I’ve received an e-mail from someone requesting suggestions on novels from 1960 to the present for an AP literature class for a Catholic high school: “The only criteria is that the authors must be British or American and the novels must date from 1960 to the present. I wondered if perhaps you might have some suggestions?”
I thought I’d share my suggestions with visitors to the StAR Ink Desk.
This is not a period of which I am very knowledgeable but, from the top of my head, here goes:
The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O’Connor (1960)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1962)
Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh (1965)
In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden (1969)
Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy (1971)
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty (1971)
Lancelot by Walker Percy (1977)
The Year of Living Dangerously by Christopher J. Koch (1978)
Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene (1982)
A Season in the West by Piers Paul Read (1988)
Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen (1991)
Vinland by George Mackay Brown (1992)
Father Elijah by Michael D. O’Brien (1996)
Declare by Tim Powers (2001)
A Cry of Stone by Michael D. O’Brien (2003)
Exiles by Ron Hansen (2008)
The Death of a Pope by Piers Paul Read (2009)
A Postcard from the Volcano by Lucy Beckett (2009)
Death of a Liturgist by Lorraine V. Murray (2010)
The Letters of Magdalen Montague by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson (2011)
The Book of Jotham by Arthur Powers (2013)
Treason by Dena Hunt (2013)
The Leaves are Falling by Lucy Beckett (2014)
image: Harper Memorial Library by Justin Kern / Flickr / The Golden Sieve
Great list, though technically, Christopher J. Koch was Australian, not British.
Dear Marcus and Gerard,
Thanks for your comments about the Aussie on my list. I was aware that Christopher J. Koch was from Down-Under but I was employing a little literary license. It seemed that the spirit of the request was for modern novels in the English language. Thus, for instance, there was also a Canadian on the list, i.e. Michael D. O’Brien.
“Christopher J. Koch” – we got at least one Aussie in with the Brits and Yanks!
UNDERLAKE by Heavey, and GREATER TREASURES by Karina Fabian are good and too recent for the good writer to have run across yet.
I also would add Walker Percy’s “The Moviegoer.” And I’m honored to see “Death of a Liturgist” there.
Lorraine, I take your point about “The Moviegoer”, which is, I agree, a sin of omission. The problem with Percy was knowing which of his novels to leave off the list! As for your own wonderful novel, it is simply delightful, full of healthy humour about very serious things.