't until a reissue 25 years later that

Stead's novel was recognized for the Table of Contents

About the List masterpiece it is—the greatest picture

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the ever of the lousiest family of all time. - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Sam Pollit is an exhausting monstrosity

(which didn't make of a husband and father, not always cruel, but always self-

the cut). regarding— "Sam the Bold" is his name for himself—and self-

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and deluding. (He's anything but bold.) His wife Henny, the one he

the pain) behind stacking up barely speaks to, is nervous, self-pitying and neurotic, the kind of

100 novels. mother who steals from her children's piggy banks, diverts herself

with a half-witted boyfriend and devolves into a sniffling hag. Their Reader's Choice

1: children, six of them, are appalled witnesses to the spectacle of

2: Lolita their parents' collapse and the helpless recipients of their toxic

3: A Passage to India attentions. Stead, an Australian with a wonderful style, both

4: A Death in the Family headlong and sturdy, is fearless in her depiction of the Pollits and

5: Ubik more compassionate in her judgments than you or I could ever

be. When you know how heavily this novel was based upon her See the full list own childhood, that compassion seems even more

remarkable.—R.L.

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_man_who_loved_children,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:22 PM The Man Who Loved Children - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels From the TIME Archive:

TIME's Andrew Arnold The Man Who Loved Children is one of the most truthful and

picks Watchmen and terrifying horror stories ever written about family life

—TIME Magazine, Apr. 2, 1965 (Read This Review) nine other comix

masterpieces

Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to

Next: Midnight's Children » appear on a TIME cover?

Get the answer and much More From the Archive: more on our trivia page Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Talk Back Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on How and What to Read (10/2/72)

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I Harry Potter Archive Collection

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did Writers in TIME Archive Collection

not list either author.

● Most E-Mailed Stories —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

Send us your thoughts » ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

From the TIME Archive TIME Ernest Hemingway ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch "Make no mistake,

Ernest Hemingway is ● Obama's Historic Victory somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' ● Add This RSS Feed | transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_man_who_loved_children,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:22 PM The Man Who Loved Children - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_man_who_loved_children,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:22 PM Midnight's Children - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Midnight's Children (1981) Author: Salman Rushdie Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Rushdie's version of The Prince and the

Pauper becomes a cartwheeling

parable about the fate of modern India. Table of Contents At the stroke of midnight on August 15,

About the List 1947, the date on which India » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - proclaimed itself independent from list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Great Britain, 1,001 children are born with supernatural powers. (which didn't make Two are switched at birth, the illegitimate son of a poor Hindu the cut). woman and the offspring of wealthy Muslims. Rushdie follows » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and them through 30 years of partition, violence and Indira Gandhi's the pain) behind stacking up iron-fisted rule. The personal is the political here with a 100 novels. vengeance, as history becomes farce, becomes legend becomes

Reader's Choice memory becomes history again.— R.L.

2: Lolita

3: A Passage to India

Next: Money » 4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

More From the Archive: See the full list Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,midnights_children,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:26 PM Midnight's Children - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) TIME's Andrew Arnold

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) picks Watchmen and

Harry Potter Archive Collection nine other comix

Writers in TIME Archive Collection masterpieces

● Most E-Mailed Stories Archive Trivia

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Who was the first author to ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' appear on a TIME cover? ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

Get the answer and much TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch more on our trivia page ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

—Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,midnights_children,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:26 PM Midnight's Children - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,midnights_children,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:26 PM Archive Trivia - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Archive Trivia Current Issue

First book reviewed in TIME:

Black Oxen, written by Gertrude Atherton, great-grandniece of Ben Franklin, was the

first book reviewed in TIME. According to the review, the book was about "society,

sophisticates, and a highly modernized fountain of youth."

First writer on TIME's cover:

Joseph Conrad appeared on TIME's sixth cover, April 7, 1923. George Bernard Shaw Table of Contents

was the second writer to be on TIME's cover. He appeared on the Dec. 24, 1923, issue About the List with the description "Mocking, mordant, misanthropic."

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT -

First woman writer on TIME's cover: list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Amy Lowell, poet, critic, and Keats biographer. (which didn't make

Writer on the most covers: the cut).

Eugene O'Neill was pictured on four TIME covers from 1924 to 1946. » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and

Who was J.F.? the pain) behind stacking up

During the first couple of years of TIME, a half-century before TIME used bylines, the 100 novels. initials J.F. appeared at the end of many book reviews. Who was the mysterious J.F.? A

Yale classmate of TIME's founders Hery Luce and Briton Hadden, John Farrar was an Reader's Choice organizing member of PEN and later began the publishing houses Farrar and Rinehart, 1: and Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Farrar contributed his first-person reviews gratis as a

2: Lolita favor to his old friends.

3: A Passage to India Who reviewed books for TIME?

A Death in the Family 4: Because TIME did not use bylines until the early seventies, we can't always be sure

5: Ubik about who wrote what. We do know that TIME's early reviewers included Stephen

Vincent Benet, John Farrar, Thomas Matthews, Robert Cantwell, Nigel Dennis, John

See the full list Skow, Max Gissen, Robert Fitzgerald, and Whittaker Chambers (who was responsible

for the 1946 review of George Orwell's Animal Farm.)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,trivia,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:29 PM Archive Trivia - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From the Archive: Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

picks Watchmen and Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

nine other comix How and What to Read (10/2/72)

masterpieces Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Archive Trivia Harry Potter Archive Collection Who was the first author to Writers in TIME Archive Collection

appear on a TIME cover?

Get the answer and much ● Most E-Mailed Stories

more on our trivia page ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

Talk Back ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Obama's Historic Victory

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,trivia,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:29 PM Archive Trivia - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,trivia,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:29 PM Atonement - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Atonement (2002) Author: Ian McEwan Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

A magnificent deception. Briony Tallis,

the intricate English girl at the center of

Atonement, is a budding writer. At the Table of Contents age of 13 she believes that through her

About the List powers of invention and language, "an » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - unruly world could be made just so." In list and shares his John Le Carre favorite a complicated way, she turns out to be right, but only after she (which didn't make turns out to be catastrophically wrong. In the first half of the book, the cut). she passionately misunderstands a series of events she » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and witnesses on a summer day in 1935, which leads her to formulate the pain) behind stacking up a lie that ruins the lives of her older sister Cecilia and Cecilia's 100 novels. lover Robbie. So much for the virtues of the imagination. But

Reader's Choice McEwan is crafty. Even as he shows us the deadly force of

1: storytelling, he demonstrates its beguilements on every page.

2: Lolita Then he leads us to a surprise ending in which the power of

3: A Passage to India fiction, which has been used to undo lives, is used again to make

4: A Death in the Family heartbroken amends.—R.L.

5: Ubik

From the TIME Archive: See the full list It's McEwan's subtle game to show fiction working its worst

kind of curse, then leading us unawares to give it our blessing

—TIME Magazine, Mar. 25, 2002 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,atonement,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:33 PM Atonement - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: Beloved » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) Who was the first author to

How and What to Read (10/2/72) appear on a TIME cover?

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Get the answer and much

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) more on our trivia page

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,atonement,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:33 PM Atonement - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,atonement,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:33 PM Beloved - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Beloved (1987) Author: Toni Morrison Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Sethe is an escaped slave in post-Civil

War Ohio. Her body is scarred from the

atrocities of her white owners, but it's Table of Contents her memories that really torture her: she

About the List killed her 2-year-old daughter, Beloved, » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - so the child would never know the list and shares his John Le Carre favorite sufferings of a life of servitude. But in Morrison's novels the (which didn't make present is never safe from the past, and Beloved returns as an the cut). angry, hungry ghost. Sethe must come to terms with her, exorcise » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and her, if she ever wants to move forward and find peace. Rich with the pain) behind stacking up historical, political and above all personal resonances, written in 100 novels. prose that melts and runs with the heat of the emotion it carries,

Reader's Choice Beloved is a deeply American, urgently important novel that

1: searches for that final balance between grief, anger and

2: Lolita acceptance.—L.G.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive: 4: A Death in the Family Beloved is full of vivid images, freshly rendered 5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, Sept. 21, 1987 (Read This Review)

See the full list

Next: The Berlin Stories »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,beloved,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:36 PM Beloved - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive:

picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,beloved,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:36 PM Beloved - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,beloved,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:36 PM The Berlin Stories - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Berlin Stories (1946) Author: Christopher Isherwood Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

"I am a camera with its shutter open."

There is something unmistakably 20th

Century about this, the opening line to Table of Contents Goodbye to Berlin. In their coolness and

About the List clarity and melancholy detachment » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - these words express more about a list and shares his John Le Carre favorite moment in time than most entire novels do. Berlin Stories is not (which didn't make quite a novel; it's actually two short ones stuck together, The Last the cut). of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin. But they form one coherent » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and snapshot of a lost world, the antic, cosmopolitan Berlin of the the pain) behind stacking up 1930's, where jolly expatriates dance faster and faster, as if that 100 novels. would save them from the creeping rise of Nazism. One of

Reader's Choice Isherwood's greatest characters, the racy, doomed Sally Bowles,

1: took center stage in the book's musical adaptation, Cabaret, but

2: Lolita the theatrical version can't match the power and richness of the

3: A Passage to India original.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik This portrait of an old rapscallion is satire too cold to be

amusing; it is written with the analytic distaste of one who See the full list

watches without pity the dwindling of a pathologically older

generation

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_berlin_stories,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:40 PM The Berlin Stories - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels —TIME Magazine, May. 20, 1935 (Read This Review)

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix Next: The Big Sleep » masterpieces

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_berlin_stories,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:40 PM The Big Sleep - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Big Sleep (1939) Author: Raymond Chandler Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

"I was neat, clean, shaved and sober,

and I didn't care who knew it. I was

everything the well-dressed private Table of Contents detective ought to be." This sentence,

About the List from the first paragraph of The Big » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - Sleep, marks the last time you can be list and shares his John Le Carre favorite fully confident that you know what's going on. The first novel by (which didn't make Raymond Chandler, who at the time was a 51-year-old former oil the cut). company executive, is a mosaic of shadows, a dark tracery of » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and forking paths. Along them wanders Philip Marlowe, a cynical, the pain) behind stacking up perfectly hard-boiled private investigator hired by an old 100 novels. millionaire to find the husband of his beautiful, bitchy wildcat

Reader's Choice daughter. Marlowe is tough and determined, and he does his best

1: to be a good guy, but there are no true heroes in Chandler's sun-

2: Lolita baked, godforsaken Los Angeles, and every plot turn reveals how

3: A Passage to India truly twisted the human heart is.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik Detective Marlowe is plunged into a mess of murderers, thugs

See the full list and psychopaths

—TIME Magazine, Mar. 6, 1939 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_big_sleep,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:43 PM The Big Sleep - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold Next: The Blind Assassin »

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix More From the Archive:

masterpieces Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Most E-Mailed Stories

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Obama's Historic Victory

not list either author. ● Add This RSS Feed |

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_big_sleep,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:43 PM The Big Sleep - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_big_sleep,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:43 PM The Blind Assassin - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Blind Assassin (2000) Author: Margaret Atwood Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Frosty, reserved Iris and her hot-

blooded sister Laura grow up wealthy

and privileged in a chilly Canadian Table of Contents town. But when the family fortune falters

About the List in the Depression, Iris is married off to a » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - cruel industrialist, and Laura drives her list and shares his John Le Carre favorite car off a bridge, leaving behind a pulpy science fiction novel (which didn't make (presented in parallel to the primary plot) that seems to contain a the cut). coded, masked guide to the secrets that ruled her life and brought » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and about her early death. Told in the brittle, acerbic voice of the the pain) behind stacking up elderly Iris, who is left behind to decode Laura's legacy, The Blind 100 novels. Assassin is a tour-de-force of nested narratives, subtle reveals

Reader's Choice and buried memories.—L.G..

1: From the TIME Archive: 2: Lolita Iris Chase is a brilliant addition to Atwood's roster of 3: A Passage to India fascinating fictional narrators. Not only is her story sinuously

4: A Death in the Family complex, but she is entertaining company

5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, Sep. 11, 2000 (Read This Review)

See the full list

Next: Blood Meridian »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_blind_assassin,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:47 PM The Blind Assassin - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive:

picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_blind_assassin,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:47 PM The Blind Assassin - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_blind_assassin,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:47 PM Blood Meridian - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Blood Meridian (1986) Author: Cormac McCarthy Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

"The floor of the playa lay smooth and

unbroken by any track and the

mountains in their blue islands stood Table of Contents footless in the void like floating

About the List temples." McCarthy's prose has the » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - character of the landscape it describes: list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Harsh and pure, as if it had been sculpted by wind and sand, like (which didn't make a naturally occurring phenomenon. In Blood Meridian McCarthy the cut). uses it to spin a yarn of gothic violence: In the 1840's a young boy » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and joins a band of cutthroats who hunt Indians on the border the pain) behind stacking up between Texas and Mexico, under the leadership of an amoral, 100 novels. albino arch-monster known as the Judge. Rarely has literature

Reader's Choice presented spectacles of violence more extreme or less gratuitous.

1: Blood Meridian summons up shadows of Dante and Melville, and

2: Lolita demands of every reader that they reexamine why and how they

3: A Passage to India cling to morality in a fallen world.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list Next: Brideshead Revisited »

More From the Archive:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,blood_meridian,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:51 PM Blood Meridian - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) TIME's Andrew Arnold

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) picks Watchmen and

How and What to Read (10/2/72) nine other comix

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) masterpieces

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Archive Trivia Harry Potter Archive Collection

Who was the first author to Writers in TIME Archive Collection

appear on a TIME cover?

● Most E-Mailed Stories Get the answer and much

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? more on our trivia page ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - Talk Back TIME Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | —Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,blood_meridian,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:51 PM Blood Meridian - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,blood_meridian,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:51 PM Brideshead Revisited - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Brideshead Revisited (1946) Author: Evelyn Waugh Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Once and only once in his career the

bitter, urbane, howlingly funny satirist

Evelyn Waugh screwed up all his nerve Table of Contents and his talent and produced a genuine

About the List literary masterpiece. Though it's » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - saddled with a faded doily of a title, list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Brideshead Revisited is actually a wildly entertaining, swooningly (which didn't make funny-sad story about an impressionable young man, Charles the cut). Ryder, who goes to Oxford in the 1930's and falls in love with a » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and family: the wealthy, eccentric, aristocratic Flytes, owners of a the pain) behind stacking up grand old country house called Brideshead. In the first half of the 100 novels. book the exquisite, hilariously fey Sebastian Flyte, who is

Reader's Choice Charles's classmate, teaches the young man about beauty, booze

1: and witty conversation. In the second half every one grows up

2: Lolita and everything goes spectacularly to smash. Told in flashbacks

3: A Passage to India from the dark days of WWII, Brideshead is aglimmer with the

4: A Death in the Family guttering-candle glow of an elegant age that was already passing

5: Ubik away.—L.G.

See the full list From the TIME Archive:

To many U.S. readers this book will be their first exposure to one of the wittiest, most corrosively mocking and violently serious

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,brideshead_revisited,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:55 PM Brideshead Revisited - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels minds now writing English prose TIME's Andrew Arnold —TIME Magazine, Jan. 7, 1946 (Read This Review)

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix

masterpieces Next: The Bridge of San Luis Rey »

Archive Trivia More From the Archive: Who was the first author to

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) appear on a TIME cover?

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) Get the answer and much

How and What to Read (10/2/72) more on our trivia page

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Talk Back Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Harry Potter Archive Collection there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Writers in TIME Archive Collection —Robin; Seattle, Wash.

