Which 21st Century Writers Or Books Have Not Aged Well Thus Far? (5/3/20)

[Akiva]

Commenting on Antonomasia's question about revelations of bad deeds by deceased authors, I'd say it definitely affects how I approach their work (or whether I approach it, in some cases).

Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll was probably the first author I experienced this with, and in genre, I am frankly less interested in reading Arthur C. Clarke or Marion Zimmer Bradley despite that fact that they are considered extremely influential.

That said, I still separate the art from the artist and recognize that there's a lot of great art produced by awful human beings. This holds for all media.

[Akiva]

Re: The OP question, Eugenides comes to mind.

When you look at award-winning novels of past decades, it becomes evident that many authors that are wildly acclaimed or turn out bestsellers are quickly forgotten.

Multiply that by the artificial nature of how the "western literary canon" was created, and it seems hard to guess which of today's authors will have staying power.

If I could pick, I'd like to think that George Saunders will be read in 50 or 100 years, but who knows?

[LindaJ^]

Marc wrote: "On the flip side, are there 21st century writers/books, you hoped would gain wider recognition, but still haven't (yet)?"

C.E. Morgan

I loved both her novels - All the Living (2009) and The Sport of Kings (2016) - which were quite different from each other in scope but each reminded me of Marilynne Robinson ability to incorporate a religious theme without being preaching.

And
Dinaw Mengestu

Mengestu came to the US from Ethiopia when he was 2. He writes wonderfully about the immigrant experience. I especially liked his first novel - The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. His other two were also good - All Our Names, How to Read the Air