Monday, June 11, 2007

The Pool

Here it is, the Fringe Pool! After reviewing publication dates and writers' backgrounds, I compiled this list from suggestions tendered by the Fringe staff, several Emerson Professors, and my mother's book club. Folks often suggested several books by one author, so I chose a single work as necessary. Got suggestions for additional books? Put 'em in the comments!

Happy reading.


*Allison, Dorothy. Bastard Out of Carolina (Plume: 1993)
* Barrett, Andrea. Middle Kingdom (1991)
*Bloom, Amy. Away (2007)
*Burton, Gabrielle. Heartbreak Hotel (1985)
* Chang, Samantha. Inheritance (2004)
* Cisernos, Sandra. Caramelo (2002)
* Cliff, Michelle. Free Enterprise (1993)
* Cunningham, Michael. The Hours (1999)
* Divakaruni, Chitra. The Mistress of Spices (1997)
*Desai, Anita. Fasting, Feasting (1999)
*Desai, Kiran. The Inheritance of Loss (2006)
*Ducornet, Rikki. The Fountains of Neptune (1989)
*Eugenides, Jeffrey. Middlesex. (2002)
*Fremont, Helen. After Long Silence (1999)
*Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love (2006)
*Holmes, A.M. The End of Alice (1996)
* Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner (2003)
*Jen, Gish. Typical American (1991)
*Jones, Gayl. Corregidora (1987)
*Karr, Mary. The Liar's Club (1995)
*Kincaid, Jamaica. Autobiography of My Mother (1995)
*Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible (1998)
*Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Fifth Book of Peace (2004)
*Krauss, Nicole. The History of Love (2005)
*Lahiri,Jumpa. The Namesake (2003)
*Lee, Chang-rae. Native Speaker (1995)
*Lee, Don. Country of Origin (2004)
*Lewis, Heather. Notice (2004)
*Livesey, Margot. Eva Moves the Furniture (2002)
*Mason, Bobbie Ann. In Country (1985)
*McBride, James. The Color of Water (1996)
*McLarin, Kim. Jump at the Sun (2006)
*Momaday, Scott. The Ancient Child (1989)
*Naylor, Gloria. Mama Day (1988)
*Patchett, Ann. The Magician's Assistant (1994).
*Powell, Patricia. The Pagoda (1998)
*Sapphire. Push (1996)
*Shields, Carol. The Stone Diaries (1993)
*Silber, Joan. Ideas of Heaven (2004)
*Smiley, Jane. A Thousand Acres (1991)
*Smith, Zadie. White Teeth (2000)
*Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club (1989)
*Tyler, Ann. Ladder of Years (1995)
*Walker, Alice. The Color Purple (1982)
*Wideman, John Edgar. Two Cities (1998)
* Williams, Joy. The Quick and the Dead (2000)
*Yamanaka, Lois-Ann. Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers (1996).

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

amy hempel, the collected works.

she has mastered the art of short storytelling, in a definitive feminist voice. i would definitely add her to this list.

Lizzie said...

I agree -- Amy Hempel's storiess are fantastic, but per the rules, short story collections are ineligible. But keep those thoughts coming!

Anonymous said...

Flannery O'Connor definitely deserves a place on this list. "Wise Blood" and "The Violent Bear It Away" are her two novels.

Fringe said...

Indeed, Flannery would belong on this list if one of her novels had been published after 1982, but sadly, we can only consider novels with first publication dates of 1982 and afterwards.

Anonymous said...

Yeah. 25 years. I'm an idiot. sorry about that one.

Fringe said...

No worries -- it was difficult at times to come up with the pool for this very reason. We really wanted, for example, to put Isabel Allende on the list, but ended up leaving her off because most of her stuff wasn't originally written in english.

You may note the absence of Marilynne Robinson and Toni Morrison as well. We decided to leave these two (only women/of color writers from the original NTY list) off of our list because we wanted to give press to other writers and force our voters to read beyond the usual token suspects.

Anonymous said...

How about Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer?

Fringe said...

Well, Everything is Illuminated is no doubt an excellent book, but it is our understanding that it was written by a straight white man -- if folks want to vote for it, that's fine -- but it doesn't belong in the pool.

Unknown said...

How about Gloria Naylor's Mama Day (1988)?

Fringe said...

Good call. Totally added to the pool, along with Jamaica Kincaid's Autobiography of my Mother!

Forgotten English said...

I just finished reading Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall. It's queer, it's punk rock, it's Quebec in political tumult. And it is a brilliant treatment of the negotiation between politics and the personal.

Forgotten English said...

Also wanted to say that perhaps a nice *alternative* to Safran Foer is Nicole Krauss's The History of Love. Jewish, families, writing, aging, loss...amazing!

JGalH said...

The History of Love is a great idea! I just read it myself. I'll make sure it gets added to the Pool. Thanks for the suggestion!

Looks and Books said...

We should include Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir Eat, Pray, Love . I didn't expect to like it because honestly, I thought it was going to be elevated chick lit, but I loved it. It's a wonderful read.

Shuchi said...

After Long Silence by Helen Fremont (memoir)...really good

Shuchi said...

After Long Silence by Helen Fremont (memoir) - definitely!