● Most E-Mailed Stories Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' not list either author. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Send us your thoughts » ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,brideshead_revisited,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:55 PM Brideshead Revisited - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,brideshead_revisited,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:55 PM The Bridge of San Luis Rey - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

(1927) Current Issue Author: Thornton Wilder

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Whatever happened to Wilder? He was

a lion in his day, prized—Pulitzer-

prized, as this book was—a star of Table of Contents

About the List stage and page. Today, notwithstanding

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the the occasional production of Our Town - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite or The Skin of Our Teeth, he's ever in

(which didn't make danger of falling out of fashion. He seems too courtly, too

the cut). composed. For proof of how powerful those qualities can be,

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and there's this book. In 1714, "the finest bridge in all Peru" collapses

the pain) behind stacking up and five people plunge to their deaths. Brother Juniper, a

100 novels. Franciscan missionary, decides to track down their individual

stories to prove that even what seem to be random misfortunes Reader's Choice

1: are consistent with God's plan. That his discoveries turn out to be

2: Lolita more complex will come as no surprise. What may surprise are

3: A Passage to India the beguilements of Wilder's teasing, ironic, beautifully written

4: A Death in the Family tale, unlike anything else in American fiction.— R.L.

5: Ubik From the TIME Archive:

See the full list The delicacies of Author Wilder's prose cannot be intimated in so rude a summary of the material of his book

—TIME Magazine, Dec. 5, 1927 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_bridge_of_san_luis_rey,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:58 PM The Bridge of San Luis Rey - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: Call It Sleep »

nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Archive Trivia Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) Who was the first author to How and What to Read (10/2/72) appear on a TIME cover? Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Get the answer and much Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) more on our trivia page Harry Potter Archive Collection

Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

● Most E-Mailed Stories there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? —Robin; Seattle, Wash.

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

not list either author. ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_bridge_of_san_luis_rey,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:58 PM The Bridge of San Luis Rey - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_bridge_of_san_luis_rey,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:39:58 PM Call It Sleep - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Call It Sleep (1935) Author: Henry Roth Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

New York City, 1911. A young, painfully

sensitive boy named David is growing

up in the grimy Jewish slums of the Table of Contents Lower East Side, with his

About the List unemployable, rageoholic father and his » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - angelic, nurturing mother. Call It Sleep list and shares his John Le Carre favorite has the setting of a gritty, naturalistic political novel—and it works (which didn't make perfectly well as such—but it is at heart a profoundly interior book. the cut). Roth tirelessly and unflinchingly records the daily damage that the » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and harshness of slum life inflicts on David's quiveringly receptive, the pain) behind stacking up emotionally defenseless consciousness; as a precise chronicler of 100 novels. minute impressions, and of the growth of an intellectually

Reader's Choice precocious mind, Roth's only equal is James Joyce. After its

1: publication in 1934 Call It Sleep sank from view for 30 years,

2: Lolita before a new edition became a bestseller in the 1960's. It will

3: A Passage to India never be forgotten again.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik The story of three years in the life of a sensitive Jewish slum-

See the full list child, told with painstaking and pain-giving fidelity

—TIME Magazine, Feb. 25, 1935 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,call_it_sleep,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:02 PM Call It Sleep - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold Next: Catch-22 »

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix More From the Archive:

masterpieces Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Most E-Mailed Stories

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Obama's Historic Victory

not list either author. ● Add This RSS Feed |

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,call_it_sleep,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:02 PM Call It Sleep - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,call_it_sleep,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:02 PM Catch-22 - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Catch-22 (1961) Author: Joseph Heller Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Captain John Yossarian is a bomber

pilot who's just trying to make it through

WWII alive. But the only excuse the Table of Contents Army will accept for refusing to fly a

About the List mission is insanity, and if Yossarian » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - refuses to fly he is, by definition, sane. list and shares his John Le Carre favorite This is the self-devouring logical worm that lies at the heart of (which didn't make Catch-22, the story of Yossarian, his colleagues—who respond to the cut). the horrors of war with a range of seriocomic neuroses and » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and psychoses—and his superiors, who respond to the horrors of war the pain) behind stacking up by sending Yossarian on ever more pointless and dangerous 100 novels. missions for the purpose of enhancing their own reputations.

Reader's Choice Catch-22 is a bitter, anguished joke of a novel that embraces the

1: existential absurdity of war without ever quite succumbing to it.—L.

2: Lolita G.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive: 4: A Death in the Family Heller can write with a fire not often found in today's muted 5: Ubik mood-piece novels

—TIME Magazine, Oct. 27, 1961 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,catch_22,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:05 PM Catch-22 - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Next: The Catcher in the Rye »

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive:

nine other comix Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

masterpieces Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Who was the first author to

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) appear on a TIME cover?

Harry Potter Archive Collection Get the answer and much

Writers in TIME Archive Collection more on our trivia page

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Robin; Seattle, Wash. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Add This RSS Feed |

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,catch_22,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:05 PM Catch-22 - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,catch_22,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:05 PM Money - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Money (1984) Author: Martin Amis Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

John Self, the extravagantly wretched

man at the heart of this wonderfully

funny book, is no ordinary pig. A slave Table of Contents to his countless vices, a monster of

About the List lustrous indulgence, he's the kind of » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - sleazeball who puts the id back in idiot. list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Naturally, he's in the movie business. To be precise, he's a (which didn't make director of TV commercials who is making his first feature while the cut). perfecting his gift for self-destruction. (And, by the way, offering » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and what is frequently an astute take on this profane world of ours.) the pain) behind stacking up Self's spectacular lusts, his raw craving for money, sex and 100 novels. stimulants, his low cunning, his sheer, bewitching

Reader's Choice awfulness—somehow it all makes him perfectly irresistible.—R.L.

1: From the TIME Archive: 2: Lolita The novel's underlying theme: a culture geared to profit from 3: A Passage to India the immediate gratification of egos and nerve endings is not a

4: A Death in the Family culture at all, but an addiction

5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, Mar. 11, 1985 (Read This Review)

See the full list

Next: The Moviegoer »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,money,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:09 PM Money - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive:

picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,money,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:09 PM Money - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,money,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:09 PM The Moviegoer - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Moviegoer (1961) Author: Walker Percy Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

"What is the nature of the search? you

ask. Really it is very simple; at least for

a fellow like me. So simple that it is Table of Contents often overlooked. The search is what

About the List anyone would undertake if he were not » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - sunk in the everydayness of his own list and shares his John Le Carre favorite life." Percy's novel, his first, is a philosophical quest in which the (which didn't make question marks are worn lightly. Binx Bolling is a New Orleans the cut). investment broker who chafes over the difficulty of bringing life » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and into high relief. Mere existence lacks flavor. Movies give him a the pain) behind stacking up glimpse of a higher possibility. That and sex with his succession 100 novels. of pretty secretaries. But he longs for a more enduring solution.

Reader's Choice You marvel at how lightly he addresses his displeasures—Percy's

1: book is like Sartre's Nausea without the nausea. But Binx is still a

2: Lolita man who always has his despair at the ready, and his story can

3: A Passage to India shift toward the tragic with ease.—R.L.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik Percy appears, his first time out, clothed in originality,

See the full list intelligence and a fierce regard for man's fate

—TIME Magazine, May. 19, 1961 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_moviegoer,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:12 PM The Moviegoer - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: Mrs. Dalloway » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

appear on a TIME cover? How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Get the answer and much Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

more on our trivia page Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_moviegoer,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:12 PM The Moviegoer - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_moviegoer,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:12 PM Mrs. Dalloway - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Mrs. Dalloway (1925) Author: Virginia Woolf Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Clarissa Dalloway is the kind of woman

you would pass on the street without a

thought, or would if you lived in London Table of Contents in 1923: middle-aged, upper-middle-

About the List class, well-married and well-fed. But » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - Woolf draws aside the veil of her placid list and shares his John Le Carre favorite exterior to reveal the dreams, fears, foibles, passion and pain that (which didn't make swirl endlessly just beneath it. Mrs. Dalloway follows Clarissa the cut). through the course of a single day, and as she goes about her » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and errands, preparing for a party she's giving that night, we drift and the pain) behind stacking up rock on the ebb and flow of her lost love for an old flame who 100 novels. resurfaces unexpectedly; her never-consummated lesbian longing

Reader's Choice for a childhood friend; and her endless yearning for some firm

1: sense of what, in the swirling detritus and ephemera that make up

2: Lolita daily life, is true and good and permanent.—L.G.

3: A Passage to India

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

Next: Naked Lunch » See the full list

More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,mrs_dalloway,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:16 PM Mrs. Dalloway - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) TIME's Andrew Arnold

How and What to Read (10/2/72) picks Watchmen and

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) nine other comix

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) masterpieces

Harry Potter Archive Collection

Archive Trivia Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Who was the first author to

● Most E-Mailed Stories appear on a TIME cover?

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Get the answer and much ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' more on our trivia page ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Talk Back ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

—Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,mrs_dalloway,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:16 PM Mrs. Dalloway - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,mrs_dalloway,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:16 PM Naked Lunch - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Naked Lunch (1959) Author: William Burroughs Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

An heir to the Burroughs adding

machine fortune, Burroughs the novelist

hated the despots of Squaresville and Table of Contents the whole world where money makes its

About the List fist. This is his greatest book and the » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - template for all the ones that followed. list and shares his John Le Carre favorite With its fractured account of junkies and assorted urban (which didn't make desperadoes, its fang-baring humor and its sudden excursions the cut). into sheer hallucination, it instantly made him the depraved » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and scoutmaster for generations of would-be hipsters. He once said, the pain) behind stacking up "My purpose in writing has always been to express human 100 novels. potentials and purposes relevant to the Space Age"—by which he

Reader's Choice meant addiction and willful extremity, both of which of course

1: have turned out to be virtues in the modern market economy. Like

2: Lolita Jean Genet, Burroughs trafficks in the utmost degradations, but

3: A Passage to India he doesn't go to them looking for unsuspected sources of

4: A Death in the Family radiance. He likes them for what they are. His conversations in

5: Ubik hell with the Marquis de Sade must be very entertaining.—R.L.

See the full list From the TIME Archive:

Burroughs fancies himself a satirist and occasionally

resembles one when the diary's heroin fog clears a little

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,naked_lunch,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:19 PM Naked Lunch - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels —TIME Magazine, Nov. 30, 1962 (Read This Review)

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix Next: Native Son » masterpieces

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,naked_lunch,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:19 PM Native Son - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Native Son (1940) Author: Richard Wright Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

It would have been easy to write a book

about a black man unjustly accused.

Wright wrote the hard one. In Chicago Table of Contents of the 1930's, where Bigger Thomas

About the List has found work as a chauffeur, he » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - murders a young white woman, the only list and shares his John Le Carre favorite child of the wealthy family who has just hired him. Though the (which didn't make killing is accidental, it becomes a kind of retroactive act of will. It the cut). leads Thomas to an inquiry into his own injuries and humiliations » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and at the hands of a sometimes literally bloodthirsty white society. the pain) behind stacking up There are passages of standard social preachment in this book, 100 novels. but Wright brings Bigger's situation into the most uncomfortable

Reader's Choice places of the American racial standoff. That's exactly where it had

1: to go.—R.L.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive: 3: A Passage to India Laid in Chicago, only a Negro could have written it; but until 4: A Death in the Family now no Negro has possessed either the talent or the daring to

5: Ubik write it

—TIME Magazine, Mar. 4, 1940 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,native_son,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:23 PM Native Son - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Next: Neuromancer »

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive:

nine other comix Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

masterpieces Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Who was the first author to

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) appear on a TIME cover?

Harry Potter Archive Collection Get the answer and much

Writers in TIME Archive Collection more on our trivia page

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Robin; Seattle, Wash. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Add This RSS Feed |

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,native_son,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:23 PM Native Son - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,native_son,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:23 PM Neuromancer - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Neuromancer (1984) Author: William Gibson Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

There is no way to overstate how

radical Gibson's first and best novel was

when it first appeared. He combined a Table of Contents shattered, neon-chased, postmodern

About the List cityscape—its inhabitants rendered » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - demi-human by designer drugs, tattoos list and shares his John Le Carre favorite and rampant surgical body modifications—with his vision of a (which didn't make three-dimensional virtual landscape created by networked the cut). computers, through which bad-ass bandit hackers roam like high » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and plains drifters. When one such hacker, Case, gets banned from the pain) behind stacking up this "cyberspace"—Gibson was among the first to use the 100 novels. word—he'll do anything to get back in, including embarking on a

Reader's Choice near-suicidal cyber-assault on an all but unhackable artificial

1: intelligence. Violent, visceral and visionary (there's no other word

2: Lolita for it), Neuromancer proved, not for the first or last time, that

3: A Passage to India science fiction is more than a mass-market paperback genre, it's

4: A Death in the Family a crucial tool by which an age shaped by and obsessed with

5: Ubik technology can understand itself.—L.G.

See the full list

Next: Never Let Me Go »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,neuromancer,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:26 PM Neuromancer - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive: picks Watchmen and

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) nine other comix

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) masterpieces

How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Who was the first author to Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

appear on a TIME cover? Harry Potter Archive Collection

Get the answer and much Writers in TIME Archive Collection

more on our trivia page

● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Add This RSS Feed | checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,neuromancer,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:26 PM Neuromancer - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,neuromancer,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:26 PM Never Let Me Go - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Never Let Me Go (2005) Author: Kazuo Ishiguro Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Kathy, Tommy and Ruth are students at

Hailsham, a very exclusive, very

strange English private school. They Table of Contents are treated well in every respect, but as

About the List they grow older they come to realize » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - that there is a secret that haunts their list and shares his John Le Carre favorite lives: Their teachers regard them with fear and pity, and they (which didn't make don't know why. Once they learn the secret it is already far, far the cut). too late for them to save themselves. Set in a darkling alternate- » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and universe version of England, and told with dry-eyed, white- the pain) behind stacking up knuckled restraint, Never Let Me Go is an improbable 100 novels. masterpiece, a science fiction horror story written as high tragedy

Reader's Choice by a master literary stylist. It's postmodern in its conception, but

1: Ishiguro isn't playing games or chasing trends: The human drama

2: Lolita of Never Let Me Go, its themes of atrocity and acceptance, are

3: A Passage to India timeless and, sadly, permanent.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik It's an existential fable about people trying to wring some

See the full list happiness out of life before the lights go out

—TIME Magazine, Apr. 11, 2005 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,never_let_me_go,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:30 PM Never Let Me Go - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold Next: 1984 »

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix More From the Archive:

masterpieces Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Most E-Mailed Stories

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Obama's Historic Victory

not list either author. ● Add This RSS Feed |

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,never_let_me_go,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:30 PM Never Let Me Go - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,never_let_me_go,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:30 PM 1984 - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

1984 (1948) Author: George Orwell Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

The time is 13 o'clock; the date doesn't

matter; the year goes without saying.

Winston Smith, a bureaucrat at the Table of Contents Ministry of Truth, toils day and night in

About the List the service of Big Brother, the remote, » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - faux-benign ruler of this eerily familiar list and shares his John Le Carre favorite dystopia. Orwell's novel is a study of every possible way a nation (which didn't make can be beaten down by its government: spiritually, physically, the cut). intellectually, by the media, torture, surveillance, and censorship, » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and to the point where the state can manipulate reality at will. When the pain) behind stacking up Smith is tempted by a beautiful resistance fighter into an act of 100 novels. rebellion, 1984 becomes something more: a strange, tragic,

Reader's Choice deeply sad love story. It is Orwell's triumph, and the century's

1: misfortune, that 1984 is as prescient as it is pessimistic.—L.G.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive: 3: A Passage to India In 1984 there is not a smile or a jest that does not add 4: A Death in the Family bitterness to Orwell's utterly depressing vision of what the world

5: Ubik may be in 35 years' time

—TIME Magazine, Jun. 20, 1949 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,1984,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:34 PM 1984 - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Next: On the Road »

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive:

nine other comix Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

masterpieces Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Who was the first author to

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) appear on a TIME cover?

Harry Potter Archive Collection Get the answer and much

Writers in TIME Archive Collection more on our trivia page

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Robin; Seattle, Wash. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Add This RSS Feed |

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,1984,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:34 PM 1984 - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,1984,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:34 PM On the Road - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

On the Road (1957) Author: Jack Kerouac Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

The book that launched a thousand

trips. For his hyperkinetic, endearing,

culture-changing novel, Kerouac Table of Contents admitted whole worlds through his

About the List windshield. An account of a few » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - pinwheeling characters in perpetual list and shares his John Le Carre favorite cross-country motion, it has room to spare for rivers, landscapes, (which didn't make starry skies, Benzedrine addicts, endless marathons of driving, the cut). the hipster demiurge Dean Moriarty and lots of other fast-talking » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and madmen. "Because the only people for me are the mad ones," the pain) behind stacking up Kerouac's narrator, Sal Paradise, tells us. "The ones who are mad 100 novels. to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved." Capote's famous putdown

Reader's Choice of the book got it exactly backwards. That's not typing, Truman.

1: That's writing.—R.L.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive: 3: A Passage to India Kerouac has a Wolfelike love of the U.S. and a 4: A Death in the Family Whitmanesque weakness for cataloguing nearly every experience

5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, Sept. 16, 1957 (Read This Review)

See the full list

Next: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,on_the_road,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:37 PM On the Road - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive: picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

appear on a TIME cover? Harry Potter Archive Collection

Get the answer and much Writers in TIME Archive Collection

more on our trivia page

● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,on_the_road,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:37 PM On the Road - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,on_the_road,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:37 PM One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's

Nest (1962) Current Issue Author: Ken Kesey

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

When Kesey decided to take on the

hypocrisy, cruelty and enforced

conformity of modern life, he dug into Table of Contents

About the List his own experiences as a test subject in

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the a mental hospital. In Cuckoo's Nest the - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite irrepressible inmate Randle McMurphy

(which didn't make does battle with the icy, power-mad Nurse Ratched to liberate, or

the cut). at least breathe a little life into, the crushed and cowed patients

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and she lords it over, while the book's stonily silent narrator Chief

the pain) behind stacking up Bromden looks on. Both an allegory of individualism and a heart-

100 novels. tearing psychological drama, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

manages to be uplifting without giving an inch to the seductions of Reader's Choice

1: sentimentality.—L.G.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive:

3: A Passage to India Sordid sights and sounds abound, but Novelist Kesey has not descended to mere shock treatment or isolation-ward 4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik documentary

—TIME Magazine, Feb. 16, 1962 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,one_flew_over_the_cuckoos_nest,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:41 PM One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME Next: The Painted Bird » Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive: picks Watchmen and

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) nine other comix

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) masterpieces

How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Who was the first author to Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

appear on a TIME cover? Harry Potter Archive Collection

Get the answer and much Writers in TIME Archive Collection

more on our trivia page

● Most E-Mailed Stories Talk Back

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME —Robin; Seattle, Wash.

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,one_flew_over_the_cuckoos_nest,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:41 PM One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,one_flew_over_the_cuckoos_nest,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:41 PM The Catcher in the Rye - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Catcher in the Rye (1951) Author: J.D. Salinger Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

No matter how many high school

English teachers try to domesticate The

Catcher in the Rye in class, it will never Table of Contents lose its satirical edge. When Holden

About the List Caulfield learns he's going to be kicked » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - out of yet another private school, he list and shares his John Le Carre favorite bails in the middle of the night ("Sleep tight, ya morons!" he yells) (which didn't make and heads to New York City to bum around for a few the cut). days—hitting on girls, thinking about his dead brother, worrying » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and about where the ducks go in the wintertime—before he deals with the pain) behind stacking up his parents. The time passes in an agony of anhedonia that 100 novels. transcends the merely adolescent: It's a permanent reminder of

Reader's Choice the sweetness of childhood, the hypocrisy of the adult world, and

1: the strange no-man's-land that lies in between.—L.G.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive: 3: A Passage to India Some of my best friends are children,' says Jerome David 4: A Death in the Family Salinger, 32. 'In fact, all of my best friends are children.'

5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, Jul. 16, 1951 (Read This Review)

See the full list

Next: A Clockwork Orange »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_catcher_in_the_rye,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:45 PM The Catcher in the Rye - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive:

picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_catcher_in_the_rye,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:45 PM The Catcher in the Rye - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_catcher_in_the_rye,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:45 PM A Clockwork Orange - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

A Clockwork Orange (1963) Author: Anthony Burgess Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Like 1984, this is a book in which an

entire social order is implied through

language. And what language! To hint Table of Contents at the vile universe of the 15-year-old

About the List delinquent Alex and his murderous » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - buddies, Burgess created "nadsat," a list and shares his John Le Carre favorite rich futuristic patois. "Sinny" for "cinema." "Viddy" for "see," (which didn't make "horrorshow" for "good"—from the Russian, khorosho, which the cut). gives you some idea of which political system has prevailed. The » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and words locate him in a world of corrupted values, violence and the pain) behind stacking up boundless infantile indulgence. (His drug is "milk plus.") When 100 novels. Alex is apprehended by the authorities and subjected to

Reader's Choice psychological conditioning to make him nauseated at any impulse

1: towards violence, Burgess's book becomes a meditation on

2: Lolita whether a world in which evil can be freely chosen might still be

3: A Passage to India preferable to to one in which goodness is compelled. Stanley

4: A Death in the Family Kubrick's coldly magnificent "sinny" adaptation has sometimes

5: Ubik threatened to overshadow this great novel. Don't let it happen.—R.

See the full list L.

From the TIME Archive:

Anthony Burgess has written what looks like a nasty little

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_clockwork_orange,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:48 PM A Clockwork Orange - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels shocker but is really that rare thing in English letters—a

TIME's Andrew Arnold philosophical novel picks Watchmen and —TIME Magazine, Feb. 15, 1963 (Read This Review)

nine other comix

masterpieces

Next: The Confessions of Nat Turner » Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to More From the Archive: appear on a TIME cover?

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Get the answer and much

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) more on our trivia page

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Talk Back Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Harry Potter Archive Collection —Robin; Seattle, Wash. Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Most E-Mailed Stories checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Send us your thoughts » ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory From the TIME Archive

● Add This RSS Feed | Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_clockwork_orange,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:48 PM A Clockwork Orange - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_clockwork_orange,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:48 PM The Confessions of Nat Turner - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Confessions of Nat Turner

(1967) Current Issue Author: William Styron

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

It's a novel that has its sources in

history—the only sustained slave revolt

in American history, an 1831 uprising Table of Contents

About the List led by Turner, an educated slave who

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the led a group of fellow escapees on a - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite bloody trail through southeastern

(which didn't make Virginia. Before they were stopped, just short of seizing an

the cut). arsenal, they had killed about 60 whites. And before he was

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and hanged, Turner dictated a final testament, a document that still

the pain) behind stacking up exists. But Styron's book is not that one. It's an invented version

100 novels. of that text, one ringed with bitterness and fire. He plumbs the

mind of a man who believed himself ordained to slaughter whites Reader's Choice

1: in retribution for the ordeals of slavery, but who found himself

2: Lolita nearly incapable of putting in the blade. Turner as Styron

3: A Passage to India imagines him is not a plaster saint, not a cardboard monster. He's

4: A Death in the Family a man, one whose ferocious yearnings were formed in the

5: Ubik cauldron of a hateful institution.—R.L.

See the full list From the TIME Archive:

Styron's narrative power, lucidity and understanding of the

epoch of slavery achieve a new peak in the literature of the South

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_confessions_of_nat_turner,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:52 PM The Confessions of Nat Turner - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels —TIME Magazine, Oct. 13, 1967 (Read This Review)

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix Next: The Corrections » masterpieces

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_confessions_of_nat_turner,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:52 PM The Corrections - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Corrections (2001) Author: Jonathan Franzen Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

If family is a machine for making you

crazy, has there ever been a machine

better oiled than the Lamberts? The Table of Contents elderly father, Alfred, is a retired railway

About the List engineer sliding into the mental and » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - physical chaos of Parkinson's disease. list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Wife Enid fashions ever more ingenious varieties of denial. Son (which didn't make Chip is helping con men in Lithuania. His brother Gary is the cut). consoling himself with booze for the miseries of his own » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and disintegrating home life. Their sister Denise, in the time she can the pain) behind stacking up spare from her career as a celebrity chef, makes reckless thrusts 100 novels. into other people's marriages. Their miseries are an opening onto

Reader's Choice the larger discontents of the society that they—we—live in, but

1: Franzen keeps his terrible focus on the family. This can be a very

2: Lolita funny book in places, but the laughs come hard, very hard.—R.L.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive: 4: A Death in the Family The Corrections does not "solve" the mystery of family life, but 5: Ubik it renders its mysteries with the fine filament and moral nuance

See the full list they require

—TIME Magazine, Sep. 10, 2001 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_corrections,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:57 PM The Corrections - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold Next: The Crying of Lot 49 »

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix More From the Archive:

masterpieces Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Most E-Mailed Stories

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Obama's Historic Victory

not list either author. ● Add This RSS Feed |

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_corrections,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:57 PM The Corrections - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_corrections,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:40:57 PM The Crying of Lot 49 - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) Author: Thomas Pynchon Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Summoned to serve as executor for the

will of her ultra-rich former lover, Oedipa

Maas is led into the mystery of Trystero, Table of Contents a shadowy band of, of—of what

About the List exactly? They have operated for » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - centuries, connecting the dispossesed, list and shares his John Le Carre favorite the discontented and the strung out by way of their secret (which didn't make underground postal system, a network that may also serve other the cut). ends. As she wanders through California in the mid-1960's, trying » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and to unravel their secret, Oedipa senses for the first time a larger, the pain) behind stacking up weirder universe of the disinherited, a scampering, fugitive reality 100 novels. just beneath the placid surface of what she thinks she knows.

Reader's Choice With its slapstick paranoia and its heartbreaking metaphysical

1: soliloquies, Lot 49 takes place in the tragicomic universe that is

2: Lolita instantly recognizable as Pynchon-land. Is it is also a mystery

3: A Passage to India novel? Absolutely, so long as you remember that the mystery

4: A Death in the Family here is the one at the heart of everything.—R.L.

5: Ubik

From the TIME Archive: See the full list What is the meaning of the gibberish literature that is currently

being published as fast as it can be gibbered?

—TIME Magazine, May. 6, 1966 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_crying_of_lot_49,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:03 PM The Crying of Lot 49 - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: A Dance to the Music of Time » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) Who was the first author to

How and What to Read (10/2/72) appear on a TIME cover?

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Get the answer and much

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) more on our trivia page

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_crying_of_lot_49,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:03 PM The Crying of Lot 49 - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_crying_of_lot_49,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:03 PM A Dance to the Music of Time - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

A Dance to the Music of Time

(1951) Current Issue Author: Anthony Powell

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

The words "twelve-novel cycle" don't

exactly inspire readerly zeal in most

people, but once you catch the rhythm Table of Contents

About the List of Powell's dodecahedral masterpiece

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the it's hard to put it down. Beginning in the - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite 1920's, A Dance to the Music of Time

(which didn't make follows the lives of a group of English friends and acquaintances

the cut). as they make their various ways through life: meeting and parting,

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and succeeding and failing, loving and hating, living and dying. There

the pain) behind stacking up is ample room for both comedy and tragedy in this capacious,

100 novels. large-hearted work, but Powell's real triumph is the way he

catches the rhythm of fate itself, the way it brings people together, Reader's Choice

1: only to spin them apart, then reunite them later as near-strangers,

2: Lolita transformed in unexpected ways by the intervening years.—L.G.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive:

4: A Death in the Family Powell invites his dedicated (though still small) readership to

5: Ubik think of his work in musical terms

—TIME Magazine, Mar. 28, 1969 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_dance_to_the_music_of_time,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:09 PM A Dance to the Music of Time - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME Next: The Day of the Locust » Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive: picks Watchmen and

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) nine other comix

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) masterpieces

How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Who was the first author to Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

appear on a TIME cover? Harry Potter Archive Collection

Get the answer and much Writers in TIME Archive Collection

more on our trivia page

● Most E-Mailed Stories Talk Back

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME —Robin; Seattle, Wash.

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_dance_to_the_music_of_time,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:09 PM A Dance to the Music of Time - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_dance_to_the_music_of_time,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:09 PM The Day of the Locust - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Day of the Locust (1939) Author: Nathanael West Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Nathanael West's Hollywood novel

takes place mostly at the margins of the

movie kingdom, the universe of set Table of Contents painters and extras, frustrated small-

About the List timers, hangers-on and oddities. There » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - are prostitutes here, transplanted list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Eskimos, a failed comic who sells silver polish door to door so (which didn't make that he can force luckless customers to watch his act. No one in the cut). this book has found the promise that California was supposed to » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and offer, and at the end their anger and resentments collect into a riot the pain) behind stacking up in the streets that is the sum of their individual discontents. "They 100 novels. realize that they've been tricked and burn with resentment.... The

Reader's Choice sun is a joke. Oranges can't titillate their jaded palates. Nothing

1: can ever be violent enough to make taut their slack minds and

2: Lolita bodies." This was West's last novel. He died the following year in

3: A Passage to India a car accident, at age 37, rushing to the funeral of F. Scott

4: A Death in the Family Fitzgerald. How he would have loved that last grotesque

5: Ubik detail.—R.L.

See the full list From the TIME Archive:

In the 25 years Hollywood has been waiting, no novelist has

yet written a good book about it

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_day_of_the_locust,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:13 PM The Day of the Locust - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels —TIME Magazine, Jun. 19, 1939 (Read This Review)

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix

masterpieces

Next: Death Comes for the Archbishop »

Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to More From the Archive:

appear on a TIME cover? Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Get the answer and much Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

more on our trivia page How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Harry Potter Archive Collection

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Most E-Mailed Stories

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

not list either author. ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Send us your thoughts »

● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_day_of_the_locust,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:13 PM The Day of the Locust - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_day_of_the_locust,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:13 PM Death Comes for the Archbishop - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Death Comes for the

Archbishop (1927) Current Issue Author: Willa Cather

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Cather at her most matter-of-fact and,

as a consequence, her most powerful.

She based this book on the life of Table of Contents

About the List Bishop Jean Baptiste L'Amy—she calls

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the him Father Latour—the French-born - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Ohio cleric who was assigned by the

(which didn't make church to rebuild the faith in New Mexico after the territory was

the cut). annexed by the U.S. in 1831. With an old friend, Father Vaillant,

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Latour sets out for Santa Fe. He will find the church there to be

the pain) behind stacking up fragmented and corrupt, with priests taking wives and charging

100 novels. exorbitant fees to perform marriages. Latour embarks on a

decades-long effort to reform and reinvigorate the diocese. The Reader's Choice

1: style and structure of this book are strange, unemphatic, as if

2: Lolita Cather had simply laid the scenes side by side in a tapestry. She

3: A Passage to India compared the book to a legend, in which no event is given much

4: A Death in the Family dramatic weight. If this sounds like a formula for boredom, it's not.

5: Ubik Her serene language, with its immemorial simplicity, gives the

story a weight mere drama could never provide.—R.L. See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,death_comes_for_the_archbishop,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:18 PM Death Comes for the Archbishop - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

Next: A Death in the Family » TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive: nine other comix

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) masterpieces

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

Archive Trivia How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Who was the first author to Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

appear on a TIME cover? Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Get the answer and much Harry Potter Archive Collection

more on our trivia page Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

● Add This RSS Feed | not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,death_comes_for_the_archbishop,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:18 PM Death Comes for the Archbishop - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,death_comes_for_the_archbishop,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:18 PM The Death of the Heart - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Death of the Heart (1938) Author: Elizabeth Bowen Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Portia Quayne is that most dangerous

commodity, an innocent child. At 16,

after years of dragging around Table of Contents European hotels with her parents, she's

About the List been orphaned. She finds herself now » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - in the care of her prosperous older half list and shares his John Le Carre favorite brother and his reluctant wife. What they and their heedless (which didn't make friends will show to Portia is the disenchanted kingdom of the cut). adulthood. But Bowen's real genius was in recognizing what » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Portia will show to them. In the mirror of her innocent eyes, the pain) behind stacking up experience will catch a glimpse of its own reflection. It's not a 100 novels. pretty picture.—R.L.

Reader's Choice From the TIME Archive: 1: Ironic comedy as well as tragedy, The Death of the Heart tells 2: Lolita a story as old as wickedness: the world's betrayal of innocence

3: A Passage to India —TIME Magazine, Jan. 30, 1939 (Read This Review)

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list

Next: Deliverance »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_death_of_the_heart,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:22 PM The Death of the Heart - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels More From the Archive: TIME's Andrew Arnold

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) picks Watchmen and

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) nine other comix

How and What to Read (10/2/72) masterpieces

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Who was the first author to Harry Potter Archive Collection

appear on a TIME cover? Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Get the answer and much

● Most E-Mailed Stories more on our trivia page

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Talk Back ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_death_of_the_heart,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:22 PM The Death of the Heart - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_death_of_the_heart,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:22 PM The Painted Bird - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Painted Bird (1965) Author: Jerzy Kosinski Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

The onset of World War II cuts a young

Jewish boy off from his family and sets

him adrift among the peasants of rural Table of Contents Poland. There, wide-eyed like a camera

About the List with its shutter stuck open, he » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - witnesses atrocities and degradation, list and shares his John Le Carre favorite sexual and otherwise, that beggar the imagination: the title image (which didn't make refers to the hobby of a man who likes to capture a bird, paint its the cut). feathers different colors, and watch as its former fellows tear it » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and apart as an intruder. The surreal carnival of violent depravity is the pain) behind stacking up made all the more horrifying when seen from the point of view of a 100 novels. boy who perceives all this as unsurprising and normal: He knows

Reader's Choice no better, and suffers it all with the endurance of the truly

1: innocent.—L.G.

2: Lolita

3: A Passage to India

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

Next: Pale Fire » See the full list

More From the Archive:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_painted_bird,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:26 PM The Painted Bird - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

picks Watchmen and How and What to Read (10/2/72)

nine other comix Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

masterpieces Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection

Archive Trivia Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Who was the first author to

appear on a TIME cover? ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Get the answer and much ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' more on our trivia page ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Talk Back

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Obama's Historic Victory

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Add This RSS Feed |

—Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_painted_bird,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:26 PM The Painted Bird - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_painted_bird,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:26 PM Pale Fire - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Pale Fire (1962) Author: Vladimir Nabokov Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

A bizarre, three-legged race of a novel,

Pale Fire is composed of a long,

narrative poem followed by a much Table of Contents longer set of footnotes written by an

About the List obsessive, increasingly deranged » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - annotator. Charles Kinbote, a gay list and shares his John Le Carre favorite professor at a small New England college, may or may not be a (which didn't make noble-born expatriate from the exotic Eastern European the cut). principality of Zembla. He may or may not have stolen the » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and manuscript he's annotating, which he is convinced is really all the pain) behind stacking up about him. He is unquestionably unhealthily obsessed with John 100 novels. Shade, the placid, Robert Frost-like poet who composed the

Reader's Choice poem. Beyond that all bets are off, and the questions ramify

1: without end. Pale Fire is the kind of novel you can happily get lost

2: Lolita in: a house of mirrors with no exit, a labyrinth with no endpoint.—L.

3: A Passage to India G.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik Pale Fire does not really cohere as a satire; good as it is, the

See the full list novel in the end seems to be mostly an exercise in agility

—TIME Magazine, Jun. 1, 1962 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,pale_fire,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:30 PM Pale Fire - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold Next: A Passage to India »

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix More From the Archive:

masterpieces Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Most E-Mailed Stories

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Obama's Historic Victory

not list either author. ● Add This RSS Feed |

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,pale_fire,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:30 PM Pale Fire - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,pale_fire,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:30 PM Play It As It Lays - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Play It As It Lays (1970) Author: Joan Didion Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Didion's mordant lucidity is like L.A.

sunlight, a thing so bright sometimes it

hurts. She's a descendant of the old Table of Contents California, the great- great-

About the List granddaughter of pioneers. But she was » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - also schooled at Berkeley and in the list and shares his John Le Carre favorite literary circles of Paris and New York, so she's fully versed in the (which didn't make predicaments of a shaky modernity that she does not care for in the cut). the least. To drive home her belief that the world, or at least the » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and part around L.A., is coming to a bad end, she gives us Maria the pain) behind stacking up Wyeth, a model turned actress turned hollowed-out woman who 100 novels. speaks to us from the mental institution where she has fetched up

Reader's Choice after a long slide into despair. Passing through a pointless career,

1: a toxic marriage, an abortion, finally holding the hand of a close

2: Lolita friend while he commits suicide; when she tells you, "I know what

3: A Passage to India 'nothing' means," you believe her.—R.L.

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list Next: Portnoy's Complaint »

More From the Archive:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,play_it_as_it_lays,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:34 PM Play It As It Lays - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) TIME's Andrew Arnold

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) picks Watchmen and

How and What to Read (10/2/72) nine other comix

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) masterpieces

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Archive Trivia Harry Potter Archive Collection

Who was the first author to Writers in TIME Archive Collection

appear on a TIME cover?

● Most E-Mailed Stories Get the answer and much

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? more on our trivia page ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - Talk Back TIME Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | —Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,play_it_as_it_lays,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:34 PM Play It As It Lays - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,play_it_as_it_lays,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:34 PM Portnoy's Complaint - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Portnoy's Complaint (1969) Author: Philip Roth Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Of course it's vulgar. How could it not

be? The sustained cry of a ferociously

perplexed, ferociously lucid New York Table of Contents City Jew—you expected maybe Jane

About the List Austen? Roth's barbaric yawp of a book » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - was a literary instance of shock and list and shares his John Le Carre favorite awe, a dirty comic masterpiece that can stand with Tristram (which didn't make Shandy. (For the masturbation scenes alone it will endure the cut). forever.) It's also, once you crawl out of the rubble of its most » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and infamous passages, tender and charitable, and not just towards the pain) behind stacking up the main character. How else to describe a book that, while it 100 novels. charts the wild arc of Portnoy's sexual and romantic

Reader's Choice misadventures—all of this being recounted by him to his

1: therapist—discovers exactly the most painful question about

2: Lolita relations between children and parents. "Doctor what should I rid

3: A Passage to India myself of, tell me, the hatred... or the love?"— R.L.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik Portnoy's Complaint is too funny not to be taken seriously

—TIME Magazine, Feb. 21, 1969 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,portnoys_complaint,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:38 PM Portnoy's Complaint - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Next: Possession »

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive:

nine other comix Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

masterpieces Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Who was the first author to

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) appear on a TIME cover?

Harry Potter Archive Collection Get the answer and much

Writers in TIME Archive Collection more on our trivia page

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Robin; Seattle, Wash. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Add This RSS Feed |

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,portnoys_complaint,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:38 PM Portnoy's Complaint - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,portnoys_complaint,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:38 PM Possession - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Possession (1990) Author: A.S. Byatt Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Academics were sexy long before

Sophie and Robert from The Da Vinci

Code. Roland is a beleaguered Table of Contents graduate student laboring in the British

About the List Library. Our heroine, Maud, is an icy, » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - repressed professor at a provincial list and shares his John Le Carre favorite English university. By chance they jointly stumble on a cache of (which didn't make hot-blooded love letters by a famous (albeit fictional) Victorian the cut). poet named Randolph Ash. Their discovery lights the fuses on » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and both a literary mystery and their own slow-burning romance, the pain) behind stacking up which Byatt adroitly braids together with the story of Ash's love 100 novels. affair. An intricate novel, laced with poems and letters,

Reader's Choice Possession has the narrative structure of a thriller, but Byatt uses

1: that narrative engine for her own, more sophisticated purposes: a

2: Lolita moving exploration of the hidden wellsprings of love and art. —L.

3: A Passage to India G.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik Its manifest intelligence, subtle humor and extraordinary

texturing of the past within the present make Possession an See the full list

original, and unforgettable, contribution

—TIME Magazine, Nov. 5, 1990 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,posession,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:42 PM Possession - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: The Power and the Glory » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) Who was the first author to

How and What to Read (10/2/72) appear on a TIME cover?

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Get the answer and much

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) more on our trivia page

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,posession,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:42 PM Possession - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,posession,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:42 PM The Power and the Glory - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Power and the Glory (1939) Author: Graham Greene Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Another of Greene's intricate moral

landscapes, where corrupt characters

might still be capable of goodness and Table of Contents virtuous ones indulge their virtues

About the List murderously. The central figure is a » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - "whisky priest," on the run in Mexico in list and shares his John Le Carre favorite the 1930's, during years when the Catholic Church was being (which didn't make suppressed by the Mexican government. The priest, never the cut). named, is being pursued by an unnamed police lieutenant, a » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and ruthless idealist who will not hesitate to take hostages from every the pain) behind stacking up village where the fugitive priest might stop and shoot them if the 100 novels. priest's visit is not reported. Guilt-ridden, always craving

Reader's Choice alcohol—at one point he downs the communion wine—the priest

1: manages all the same to carry out his duties on the road and to

2: Lolita perform small acts of grace, even the ones that seal his fate.

3: A Passage to India Those did not turn out to be enough for the Vatican. Thirteen

4: A Death in the Family years after this book was published, the Church condemned it

5: Ubik and insisted that Greene make changes. A sincere Catholic but

See the full list also a dextrous operator, he replied that the copyright belonged to

his publishers. — R.L.

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_power_and_the_glory,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:46 PM The Power and the Glory - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix Next: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie »

masterpieces

More From the Archive: Archive Trivia Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Who was the first author to

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) appear on a TIME cover?

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Get the answer and much

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) more on our trivia page

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Talk Back Harry Potter Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Writers in TIME Archive Collection there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Most E-Mailed Stories

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

not list either author. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_power_and_the_glory,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:46 PM The Power and the Glory - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_power_and_the_glory,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:46 PM The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

(1961) Current Issue Author: Muriel Spark

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

A slender novel but far from flimsy, The

Prime of Miss Jean Brodie enrolls the

reader at Edinburgh's fictional Marcia Table of Contents

About the List Blaine School for Girls under the

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the tutelage of one Jean Brodie, a - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite magnetic, unconventional instructor

(which didn't make whose favorite pupils—"the Brodie set"—are set apart from the

the cut). rest of the student body by their superior attitudes and their

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and intellectual awareness. The archly, tartly narrated adventures of

the pain) behind stacking up these young girls and their eccentric, autocratic leader form a

100 novels. delightful group portrait, and something more: an immortal

parable of the temptations of charisma and the dangers of power. Reader's Choice

1: —L.G.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive:

3: A Passage to India At the end of a Muriel Spark novel most readers find themselves wondering why other writers must babble on and on 4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik to twice that length

—TIME Magazine, Jan. 19, 1962 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_prime_of_miss_jean_brodie,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:50 PM The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: Rabbit, Run » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

appear on a TIME cover? How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Get the answer and much Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

more on our trivia page Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_prime_of_miss_jean_brodie,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:50 PM The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_prime_of_miss_jean_brodie,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:50 PM Rabbit, Run - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Rabbit, Run (1960) Author: John Updike Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Updike, modern American literature's

smoothest and most limber stylist,

chose an unlikely soul for his great Table of Contents fictional hero: Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom,

About the List an ignorant, philandering 20-something » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - ex-jock, long past his high school glory list and shares his John Le Carre favorite days and feeling trapped in a job, a marriage, a town, a family that (which didn't make bore him. In a situation like that, running away is exactly what the cut). comes naturally to him. Rabbit is not a character calculated to » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and inspire affection, but he is an unflinchingly authentic specimen of the pain) behind stacking up American manhood, and his boorishness makes his rare 100 novels. moments of vulnerability and empathy that much more

Reader's Choice heartbreaking.—L.G.

1: From the TIME Archive: 2: Lolita If the power to shock may be taken as a yardstick of fiction, 3: A Passage to India John Updike, 28, has written one of the year's most important

4: A Death in the Family novels

5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, Nov. 7, 1960 (Read This Review)

See the full list

Next: Ragtime »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,rabbit_run,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:54 PM Rabbit, Run - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive:

picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,rabbit_run,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:54 PM Rabbit, Run - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,rabbit_run,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:54 PM Ragtime - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Ragtime (1975) Author: E.L. Doctorow Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Doctorow's fever dream of the American

past remade the historical novel. In a

story spanning the first decades of the Table of Contents 20th century, three groups of fictional

About the List characters—a white middle-class » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - family, a family of Jewish immigrants, list and shares his John Le Carre favorite and an African-American couple—lead lives entwined with one (which didn't make another and with some of the great public figures of the day, the cut). including Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman, Henry Ford and » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Sigmund Freud. The presiding concerns and undertakings of the the pain) behind stacking up decades that would follow—technology, race, power—all 100 novels. announce themselves and are tied by Doctorow into narrative

Reader's Choice configurations so odd, yet so oddly persuasive in their dream

1: logic, you laugh out loud, at least until the ultimate tragedy

2: Lolita unfolds. The interaction of real and fictional characters wasn't new

3: A Passage to India in itself, but with this pulsing, delightful book, Doctorow made it

4: A Death in the Family feel that way.—R.L.

5: Ubik

From the TIME Archive: See the full list Like ragtime, Doctorow's book is a native American fugue,

rhythmic, melodic and stately

—TIME Magazine, Jul. 14, 1975 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,ragtime,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:58 PM Ragtime - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: The Recognitions » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) Who was the first author to

How and What to Read (10/2/72) appear on a TIME cover?

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Get the answer and much

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) more on our trivia page

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,ragtime,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:58 PM Ragtime - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,ragtime,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:41:58 PM The Recognitions - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Recognitions (1955) Author: William Gaddis Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

You approach this immense book

wondering whether you should have

done a week of roadwork and Table of Contents calisthenics to get ready for it, and not

About the List just because of its more than 900-page » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - length. Gaddis' ferocious discontent list and shares his John Le Carre favorite with the world as he finds it and his daunting erudition make for a (which didn't make demanding read, but also a hugely rewarding one. Wyatt Gwyon the cut). is a forger. In the service of a crooked art dealer he expertly » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and counterfeits Early Renaissance masterpieces. He longs to live in the pain) behind stacking up a more authentic time, one unlike his world of simulations, 100 novels. substitutes, impostures and pale resemblances. What Wyatt

Reader's Choice wants in every realm of life is the true antecedent, and he

1: struggles across three decades and three continents in search of

2: Lolita it. This is a serious book, but it's also the highest of high

3: A Passage to India comedies, full of outraged wit. It took decades for The

4: A Death in the Family Recognitions to be recognized as the masterpiece it is and as a

5: Ubik book that inaugurated the great age of black humor in American

See the full list fiction that would come into its own in the 1960's with Pynchon,

Vonnegut and Roth—R.L.

From the TIME Archive:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_recognitions,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:01 PM The Recognitions - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels It is almost impossible to ignore a novelist who produces 956

TIME's Andrew Arnold closely printed pages

picks Watchmen and —TIME Magazine, Mar. 14, 1955 (Read This Review)

nine other comix

masterpieces

Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Next: Red Harvest »

appear on a TIME cover?

Get the answer and much More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) more on our trivia page

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) Talk Back How and What to Read (10/2/72) Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) —Robin; Seattle, Wash. Harry Potter Archive Collection

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I Writers in TIME Archive Collection

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

● not list either author. Most E-Mailed Stories

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

Send us your thoughts » ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME

From the TIME Archive ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Ernest Hemingway ● Obama's Historic Victory "Make no mistake,

Ernest Hemingway is ● Add This RSS Feed | somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_recognitions,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:01 PM The Recognitions - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_recognitions,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:01 PM Deliverance - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Deliverance (1970) Author: James Dickey Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Four friends set out on a canoe trip

through backwoods Georgia—a lark, a

weekend's diversion, a blissful, beery Table of Contents break from their day jobs. But their

About the List itinerary unexpectedly swings into » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - darker territory when they meet a gang list and shares his John Le Carre favorite of savage, sodomitical mountain men, and by the time they (which didn't make emerge again—most of them—from the wilderness, they have the cut). been through some of the blackest terrain, both geographical and » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and spiritual, since Marlowe went up the river in Conrad's Heart of the pain) behind stacking up Darkness. Though it's been partially eclipsed by the movie 100 novels. version—you know it for that "Dueling Banjos" scene—the original

Reader's Choice Deliverance is a visceral, dangerous thriller packed with forbidden

1: knowledge.—L.G.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive: 3: A Passage to India A fast and shapely adventure tale is a rare enough creation. 4: A Death in the Family Dickey has surely achieved that

5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, Apr. 20, 1970 (Read This Review)

See the full list

Next: Dog Soldiers »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,deliverance,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:05 PM Deliverance - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive:

picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,deliverance,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:05 PM Deliverance - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,deliverance,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:05 PM Dog Soldiers - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Dog Soldiers (1974) Author: Robert Stone Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

A weird current pulses through this

book. The tale of a heroin deal gone

very bad, it's also a merciless picture of Table of Contents America at the ragged end of the

About the List Vietnam era. John Converse is a » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - journalist preparing to head home from list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Saigon when he's persuaded to join a dope-smuggling scheme. (which didn't make Once back in California, he's ambushed by a pair of ex-cons in the cut). the service of a corrupt federal drug agent who wants to pocket » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and the drugs. The hapless goons, who also indulge in occasional sex the pain) behind stacking up with each other, drag Converse on a trek across the Southwest in 100 novels. search of the strung-out intriguers who are actually holding the

Reader's Choice stuff. Those would be Converse's wife Marge, who's blandly

1: stupefied by prescription drugs, and his sad-sack confederate

2: Lolita Hicks. Do we need to tell you it all ends badly? Or that the heroin

3: A Passage to India is a stand-in for Vietnam? It's the poison that came home, like the

4: A Death in the Family war, to pollute an already bleak and sawtoothed social landscape.

5: Ubik Bleakness is all in Stone's world, which is unrelenting and

See the full list unforgettable.—R.L.

From the TIME Archive:

With fearful accuracy it describes a journey to hell and

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,dog_soldiers,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:08 PM Dog Soldiers - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels pronounces an epitaph on a time that has not ended TIME's Andrew Arnold —TIME Magazine, Nov. 11, 1974 (Read This Review)

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix

masterpieces Next: Falconer »

Archive Trivia More From the Archive: Who was the first author to

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) appear on a TIME cover?

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) Get the answer and much

How and What to Read (10/2/72) more on our trivia page

● Most E-Mailed Stories Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' not list either author. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Send us your thoughts » ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,dog_soldiers,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:08 PM Dog Soldiers - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,dog_soldiers,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:08 PM Falconer - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Falconer (1977) Author: John Cheever Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

A story of suffering and redemption, told

in Cheever's fullest register. Ezekiel

Farragut, university professor, family Table of Contents man, drug addict, is in Falconer State

About the List Prison for having killed his brother with » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - a poker. In this shabby purgatory, he list and shares his John Le Carre favorite struggles with his memories, his guilt, and his need to remain (which didn't make human in a dehumanizing place, until an affair with a fellow the cut). prisoner reawakens his ability to love, even if the young man is a » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and cynical operator and love is just another burden to bear. In some the pain) behind stacking up ways this book represented Cheever going far afield from the 100 novels. suburbs where he had made his name. (Not too far: Sing Sing

Reader's Choice was near his home in Ossining, N.Y. He had taught prisoners

1: there in the early 70's.) But Farragut is not so different from

2: Lolita Cheever's lawn-mowing householders. Yearning, wayward, beset

3: A Passage to India by anger and need—he's just a Cheever character in extremis.

4: A Death in the Family He suffers beautifully, but he suffers to a purpose. When he finds

5: Ubik a rapprochement with the world, however tenuous, it speaks to

See the full list the prisoner in us all.—R.L.

From the TIME Archive:

Cheever's great strength has always been his ability to charge

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,falconer,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:12 PM Falconer - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels both the ordinary and the fanciful with emotion TIME's Andrew Arnold —TIME Magazine, Feb. 28, 1977 (Read This Review)

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix

masterpieces Next: The French Lieutenant's Woman »

Archive Trivia More From the Archive: Who was the first author to

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) appear on a TIME cover?

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) Get the answer and much

How and What to Read (10/2/72) more on our trivia page

● Most E-Mailed Stories Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' not list either author. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Send us your thoughts » ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,falconer,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:12 PM Falconer - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,falconer,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:12 PM The French Lieutenant's Woman - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The French Lieutenant's Woman

(1969) Current Issue Author: John Fowles

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

A magnificent game of a novel, one in

which the brilliant postmodern

contrivances actually add to the Table of Contents

About the List poignancy of its anguished Victorian

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the characters. Charles Smithson is an - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite amateur paleontologist living on the

(which didn't make southwestern coast of England. Ernestina is his drearily upright

the cut). fiancee. Sarah Woodruff is an enigmatic local governess, said to

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and be pining for a French soldier who has misused her. The fourth

the pain) behind stacking up major figure in this book is not a character but the author. By no

100 novels. means all-powerful, he discovers early on that he has lost control

of his characters and proposes in that case to let them have their Reader's Choice

1: freedom. And he means it. The story procedes through alternative

2: Lolita episodes—in one Charles marries Ernestina; in another he

3: A Passage to India doesn't—and multiple endings, with the author sometimes turning

4: A Death in the Family up to walk among his characters and comment tartly on their

5: Ubik actions. In its final pages—don't dare to call them a conclusion; in

a book so open-ended, what could that word mean?—he opens a See the full list vista onto freedom that's both dazzling and devastating.—R.L.

From the TIME Archive:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_french_lieutenants_woman,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:16 PM The French Lieutenant's Woman - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels The book is more truly inventive and contemporary than a whole shelf of campus comings-of-age or suburban wife- TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and swapping sagas

—TIME Magazine, Nov. 7, 1969 (Read This Review) nine other comix

masterpieces

Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to

Next: The Golden Notebook » appear on a TIME cover?

Get the answer and much More From the Archive: more on our trivia page Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Talk Back Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on How and What to Read (10/2/72)

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I Harry Potter Archive Collection

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did Writers in TIME Archive Collection

not list either author.

● Most E-Mailed Stories —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

Send us your thoughts » ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

From the TIME Archive TIME Ernest Hemingway ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch "Make no mistake,

Ernest Hemingway is ● Obama's Historic Victory somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' ● Add This RSS Feed | transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_french_lieutenants_woman,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:16 PM The French Lieutenant's Woman - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_french_lieutenants_woman,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:16 PM The Golden Notebook - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Golden Notebook (1962) Author: Doris Lessing Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Anna Wulf is a writer who keeps four

notebooks, each a different color, each

reflecting a different part of her. The Table of Contents black one contains recollections of her

About the List youthful wartime years in West Africa, » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - experiences that went into her first list and shares his John Le Carre favorite novel. In the red one she reflects on her later life in London's (which didn't make leftist and intellectual circles. The blue notebook analyzes her the cut). fraught relations with men. The yellow contains her fragmentary » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and attempts at new fiction. With the fifth, the golden notebook, and the pain) behind stacking up with The Golden Notebook, Wulf/Lessing struggles to tie all the 100 novels. threads fearlessly back together again. All the currents of her time

Reader's Choice flow through Anna—Marx and Freud and the burgeoning

1: dissatisfactions among women that would eventually explode into

2: Lolita feminism. Lessing's earnestness can be too much at times, but as

3: A Passage to India a portrait of a woman coming to grips with the realities of her time

4: A Death in the Family her book is indispensable.—R.L.

5: Ubik

From the TIME Archive: See the full list Lessing copes with not just one literary chestnut but a whole

treeful

—TIME Magazine, Jul. 13, 1962 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_golden_notebook,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:19 PM The Golden Notebook - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix

Next: Go Tell it on the Mountain » masterpieces

Archive Trivia More From the Archive:

Who was the first author to Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

appear on a TIME cover? Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

Get the answer and much How and What to Read (10/2/72)

more on our trivia page Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Harry Potter Archive Collection

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Writers in TIME Archive Collection

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - not list either author. TIME

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Send us your thoughts » ● Add This RSS Feed |

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_golden_notebook,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:19 PM The Golden Notebook - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_golden_notebook,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:19 PM Go Tell it on the Mountain - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953) Author: James Baldwin Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

For his ferocious debut novel, Baldwin

reached back to his experiences as a

teenage Pentecostal preacher in Table of Contents Harlem and set them down in language

About the List steeped in the high and mighty rhetoric » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - of Scripture. At age 14 John Grimes is list and shares his John Le Carre favorite bedeviled by the new stirrings in "his treacherous and bewildering (which didn't make body" and resentful of his preacher stepfather, once an energetic the cut). sinner, whose dual nature is now divided between the dutiful but » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and restless John and John's older brother Roy, another hell-raiser in the pain) behind stacking up training. The boys' mother, Elizabeth, labors to keep the passions 100 novels. of her men in check, all the while holding secrets of her own.

Reader's Choice Their stories run dark and deep, while the fierce music of

1: Baldwin's voice courses through those stories and lends them

2: Lolita majesty.—L.G.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive: 4: A Death in the Family The sufferings of Baldwin's race have brought forth the harsh 5: Ubik resentments of author and characters alike

—TIME Magazine, May. 18, 1953 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,go_tell_it_on_the_mountain,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:23 PM Go Tell it on the Mountain - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Next: Gone With the Wind »

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive:

nine other comix Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

masterpieces Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Who was the first author to

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) appear on a TIME cover?

Harry Potter Archive Collection Get the answer and much

Writers in TIME Archive Collection more on our trivia page

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Robin; Seattle, Wash. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Add This RSS Feed |

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,go_tell_it_on_the_mountain,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:23 PM Go Tell it on the Mountain - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,go_tell_it_on_the_mountain,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:23 PM Gone With the Wind - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Gone With the Wind (1936) Author: Margaret Mitchell Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

It's one of the best-selling books ever

bound between covers, but that's not

what makes Margaret Mitchell's Table of Contents magnificent mint julep of a novel great.

About the List The ultimate, original sweeping » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - historical romance, it follows high- list and shares his John Le Carre favorite spirited Scarlett O'Hara, roguish Rhett Butler and romantic, (which didn't make infinitely good-looking Ashley Wilkes as the world that nurtured the cut). them is swept away in the cataclysm of the Civil War. As » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and quintessentially American as Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is the pain) behind stacking up English, Gone with the Wind is a colossally readable romance 100 novels. novel—love stories do not come more triangular—but it's also the

Reader's Choice definitive telling of one of the basic American mythologies: the

1: passing away, in blood and ashes, of the grand old South.—L.G.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive: 3: A Passage to India Last week readers had an opportunity to learn about Atlanta's 4: A Death in the Family history in an imposing first novel chosen by the Book-of-the-

5: Ubik Month Club for July

—TIME Magazine, Jul. 6, 1936 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,gone_with_the_wind,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:27 PM Gone With the Wind - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Next: The Grapes of Wrath »

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive:

nine other comix Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

masterpieces Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Who was the first author to

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) appear on a TIME cover?

Harry Potter Archive Collection Get the answer and much

Writers in TIME Archive Collection more on our trivia page

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Robin; Seattle, Wash. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Add This RSS Feed |

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,gone_with_the_wind,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:27 PM Gone With the Wind - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,gone_with_the_wind,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:27 PM The Grapes of Wrath - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Grapes of Wrath (1939) Author: John Steinbeck Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

The storms of the great Dust Bowl had

barely settled when Steinbeck

published The Grapes of Wrath, which Table of Contents follows a family of impoverished

About the List "Okies," the Joads, as they chase the » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - mirage of a good life westward from list and shares his John Le Carre favorite their devastated midwestern farm to California. The Joads find (which didn't make only bitterness, squalor and oppression as migrant agricultural the cut). workers living in "Hoovervilles," but their indomitable strength in » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and the face of an entire continent's worth of adversity makes the pain) behind stacking up Steinbeck's epic far more than a history of unfortunate events: It's 100 novels. both a record of its time and a permanent monument to human

Reader's Choice perseverance.—L.G.

1: From the TIME Archive: 2: Lolita The publishers believe it is 'perhaps the greatest modern 3: A Passage to India American novel, perhaps the greatest single creative work this

4: A Death in the Family country has ever produced.' It is not

5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, Apr. 17, 1939 (Read This Review)

See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_grapes_of_wrath,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:31 PM The Grapes of Wrath - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

Next: Gravity's Rainbow » TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive: nine other comix

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) masterpieces

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

Archive Trivia How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Who was the first author to Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

appear on a TIME cover? Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Get the answer and much Harry Potter Archive Collection

more on our trivia page Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

● Add This RSS Feed | not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_grapes_of_wrath,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:31 PM The Grapes of Wrath - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_grapes_of_wrath,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:31 PM Gravity's Rainbow - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Gravity's Rainbow (1973) Author: Thomas Pynchon Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

No, it is not unreadable. For most of its

700-plus pages it's so crazily, scarily,

sumptuously readable that you hate to Table of Contents put it aside even as the last paragraph

About the List thunders down on your head. The » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - unsummarizable plot centers, to the list and shares his John Le Carre favorite extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who (which didn't make comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II the cut). when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and London women shows that they correspond with the places struck the pain) behind stacking up by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random 100 novels. distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a

Reader's Choice massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an

1: occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human

2: Lolita need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the

3: A Passage to India same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we

4: A Death in the Family mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among

5: Ubik American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon

See the full list is the indisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This

book is why.—R.L.

From the TIME Archive:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,gravitys_rainbow,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:35 PM Gravity's Rainbow - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Pynchon catalogues and tickles fantasies so elaborately TIME's Andrew Arnold detailed that most of his readers will come away feeling illiterate in

picks Watchmen and the terms of the 20th century

nine other comix —TIME Magazine, Mar. 5, 1973 (Read This Review)

masterpieces

Archive Trivia Next: The Great Gatsby » Who was the first author to

appear on a TIME cover? More From the Archive: Get the answer and much Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) more on our trivia page Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

Talk Back How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. Harry Potter Archive Collection

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I Writers in TIME Archive Collection

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

● Most E-Mailed Stories not list either author.

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - Send us your thoughts » TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch From the TIME Archive

● Ernest Hemingway Obama's Historic Victory "Make no mistake, ● Add This RSS Feed | Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,gravitys_rainbow,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:35 PM Gravity's Rainbow - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,gravitys_rainbow,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:35 PM Red Harvest - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Red Harvest (1929) Author: Dashiell Hammett Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Where did we first hear the voice of the

world-weary American tough guy in its

purest distillation? In Dashiell Hammett, Table of Contents a former Pinkerton detective, and in this

About the List book, his first novel. Though less » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - famous than The Maltese Falcon or The list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Thin Man, which both have the advantage of their pitch-perfect (which didn't make movie adaptations, this tale of omnidirectional treachery is the the cut). man at his deadly best. (For the record, there is a movie of this » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and book, too. Transferred to samurai-era Japan, it was the basis for the pain) behind stacking up Kurosawa's great film Yojimbo.) With the Continental Op, a 100 novels. detective he had been developing for years in short stories,

Reader's Choice Hammett created the prototype for every sleuth who would ever

1: be called "hard-boiled." And with his witty, economical prose—"I

2: Lolita said: 'Hello.' "—Hammett gave machismo its own terse lyricism.

3: A Passage to India Here the Op finds himself in a corrupt western town where there's

4: A Death in the Family a power struggle among contending factions. Virtually all of them,

5: Ubik the hoods, the lawmen, the lowlifes, the local grandees, are lying

See the full list and corrupt. Short, overweight, often a little drunk, the Op is no

movie star. He's a hero all the same, a man on his own,

maneuvering among the crocodiles, frequently with fists and

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,red_harvest,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:39 PM Red Harvest - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels firepower, always with a brutal and amusing efficiency.—R.L.

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix

masterpieces Next: Revolutionary Road »

Archive Trivia More From the Archive:

Who was the first author to Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

appear on a TIME cover? Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

Get the answer and much How and What to Read (10/2/72)

more on our trivia page Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Harry Potter Archive Collection

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Writers in TIME Archive Collection

—Robin; Seattle, Wash.

● Most E-Mailed Stories

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - not list either author. TIME —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Send us your thoughts » ● Add This RSS Feed |

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,red_harvest,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:39 PM Red Harvest - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,red_harvest,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:39 PM Revolutionary Road - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Revolutionary Road (1961) Author: Richard Yates Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

We think of Updike and Cheever as the

masters of postwar American suburbia,

of its sunlit euphorias and its drunken Table of Contents discontents. Add Yates to the master

About the List list, just subtract the euphorias. His » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - great novel is a bitterly funny and list and shares his John Le Carre favorite bitterly unfunny account of lethal disappointment in the (which didn't make Connecticut suburbs in 1955. When they were single and in love, the cut). Frank and April Wheeler thought of themselves as » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and different—smarter, hipper, more alive. Then comes marriage and the pain) behind stacking up the steamroller of daily existence—his job for a big company, her 100 novels. wife-and-motherhood. The rewards of the material life seem like

Reader's Choice small compensation for the daily blows to the ego, which

1: eventually detonate their lives. This may sound like a common

2: Lolita predicament, but Yates gives it uncommon force. Though none of

3: A Passage to India his six other novels enjoys the enduring prestige of this one, it

4: A Death in the Family doesn't matter. If Revolutionary Road doesn't make him an

5: Ubik immortal, immortality isn't worth having.—R.L.

See the full list

Next: The Sheltering Sky »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,revolutionary_road,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:43 PM Revolutionary Road - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive: picks Watchmen and

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) nine other comix

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) masterpieces

How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Who was the first author to Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

appear on a TIME cover? Harry Potter Archive Collection

Get the answer and much Writers in TIME Archive Collection

more on our trivia page

● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME —Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

● Add This RSS Feed | checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,revolutionary_road,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:43 PM Revolutionary Road - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,revolutionary_road,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:43 PM The Sheltering Sky - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Sheltering Sky (1949) Author: Paul Bowles Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

A very strange book, and a very

seductive one. Port Moseby and his

wife, Kit, are traveling in North Africa Table of Contents with their annoying friend Tunner. They

About the List turn out to be en route to oblivion, a » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - passage that brings them up against the list and shares his John Le Carre favorite desert, the Arabs, the French colonizers, a very unsavory mother/ (which didn't make son combination and their enigmatic selves. Bowles, who lived the cut). much of his life in Tangiers, knew the enticing other-ness of » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Algeria and Morocco, enough to know that you can write about it the pain) behind stacking up in straightforward, unadorned prose—are you listening, Lawrence 100 novels. Durrell?—and still not fail to convey its treacherous beguilements.

Reader's Choice The last of this book's three sections, when Kit is given over to

1: her fate in the desert, is one of the damnedest things you will ever

2: Lolita read.—R.L.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive: 4: A Death in the Family All this may be taken straight as simply a lurid, supersexy 5: Ubik Sahara adventure story completely outfitted with camel trains,

See the full list handsome Arabs, French officers and a harem

—TIME Magazine, Dec. 5, 1949 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sheltering_sky,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:46 PM The Sheltering Sky - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: Slaughterhouse-Five » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

appear on a TIME cover? How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Get the answer and much Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

more on our trivia page Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sheltering_sky,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:46 PM The Sheltering Sky - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sheltering_sky,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:46 PM Slaughterhouse-Five - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) Author: Kurt Vonnegut Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Vonnegut is still more cult favorite than

literary lion (and he probably prefers it

that way), but he deserves full canonical Table of Contents marks for this kaleidoscopic koan of a

About the List novel about Billy Pilgrim, a man who » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - has "become unstuck in time." Pilgrim list and shares his John Le Carre favorite ricochets helplessly from decade to decade, living the episodes of (which didn't make his life in no particular sequence, not excluding his own death, his the cut). capture by aliens called Tralfamadorians, and his traumatic » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and service in World War II, when he lives through the firebombing of the pain) behind stacking up Dresden. Slaughterhouse-Five is a cynical novel, but beneath the 100 novels. bitter, grim-jawed humor is a desperate, painfully honest attempt

Reader's Choice to confront the monstrous crimes of the 20th century.—L.G.

1: From the TIME Archive: 2: Lolita For Vonnegut, man's worst folly is a persistent attempt to 3: A Passage to India adjust, smoothly, rationally, to the unthinkable

4: A Death in the Family —TIME Magazine, Apr. 11, 1969 (Read This Review)

5: Ubik

See the full list

Next: Snow Crash »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,slaughterhouse_five,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:50 PM Slaughterhouse-Five - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels More From the Archive:

TIME's Andrew Arnold Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

picks Watchmen and Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

nine other comix How and What to Read (10/2/72)

masterpieces Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Archive Trivia Harry Potter Archive Collection Who was the first author to

Writers in TIME Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Get the answer and much ● Most E-Mailed Stories

more on our trivia page ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Talk Back ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - Why isn't the Harry Potter series on TIME

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory —Robin; Seattle, Wash.

● Add This RSS Feed |

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,slaughterhouse_five,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:50 PM Slaughterhouse-Five - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,slaughterhouse_five,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:50 PM Snow Crash - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Snow Crash (1992) Author: Neal Stephenson Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Hiro Protagonist—yeah, that's his

name—is a freelance hacker and

unemployed pizza deliveryman lost in a Table of Contents post-lapsarian, hyper-capitalist future

About the List America in which the central » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - government has withered away, leaving list and shares his John Le Carre favorite behind a landscape of gated communities and endless strip malls (which didn't make lined with cookie-cutter retail franchises. When a virulent the cut). computer virus (or is it a drug? or a religion?) called Snow Crash » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and gets loose and somehow starts infecting humans, Hiro teams up the pain) behind stacking up with a sassy skateboard messenger to save both the real world 100 novels. and cyberspace. Stephenson is that rare—no, unique—thing,

Reader's Choice both a virtuosic literary stylist and a consummate observer of a

1: brave new world where information flows freely between humans

2: Lolita and computers, to the point where the two are no longer easily

3: A Passage to India distinguishable.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list Next: The Sot-Weed Factor »

More From the Archive:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,snow_crash,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:54 PM Snow Crash - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) TIME's Andrew Arnold

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66) picks Watchmen and

How and What to Read (10/2/72) nine other comix

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) masterpieces

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Archive Trivia Harry Potter Archive Collection

Who was the first author to Writers in TIME Archive Collection

appear on a TIME cover?

● Most E-Mailed Stories Get the answer and much

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? more on our trivia page ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - Talk Back TIME Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | —Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,snow_crash,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:54 PM Snow Crash - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,snow_crash,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:54 PM The Sot-Weed Factor - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Author: John Barth Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

A feast. Dense, funny, endlessly

inventive (and, OK, yes, long-winded)

this satire of the 18th-century Table of Contents picaresque novel—think Fielding's Tom

About the List Jones or Sterne's Tristram Shandy —is » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - also an earnest picture of the pitfalls list and shares his John Le Carre favorite awaiting innocence as it makes its unsteady way in the world. It's (which didn't make the late 17th century and Ebenezer Cooke is a poet, dutiful son the cut). and determined virgin who travels from England to Maryland to » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and take possession of his father's tobacco (or "sot weed") plantation. the pain) behind stacking up He is also eventually given to believe that he has been 100 novels. commissioned by the third Lord Baltimore to write an epic poem,

Reader's Choice The Marylandiad. But things are not always what they seem.

1: Actually, things are almost never what they seem. Not since

2: Lolita Candide has a steadfast soul witnessed so many strange scenes

3: A Passage to India or faced so many perils. Pirates, Indians, shrewd prostitutes,

4: A Death in the Family armed insurrectionists—Cooke endures them all, plus assaults on

5: Ubik his virginity from both women and men. Barth's language is

See the full list impossibly rich, a wickedly funny take on old English rhetoric and

American self-appraisals. For good measure he throws in stories

within stories, including the funniest retelling of the Pocahontas

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sot_weed_factor,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:57 PM The Sot-Weed Factor - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels tale—revealed to us in the "secret" journals of Capt. John

TIME's Andrew Arnold Smith—that anyone has ever dared to tell.— R.L.

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix

masterpieces

Archive Trivia Next: The Sound and the Fury » Who was the first author to

appear on a TIME cover? More From the Archive: Get the answer and much Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) more on our trivia page Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

Talk Back How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. Harry Potter Archive Collection

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I Writers in TIME Archive Collection

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

● Most E-Mailed Stories not list either author.

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - Send us your thoughts » TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch From the TIME Archive ● Obama's Historic Victory Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, ● Add This RSS Feed | Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sot_weed_factor,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:57 PM The Sot-Weed Factor - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sot_weed_factor,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:42:57 PM The Sound and the Fury - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Sound and the Fury (1929) Author: William Faulkner Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Flannery O'Connor's nickname for

Faulkner was "the Dixie Limited." She

didn't mean it entirely kindly: His huge Table of Contents talent and towering ambition made him

About the List a literary freight train that other southern » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - writers were often forced to dodge. Both list and shares his John Le Carre favorite qualities are on full display in The Sound and the Fury, which (which didn't make describes the bitter, incestuous dealings of a Mississippi family the cut). fallen on hard times. A formal and stylistic tour de force (in other » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and words, a tough but profoundly rewarding read), the book unfolds the pain) behind stacking up in four sections, centered in turn on each of the three Compson 100 novels. brothers—Benjy, a mentally disabled man; Quentin, a depressed,

Reader's Choice neurotic Harvard student; and Jason, an avaricious jerk—as well

1: as on a black servant named Dilsey. All the brothers are

2: Lolita obsessed with the dishonored Caddy, the slutty Compson sister,

3: A Passage to India and with the family honor (and the family fortune) that the

4: A Death in the Family Compsons have frittered away. From these ruined fragments and

5: Ubik damaged spare parts Faulkner builds a brutally moving epic of

See the full list love, lust and endurance.—L.G.

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sound_and_the_fury,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:01 PM The Sound and the Fury - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: The Sportswriter » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

appear on a TIME cover? How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Get the answer and much Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

more on our trivia page Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sound_and_the_fury,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:01 PM The Sound and the Fury - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sound_and_the_fury,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:01 PM The Sportswriter - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Sportswriter (1986) Author: Richard Ford Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Frank Bascombe is scrupulously out of

touch with himself. Devastated by the

death of his young son, divorced now Table of Contents from his wife, he is tiptoeing his way

About the List through bereavement, using work—he's » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - a magazine writer—to dislodge his grief, list and shares his John Le Carre favorite self-medicating with a strenuously pursued normalcy. In this (which didn't make beautifully calibrated book, he finds his way to something like the cut). peace, which is a different matter. Ford is masterful at describing » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and hard-won and precarious emotional equilibriums of a kind you the pain) behind stacking up very well may recognize as your own. This book led to a no less 100 novels. brilliant sequel, Independence Day. As portraits of a man who has

Reader's Choice lingered in despair but who refuses in the end to remain there,

1: they have no equal.—R.L.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive: 3: A Passage to India Richard Ford should have little trouble becoming a literary 4: A Death in the Family heartthrob

5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, May. 24, 1986 (Read This Review)

See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sportswriter,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:05 PM The Sportswriter - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

Next: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold » TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive: nine other comix

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) masterpieces

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

Archive Trivia How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Who was the first author to Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

appear on a TIME cover? Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Get the answer and much Harry Potter Archive Collection

more on our trivia page Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

● Add This RSS Feed | not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sportswriter,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:05 PM The Sportswriter - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sportswriter,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:05 PM The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Spy Who Came in From the

Cold (1964) Current Issue Author: John le Carre

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

No one wears a tuxedo in le Carre's spy

novels. His agents are middle-aged,

disappointed, disillusioned men in Table of Contents

About the List stained overcoats. In The Spy Who

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the Came In from the Cold a worn-out - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite English spy named Alec Leamas

(which didn't make undertakes a terrifying mission in the hope that it will be his last:

the cut). He pretends to defect to East Germany, the better to infiltrate the

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and enemy's espionage network. Written from personal experience (le

the pain) behind stacking up Carre—real name David Cornwell—did a hitch in MI6) with

100 novels. pitiless, elegant clarity, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is a

first-rate thriller and more: a sad, sympathetic portrait of a man Reader's Choice

1: who has lived by lies and subterfuge for so long, he's forgotten

2: Lolita how to tell the truth.—L.G.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive:

4: A Death in the Family Even if John le Carre's book isn't authentic, nobody except

5: Ubik another certified spy can be sure

—TIME Magazine, Jan. 17, 1964 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_spy_who_came_in_from_the_cold,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:08 PM The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: The Sun Also Rises » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

appear on a TIME cover? How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Get the answer and much Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

more on our trivia page Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_spy_who_came_in_from_the_cold,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:08 PM The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_spy_who_came_in_from_the_cold,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:08 PM The Sun Also Rises - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Sun Also Rises (1926) Author: Ernest Hemingway Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Meet Jake Barnes: working journalist,

expatriate, tough talker, tragic hero.

Jake was horribly wounded in the Table of Contents war—in fact, he was effectively

About the List gelded—so he spends his time in Paris » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - getting drunk in cafes, nursing his list and shares his John Le Carre favorite ennui, bantering with his hard-boiled friends, and mooning over (which didn't make his unconsummatable love for a beautiful, aristocratic the cut). Englishwoman named Bret Ashley who dines on men three meals » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and a day. This doomed pair, plus a lively cast of romantically reckless the pain) behind stacking up expatriates, head to Pamplona for the annual fiesta, where they 100 novels. drink vast amounts of wine, hook up, betray one another, and try

Reader's Choice to forget the caverns of loss and emptiness that gape inside them.

1: The Sun Also Rises popularized the idea of the "Lost

2: Lolita Generation"—but the anomie and disappointment at its heart

3: A Passage to India seem to come around for every generation, sooner or later.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik While Hemingway's writing has acquired only a few

affectations, his interests appear to have grown soggy with much See the full list

sitting around sloppy cafe tables in the so-called Latin quarter of

Paris

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sun_also_rises,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:12 PM The Sun Also Rises - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels —TIME Magazine, Nov. 1, 1926 (Read This Review)

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix

masterpieces

Next: Their Eyes Were Watching God »

Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to More From the Archive:

appear on a TIME cover? Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Get the answer and much Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

more on our trivia page How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Harry Potter Archive Collection

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Most E-Mailed Stories

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

not list either author. ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Send us your thoughts »

● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sun_also_rises,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:12 PM The Sun Also Rises - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sun_also_rises,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:12 PM Their Eyes Were Watching God - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Their Eyes Were Watching God

(1937) Current Issue Author: Zora Neale Hurston

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

"There is no agony," Hurston once

wrote, "like bearing an untold story

inside you." Janie Crawford, forty-ish, Table of Contents

About the List with her "firm buttocks like she had

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the grapefruits in her hip pockets," her - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite "pugnacious breasts," and her imperial

(which didn't make self-possession, has survived the most tempestuous years of her

the cut). life, buried three husbands, and returned home to tell the story. Or

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and at least to tell it to her best friend Pheoby, who Janie knows will

the pain) behind stacking up relay it to the curious but envious town folk in the African-

100 novels. American enclave of Eatonville, in the Florida Everglades.

(Hurston's actual hometown.) Quite a tale it is, of three men in Reader's Choice

1: succession who married and hurt her in different ways. The last of

2: Lolita them she outlived only because she outshot him. This is the great

3: A Passage to India tale of black female survival in a world beset by bad weather and

4: A Death in the Family bad men. Her succulent book has its stretches of overripe prose,

5: Ubik but that's the price of taking the chances she takes with language,

chances you have to take to arrive at the witchy places she gets See the full list to. (Sizing up her third husband, Tea Cake, she notices "his

lashes curling sharply like drawn scimitars.") It's a short book, but

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,their_eyes_were_watching_god,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:16 PM Their Eyes Were Watching God - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME you savor it. And after New Orleans, the climactic scene of Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold hurricane and flood is more powerful than ever.—R.L.

picks Watchmen and From the TIME Archive:

nine other comix To Northerners the Negro is not a social problem but a minor,

hardly noticeable industrial phenomenon masterpieces

—TIME Magazine, Sep. 20, 1937 (Read This Review)

Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to

appear on a TIME cover?

Get the answer and much

Next: Things Fall Apart » more on our trivia page

Talk Back More From the Archive:

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

not list either author. Harry Potter Archive Collection

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Send us your thoughts » ● Most E-Mailed Stories

From the TIME Archive ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

Ernest Hemingway ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' TIME transcriber of life...." ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Writer 1/18/26

● Obama's Historic Victory More Writers in TIME ● Add This RSS Feed |

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,their_eyes_were_watching_god,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:16 PM Their Eyes Were Watching God - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,their_eyes_were_watching_god,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:16 PM The Great Gatsby - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Great Gatsby (1925) Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

No one gives better parties than Jazz

Age zillionaire Jay Gatsby. No one has

a bigger house or a bigger pool, or Table of Contents drives a longer, sleeker, more opulent

About the List automobile. His silk shirts alone—"shirts » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - with stripes and scrolls and plaids in list and shares his John Le Carre favorite coral and apple green and lavender and faint orange with (which didn't make monograms of Indian blue"—can and do reduce women to tears. the cut). But who is he? Where does he come from, where did he make his » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and megabucks, and why—his sober, straight-arrow neighbor (and the pain) behind stacking up narrator) Nick wonders—does he stand on his dock at night and 100 novels. stretch out his arms to a green light shining across the bay from

Reader's Choice his magnificent mansion? The Great Gatsby lays bare the empty,

1: tragic heart of the self-made man. It's not only a page-turner and

2: Lolita a heartbreaker, it's one of the most quintessentially American

3: A Passage to India novels ever written.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik Still the brightest boy in the class, Scott Fitzgerald holds up

See the full list his hand

—TIME Magazine, May. 11, 1925 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_great_gatsby,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:19 PM The Great Gatsby - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: A Handful of Dust » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

appear on a TIME cover? How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Get the answer and much Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

more on our trivia page Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_great_gatsby,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:19 PM The Great Gatsby - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_great_gatsby,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:19 PM A Handful of Dust - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

A Handful of Dust (1934) Author: Evelyn Waugh Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Devoted to his wife, Brenda, his son,

John Andrew, and to Hetton, his very

ugly neo-Gothic homestead, Tony Last Table of Contents will lose all three. As his name is always

About the List announcing, Last lives at the end of a » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - dying age, the brittle, exhausted 1930s, list and shares his John Le Carre favorite when England, at least Waugh's England, is a place where (which didn't make Brenda can throw herself at the feet of a childish lover and where the cut). Last can discard his life on an absurd caprice. Waugh's own » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and marriage was disintegrating when he wrote this, and his the pain) behind stacking up unhappiness led him into wider realms of feeling—pathos, rage— 100 novels. than any you find in his earlier triumphs of nasty wit, Decline and

Reader's Choice Fall and Vile Bodies. Sound dreary? Not even slightly. If this is

1: Waugh at his bleakest it's also Waugh at his deepest, most

2: Lolita poisonously funny.—R.L.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive: 4: A Death in the Family As up-to-date as this week's London smartchatter, A Handful 5: Ubik of Dust is no tragicomedy but a melofarce

—TIME Magazine, Sep. 24, 1934 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_handful_of_dust,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:23 PM A Handful of Dust - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Next: The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter »

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive:

nine other comix Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

masterpieces Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Who was the first author to

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) appear on a TIME cover?

Harry Potter Archive Collection Get the answer and much

Writers in TIME Archive Collection more on our trivia page

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Robin; Seattle, Wash. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Add This RSS Feed |

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_handful_of_dust,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:23 PM A Handful of Dust - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_handful_of_dust,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:23 PM The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

(1940) Current Issue Author: Carson McCullers

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

When Carson McCullers was a

teenager, she came to New York City to

study piano at Juilliard. She never Table of Contents

About the List matriculated; she lost the purse with her

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the tuition money in it. Such small, - ADVERTISEMENT -

list and shares his John Le Carre favorite unredressed tragedies as these are at

(which didn't make the silent, solitary heart of McCullers' first novel, which centers on

the cut). a deaf-mute and a teenage tomboy living in a small Georgia town

» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and in the 1930s. McCullers' characters reach out to one another for

the pain) behind stacking up sympathy and understanding, but not all of them can complete the

100 novels. connection, and their isolated thoughts form a choir of amazing,

transcendent poignance—music only the reader can hear. —L.G. Reader's Choice

1: From the TIME Archive:

2: Lolita As a writer of words, McCullers is never distinguished, never

3: A Passage to India in one glint verbally original

—TIME Magazine, Jun. 10, 1940 (Read This Review) 4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list

Next: The Heart of the Matter »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_heart_is_a_lonely_hunter,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:28 PM The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive:

picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_heart_is_a_lonely_hunter,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:28 PM The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_heart_is_a_lonely_hunter,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:28 PM The Heart of the Matter - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

The Heart of the Matter (1948) Author: Graham Greene Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

He felt the loyalty we all feel to

unhappiness—the sense that there is

where we really belong. Nobody could Table of Contents do abjection like Greene. And no one

About the List could parse moral dilemmas with quite » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - his eye for the subtle ways that Satan list and shares his John Le Carre favorite persuades the righteous. Henry Scobie is one of his supreme (which didn't make creations, a British colonial police officer stationed during World the cut). War II in a damp, vulture-ridden West African town. A Roman » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Catholic mindful of his duties to God, Scobie thinks of himself as the pain) behind stacking up incorruptible, but he has not counted on the power of his own 100 novels. excesses of pity to beguile him. To deliver his wife from

Reader's Choice unhappiness he is led into complicity with smugglers; to save a

1: young woman from despair—but no less to save himself—he is

2: Lolita drawn into adultery; to rescue them both from his misjudgments

3: A Passage to India he is led to betray his God. A man for whom humility becomes a

4: A Death in the Family kind of perverse pride arrives at a place where he wills his own

5: Ubik damnation as the one means to escape his earthly

See the full list predicaments.—R.L.

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_heart_of_the_matter,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:31 PM The Heart of the Matter - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: Herzog » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

appear on a TIME cover? How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Get the answer and much Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

more on our trivia page Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_heart_of_the_matter,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:31 PM The Heart of the Matter - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_heart_of_the_matter,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:31 PM Herzog - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Herzog (1964) Author: Saul Bellow Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Like Binx Bolling in Percy's The

Moviegoer, but at a much higher pitch

of talkative despair, Chaim Herzog is a Table of Contents man on a philosophical quest. "Much of

About the List my life has been spent in the effort to » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - live by more coherent ideas," he tells list and shares his John Le Carre favorite us. "I even know which ones." But unlike Bolling he is in the grip (which didn't make of a crisis that's not merely existential. His wife has left him for the cut). somebody he thought was a good friend, taking with her his » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and beloved daughter. This plunges him into a tormented appraisal the pain) behind stacking up not only of himself and the people around him, but of nearly 100 novels. everything that has transpired since the Age of Reason got under

Reader's Choice way. You get to watch him shake his head, and sometimes his

1: fist, at the world, all the while asking it, unbreak my heart.—R.L.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive: 3: A Passage to India Individual episodes in Herzog are brilliant; Bellow can wring a 4: A Death in the Family rare pathos out of the most unlikely, unlovely material

5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, Sept. 25, 1964 (Read This Review)

See the full list

Next: Housekeeping »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,herzog,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:35 PM Herzog - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive:

picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,herzog,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:35 PM Herzog - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,herzog,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:35 PM Housekeeping - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Housekeeping (1981) Author: Marilynne Robinson Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Fingerbone is a fictional town in the

Pacific Northwest. It rests along a lake

that has the distinction of once having Table of Contents claimed an entire train that slid from a

About the List bridge into its dark waters one night, » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - taking almost all on board to their list and shares his John Le Carre favorite deaths. Time swallows people in the same way in this sly book. (which didn't make The narrator is Ruth, a teenaged girl. She and her sister are the cut). raised, affectionately but haphazardly, by various generations of » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and the women in her all-too-eccentric family. This is a book about the pain) behind stacking up women, making homes and leaving them. Even when the girls 100 novels. stay home, the days and nights pass and the plot goes nowhere

Reader's Choice in particular, Robinson arrives again and again in resounding

1: places.—R.L.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive: 3: A Passage to India This first novel does much more than show promise; it 4: A Death in the Family brilliantly portrays the impermanence of all things, especially

5: Ubik beauty and happiness

—TIME Magazine, Feb. 2, 1981 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,housekeeping,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:39 PM Housekeeping - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Next: A House for Mr. Biswas »

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive:

nine other comix Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

masterpieces Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Who was the first author to

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) appear on a TIME cover?

Harry Potter Archive Collection Get the answer and much

Writers in TIME Archive Collection more on our trivia page

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Robin; Seattle, Wash. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Add This RSS Feed |

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,housekeeping,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:39 PM Housekeeping - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,housekeeping,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:39 PM A House for Mr. Biswas - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

A House for Mr. Biswas (1962) Author: V.S. Naipaul Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

When Mohun Biswas married his wife,

Shama, he effectively married her entire

family, the daunting, smothering Tulsis. Table of Contents Set in the Hindu community in

About the List postcolonial Trinidad—where Naipaul » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - was born—A House for Mr. Biswas is list and shares his John Le Carre favorite the life story of a man who wanted only a home, but who was a (which didn't make magnet for misfortune, oppression and humiliation, "a wanderer the cut). with no place he could call his own, with no family except that » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and which he was to attempt to create out of the engulfing world of the the pain) behind stacking up Tulsis." Mohun's survival is a triumph of resilience and 100 novels. persistence and humor, an epic of dignity and self-respect

Reader's Choice doggedly clung to.—L.G.

1: From the TIME Archive: 2: Lolita Naipaul's House, though built of excellent exotic materials, 3: A Passage to India sags badly; 'economy, style, and a less elastic blueprint would

4: A Death in the Family have done wonders

5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, Jun. 22, 1962 (Read This Review)

See the full list

Next: I, Claudius »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_house_for_mr_biswas,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:43 PM A House for Mr. Biswas - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive:

picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_house_for_mr_biswas,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:43 PM A House for Mr. Biswas - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_house_for_mr_biswas,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:43 PM I, Claudius - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

I, Claudius (1934) Author: Robert Graves Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Though he briefly became emperor,

Claudius, the limping, stuttering

grandson of Caesar Augustus, is not Table of Contents your usual Roman on a pedestal. Sly,

About the List even bitchy, an appalled observer of his » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - treacherous times —in his voice you list and shares his John Le Carre favorite hear the worldliness of classical literature with none of its marble (which didn't make officialdom. A member of a ruthless and murderous imperial the cut). family, he survives because he seems to all around him the least » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and consequential twig of the family tree. But Claudius bears enduring the pain) behind stacking up witness to a moment when the virtues of the Roman republic, 100 novels. which has already been disposed of by the time he begins his

Reader's Choice tale, are being lost to the bloodlusts and hubris of the Roman

1: empire.—R.L.

2: Lolita From the TIME Archive: 3: A Passage to India Readers for whom the life of ancient Rome has been 4: A Death in the Family mummified by academic historians, museums and Latin grammar

5: Ubik will give Author Graves a rising vote of thanks

—TIME Magazine, Jun. 18, 1934 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,i_claudius,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:47 PM I, Claudius - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Next: Infinite Jest »

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive:

nine other comix Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

masterpieces Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

How and What to Read (10/2/72) Archive Trivia Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Who was the first author to

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) appear on a TIME cover?

Harry Potter Archive Collection Get the answer and much

Writers in TIME Archive Collection more on our trivia page

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Robin; Seattle, Wash. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Add This RSS Feed |

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,i_claudius,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:47 PM I, Claudius - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,i_claudius,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:47 PM Infinite Jest - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Infinite Jest (1996) Author: David Foster Wallace Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

The title is a sly wink at the book's

massive girth—it's 1,000-plus pages in

most editions—but the reference to Table of Contents Hamlet is well-earned; moreover, it's a

About the List damn funny book. The action takes » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - place in Boston at two separate but list and shares his John Le Carre favorite curiously similar venues—an elite tennis academy and a drug (which didn't make rehabilitation facility—in a near future in which calendar years are the cut). available for corporate sponsorship (the Year of the Trial Size » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Dove Bar, the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, and so the pain) behind stacking up on). The plot of Infinite Jest—which revolves around, among other 100 novels. things, a lost, unwatchably beautiful art film and a conspiracy

Reader's Choice among wheelchair-bound Quebecois secessionists—is decidedly

1: secondary to the painfully funny dialogue and Wallace's endlessly

2: Lolita rich ruminations and speculations on addiction, entertainment, art,

3: A Passage to India life and, of course, tennis.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik David Foster Wallace's marathon send-up of humanism at the

See the full list end of its tether is worth the effort

—TIME Magazine, Feb. 19, 1996 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,infinte_jest,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:51 PM Infinite Jest - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: Invisible Man » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

appear on a TIME cover? How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Get the answer and much Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

more on our trivia page Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,infinte_jest,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:51 PM Infinite Jest - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,infinte_jest,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:51 PM Things Fall Apart - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Things Fall Apart (1959) Author: Chinua Achebe Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

A novel of great power that turns the

world upside down. The Nigerian

novelist Achebe reached back to the Table of Contents early days of his people's encounter

About the List with colonialism, the 1890's, though the » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - white man and his religion make an list and shares his John Le Carre favorite impression upon the story only in its later stages. Instead of being (which didn't make treated as onlookers to the arrival of the colonial power, either the cut). passive or menacing, here the Africans are center stage, capable » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and all the while of nobility but also cruelty, wisdom and bewilderment. the pain) behind stacking up Okonkwo is an ambitious man within the Umuofia clan of the Igbo 100 novels. tribe. Determined to be a lord, he observes its rules, even the

Reader's Choice harshest of them, though that observance will eventually drive

1: away his own son. Achebe guides us through the intricacies of

2: Lolita Igbo culture, its profound sense of justice, its sometimes

3: A Passage to India murderous rules, its noble and harmful machismo. By the time the

4: A Death in the Family British colonial administrator arrives towards the end of the book

5: Ubik to dismiss the natives as savages, we know how profoundly

See the full list mistaken that word is.— R.L.

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,things_fall_apart,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:55 PM Things Fall Apart - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: To Kill a Mockingbird » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

appear on a TIME cover? How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Get the answer and much Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

more on our trivia page Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,things_fall_apart,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:55 PM Things Fall Apart - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,things_fall_apart,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:55 PM To Kill a Mockingbird - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) Author: Harper Lee Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

It would have been very easy to write a

novel about a rape trial involving a black

man and a white woman, set in the Table of Contents deep, deeply racist South and seen

About the List through the eyes of a young girl, that » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - wallowed in too-simple choices and list and shares his John Le Carre favorite made-for-TV-movie sentiment. Thankfully that novel is not To Kill (which didn't make a Mockingbird. The young girl is the curious, clear-eyed Scout, the cut). and her father, who defends the accused, is the immortal Atticus » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Finch, a pillar of weary small-town righteousness. What follows is the pain) behind stacking up neither simple nor sentimental, but is instead a classic of moral 100 novels. complexity and an endlessly renewable fund of wisdom about the

Reader's Choice nature of human decency.—L.G.

1: From the TIME Archive: 2: Lolita Lee, 34, an Alabaman, has written her first novel with all of the 3: A Passage to India tactile brilliance and none of the preciosity generally supposed to

4: A Death in the Family be standard swamp-warfare issue for Southern writers

5: Ubik —TIME Magazine, Aug. 1, 1960 (Read This Review)

See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,to_kill_a_mocking_bird,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:58 PM To Kill a Mockingbird - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

Next: To the Lighthouse » TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and More From the Archive: nine other comix

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) masterpieces

Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

Archive Trivia How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Who was the first author to Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

appear on a TIME cover? Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Get the answer and much Harry Potter Archive Collection

more on our trivia page Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Talk Back ● Most E-Mailed Stories Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

TIME

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

● Add This RSS Feed | not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,to_kill_a_mocking_bird,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:58 PM To Kill a Mockingbird - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,to_kill_a_mocking_bird,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:43:58 PM To the Lighthouse - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

To the Lighthouse (1927) Author: Virginia Woolf Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

After Woolf published her breakthrough

novel Mrs. Dalloway, she raised the

stakes and broadened her focus. To the Table of Contents Lighthouse is a stately dance of time,

About the List hope and art, as performed by the » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - Ramsay family and their immediate list and shares his John Le Carre favorite friends as they vacation at a house in the Hebrides. Mrs. Ramsay (which didn't make is a housewife and hostess; her husband is a cold, analytical the cut). philosopher; drawn in their wake are, among others, a struggling » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and young painter named Lily Briscoe and their little son James, the pain) behind stacking up whose dearest wish is to take a boat ride to a nearby lighthouse. 100 novels. The novel begins as a poignant portrait of family dynamics, but

Reader's Choice Woolf sets the second half of the book a decade after the first,

1: and that allows her to turn To the Lighthouse into a study of the

2: Lolita damage that time and history inflict on the Ramsays' hopes and

3: A Passage to India dreams, and a celebration of what endures.—L.G.

4: A Death in the Family From the TIME Archive: 5: Ubik The Significance of Author Woolf's last novel was that her

"stream of consciousness" method was not only startlingly original See the full list

but startlingly successful as well

—TIME Magazine, May. 30, 1927 (Read This Review)

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,to_the_lighthouse,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:02 PM To the Lighthouse - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix

Next: Tropic of Cancer » masterpieces

Archive Trivia More From the Archive:

Who was the first author to Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

appear on a TIME cover? Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

Get the answer and much How and What to Read (10/2/72)

more on our trivia page Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Harry Potter Archive Collection

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Writers in TIME Archive Collection

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - not list either author. TIME

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Send us your thoughts » ● Add This RSS Feed |

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,to_the_lighthouse,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:02 PM To the Lighthouse - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,to_the_lighthouse,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:02 PM Tropic of Cancer - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Tropic of Cancer (1934) Author: Henry Miller Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

"This is not a book, in the ordinary

sense of the word. No, this is a

prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the Table of Contents face of Art, a kick in the pants to God,

About the List Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty..." » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - That was Miller. In other words, it's a list and shares his John Le Carre favorite bum's manifesto, the greatest imaginable. Miller discourses on his (which didn't make life and lowlife in Paris, fashioning his experiences, reflections, the cut). orgasms and philosophizing into a shambling narrative. It's » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and impossible to outdo George Orwell's wonderfully overstated the pain) behind stacking up appraisal of Miller in 1940 —"the only imaginative prose writer of 100 novels. the slightest value who has appeared among the English-

Reader's Choice speaking races in some time"—but it's hard not to agree. He's the

1: thinking man's slacker, but his prose is a force multiplier—lucid,

2: Lolita honest and unhampered by neurotic self-loathing. Tropic of

3: A Passage to India Cancer was not published in the U.S. until 1961, where it set off

4: A Death in the Family an obscenity trial that is still one of the great episodes in the

5: Ubik history of free speech. Before Kerouac, before Burroughs, Miller

See the full list disputed all the imperatives of capitalism. He stood before the

temple of money and raised the flag of happiness. You have a

problem with that?— R.L.

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,tropic_of_cancer,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:05 PM Tropic of Cancer - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels From the TIME Archive: TIME's Andrew Arnold This strange book is the work of a 47-year-old expatriate who picks Watchmen and was born in New York, worked as a tailor, personnel manager,

nine other comix ranchman in California, newspaperman, six-day bicycle racer,

masterpieces concert pianist and who settled in Paris 'to study vice.'

—TIME Magazine, Nov. 21, 1938 (Read This Review) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to

appear on a TIME cover?

Get the answer and much

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,under_the_net,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:10 PM Under the Volcano - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Under the Volcano (1947) Author: Malcolm Lowry Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

To describe his perennial theme, Lowry

once borrowed the words of the critic

Edmund Wilson: "the forces in man Table of Contents which cause him to be terrified of

About the List himself." You see exactly what he » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - means in this coruscating novel, which list and shares his John Le Carre favorite traces the last 24 hours in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, once the (which didn't make British consul in a hellish Mexican town, now a dedicated but the cut). utterly cogent alcoholic in that same town, on a day when his ex- » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and wife has returned in a futile attempt to reach out to him. the pain) behind stacking up Shadowed by the hoodlums of the corrupt local officialdom, beset 100 novels. by his own furies, Firmin hurtles himself, annotating his fall all the

Reader's Choice while, into a pit of suffering. A vertiginous picture of self-

1: destruction, seen through the eyes of a man still lucid enough to

2: Lolita report to us all the harrowing particulars.—R.L.

3: A Passage to India From the TIME Archive: 4: A Death in the Family Under the Volcano makes the average novel look small and 5: Ubik timid

—TIME Magazine, Feb. 24, 1947 (Read This Review) See the full list

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,under_the_volcano,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:14 PM Under the Volcano - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and Next: Watchmen » nine other comix

masterpieces More From the Archive:

Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46) Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

appear on a TIME cover? How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Get the answer and much Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

more on our trivia page Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Talk Back Writers in TIME Archive Collection Why isn't the Harry Potter series on

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! ● Most E-Mailed Stories

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope' Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch not list either author.

● Obama's Historic Victory —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. ● Add This RSS Feed |

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,under_the_volcano,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:14 PM Under the Volcano - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,under_the_volcano,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:14 PM Watchmen - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Watchmen (1986) Author: Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Watchmen is a graphic novel—a book-

length comic book with ambitions above

its station—starring a ragbag of bizarre, Table of Contents damaged, retired superheroes: the

About the List paunchy, melancholic Nite Owl; the » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - raving doomsayer Rorschach; the blue, list and shares his John Le Carre favorite glowing, near-omnipotent, no-longer-human Doctor Manhattan. (which didn't make Though their heyday is past, these former crime-fighters are the cut). drawn back into action by the murder of a former teammate, The » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Comedian, which turns out to be the leading edge of a much the pain) behind stacking up wider, more disturbing conspiracy. Told with ruthless 100 novels. psychological realism, in fugal, overlapping plotlines and

Reader's Choice gorgeous, cinematic panels rich with repeating motifs, Watchmen

1: is a heart-pounding, heartbreaking read and a watershed in the

2: Lolita evolution of a young medium.—L.G.

3: A Passage to India See also the All-TIME Graphic Novels list 4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list

Next: White Noise »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,watchmen,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:18 PM Watchmen - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive:

picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,watchmen,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:18 PM Watchmen - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,watchmen,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:18 PM White Noise - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

White Noise (1985) Author: Don DeLillo Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

Affable Jack Gladney is professor of

Hitler studies at a small midwestern

college whose life is upended when a Table of Contents deadly chemical spill near his home

About the List creates what the authorities delicately » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - term an Airborne Toxic Event. Gladney list and shares his John Le Carre favorite succumbs to anger and paranoia, and his wife, Babette, starts (which didn't make taking an experimental drug designed to do away with the fear of the cut). death. Though it's pitched at a level of absurdity slightly above » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and that of real life, White Noise captures the quality of daily existence the pain) behind stacking up in media-saturated, hyper-capitalistic postmodern America so 100 novels. precisely, you don't know whether to laugh or whimper. —L.G.

Reader's Choice From the TIME Archive: 1: DeLillo's gifts are lavish, but his vision is a bit facile 2: Lolita —TIME Magazine, Jan. 21, 1985 (Read This Review)

3: A Passage to India

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list Next: White Teeth »

More From the Archive:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,white_noise,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:22 PM White Noise - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

TIME's Andrew Arnold Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

picks Watchmen and How and What to Read (10/2/72)

nine other comix Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

masterpieces Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Archive Trivia

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Who was the first author to

appear on a TIME cover? ● Most E-Mailed Stories Get the answer and much

● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? more on our trivia page ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - Talk Back TIME

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

● Add This RSS Feed | —Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,white_noise,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:22 PM White Noise - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,white_noise,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:22 PM White Teeth - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

White Teeth (2000) Author: Zadie Smith Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

This may be the first novel ever written

that truly feels at home in our

borderless, globalized, intermarried, Table of Contents post-colonial age, populated by

About the List "children with first and last names on a » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - direct collision course." Published when list and shares his John Le Carre favorite Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two (which didn't make Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a the cut). Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a the pain) behind stacking up religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping 100 novels. fates of Smith's characters seem to trace the new structures of

Reader's Choice 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace

1: and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-

2: Lolita modern, White Teeth doesn't quail before the rampantly ramifying

3: A Passage to India novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in

4: A Death in the Family them.—L.G.

5: Ubik

From the TIME Archive: See the full list You don't know her yet, but British novelist Zadie Smith, 24, is such a phenomenon on that side of the Atlantic that she has even

reviewed herself

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,white_teeth,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:25 PM White Teeth - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels —TIME Magazine, May. 8, 2000 (Read This Review)

TIME's Andrew Arnold

picks Watchmen and

nine other comix

masterpieces

Next: Wide Sargasso Sea »

Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to More From the Archive:

appear on a TIME cover? Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

Get the answer and much Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

more on our trivia page How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! Harry Potter Archive Collection

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Most E-Mailed Stories

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

not list either author. ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - —Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla. TIME

● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch Send us your thoughts »

● Obama's Historic Victory

● Add This RSS Feed | From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,white_teeth,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:25 PM White Teeth - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,white_teeth,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:25 PM Invisible Man - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Invisible Man (1952) Author: Ralph Ellison Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

A nameless young black man wends a

tortuous path from a southern

town—where a local white men's club Table of Contents mockingly awards him a scholarship to

About the List a black college—to the streets of New » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - York City, where everybody, black and list and shares his John Le Carre favorite white, left and right, man and woman, seems to have their own (which didn't make ideas about who he is and what purpose he can serve. the cut). Evenhandedly exposing the hypocrisies and stereotypes of all » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and comers, Invisible Man is far more than a race novel, or even a the pain) behind stacking up bildungsroman. It's the quintessential American picaresque of the 100 novels. 20th century. —L.G.

Reader's Choice From the TIME Archive: 1: Invisible Man is a remarkable first novel that gives 38-year-old 2: Lolita Ralph Ellison a claim to being the best of U.S. Negro writers

3: A Passage to India —TIME Magazine, Apr. 14, 1952 (Read This Review)

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list Next: Light in August »

More From the Archive:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,invisible_man,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:29 PM Invisible Man - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

TIME's Andrew Arnold Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

picks Watchmen and How and What to Read (10/2/72)

nine other comix Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)

masterpieces Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)

Harry Potter Archive Collection Archive Trivia Writers in TIME Archive Collection Who was the first author to

appear on a TIME cover? ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Get the answer and much ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex? more on our trivia page ● Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp -

Talk Back TIME

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

● Add This RSS Feed | —Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,invisible_man,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:29 PM Invisible Man - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,invisible_man,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:29 PM Wide Sargasso Sea - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback Try TIME for $1.99! Text Size: E-mail this to a friend

Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) Author: Jean Rhys Current Issue

● PRINT

● « Previous | Next »

In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Bertha

is the madwoman locked in the attic by

her husband Rochester, the simmering Table of Contents Englishman whose children Jane has

About the List been hired to tutor. In Bronte's novel we » Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the - ADVERTISEMENT - learn little about Bertha other than that list and shares his John Le Carre favorite she's a monster who must be bound with rope, a white woman (which didn't make from the Caribbean whom Rochester was long ago pressured into the cut). marrying for her money. But Rhys, who grew up in the French » Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and Caribbean colony of Dominica, presses on the silences in Bronte the pain) behind stacking up to give Bertha her own story. Caliban does not become Ariel here, 100 novels. but Rhys turns a menacing cipher into a grieving, plausible young

Reader's Choice woman, and one whose story says whole worlds about global

1: mixtures, about the misunderstandings between the colonized,

2: Lolita the colonizers and the people who can't easily say which they

3: A Passage to India are.—R.L.

4: A Death in the Family

5: Ubik

See the full list

Next: The Adventures of Augie March »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,wide_sargasso_sea,00.html (1 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:32 PM Wide Sargasso Sea - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold More From the Archive:

picks Watchmen and Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)

nine other comix Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)

masterpieces How and What to Read (10/2/72)

Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76) Archive Trivia Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97) Who was the first author to

Harry Potter Archive Collection appear on a TIME cover?

Writers in TIME Archive Collection Get the answer and much

more on our trivia page ● Most E-Mailed Stories

Talk Back ● Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

● Why isn't the Harry Potter series on Jesuits to Elect a New 'Black Pope'

● How Not to Look Old: Author Charla Krupp - there!!?? It definitely should be on there!! TIME

—Robin; Seattle, Wash. ● Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch

● Obama's Historic Victory Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I ● Add This RSS Feed |

checked your list twice, I can't believe you did

not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway "Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...." Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

Search the Archive from 1923 - Present

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,wide_sargasso_sea,00.html (2 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:32 PM Wide Sargasso Sea - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »

TIME critics Richard

Corliss and Richard

Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »

Best and Worst of 2004 »

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,wide_sargasso_sea,00.html (3 of 3)7/3/2008 12:44:32 PM