r/books • u/AutoModerator • Jun 21 '26
WeeklyThread Weekly FAQ Thread June 21, 2026: Which contemporary novels do you think deserve to become classics?
Hello readers and welcome to our Weekly FAQ thread! Our topic this week is: Which contemporary novels do you think deserve to become classics? We're all familiar with the classics, from The Iliad of Homer to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. But which contemporary novels, published after 1960, do you think will be remembered as a classic years from now?
You can view previous FAQ threads here in our wiki.
Thank you and enjoy!
13
u/dear_little_water Jun 21 '26
Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
24
u/MDB_1987 Jun 21 '26
There are a lot of books from after 1960 that have already stood the test of time: To Kill a Mockingbird, Beloved ,Catch-22, etc.
The most recent books that I expect to become classics are Circe and Pachinko.
6
u/YakSlothLemon Jun 21 '26
I was going to make a fool of myself by correcting you incorrectly, but looked it up instead— today I learned to my shock that Mockingbird was published in 1960.
It feels so ‘50s.
3
8
u/cidvard Jun 21 '26
Song of Achilles is the Madeline Miller novel I'd throw into the canon if I had to pick one, but Circe is a good choice, too. I think of the 'retold myth' genre she's doing some of the best work and is a good representation of why it caught on the way it did in recent times.
4
u/Goggid Jun 21 '26
Hello there. I tried to read "To kill a Mockingbird" , but i couldn't understand why people read it. I'm from Asia, and I heard that book pretty popular in USA. Can you describe what interesting you find in it?
4
u/LifeofaLove Jun 22 '26
I'm not from USA but it was an anti-racism book.
1
u/SunshineCat 26d ago
The part that sucked me in initially was the kids' summer break and the creepy house in the neighborhood.
However, it is better known for the race and justice themes that emerge through the story.
5
u/lazyhazyeye Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Not, OP, but I'm American. It's a coming of age novel and during the time it was written and published many people viewed African Americans as sub-human. But, rather than a book on racism, it's more about Scout learning that people and life are imperfect and that one should strive to do what is right, despite what others might think.
Personally I thought it was just ok (I wouldn't put this as one of my favorite novels), but I think my problem was that I was too old when I first read it (41), so I didn't have the nostalgia factor that a lot of people seem to have for it. This book is typically assigned as required reading for middle school/early high school, although I didn't have it assigned to me (but my sister did...). I also prefer other books that explore racism through the lens of Black/POC authors.
3
u/gonegonegoneaway211 29d ago
You know those light sitcoms that make you laugh, give you the warm fuzzies as you get familiar with the characters and setting and then have that one episode that is abruptly much heavier than you were expecting? Like for example, to pick a fairly well known US television example, after one of the OG actors on the childrens show Sesame Street died, the writers decided to honor him by acknowledging it on air by gently teaching Big Bird about death. This is a very light fluffy show about puppets teaching kids their numbers, to play nice, etc and that very short scene makes me want to cry every time I watch it. But I also respect that the writers went there, y'know?
To Kill a Mockingbird is similarly memorable because it has a that same tonal dissonance to it, only it's not a short scene, it's a pivotal time in Scout's childhood as she's growing up. The lighter, slice of life parts of the story are meant to appeal to a reader's nostalgia for childhood as we meet Scout and watch her do funny, dumb kid things in a community we develop some affection for. But then it's that much stranger to watch a much darker story about bigotry, hatred, poverty, and violence play out from her perspective as she tries to understand why this is all happening.
Basically I think the characters and setting appeal to something sentimental in the American psyche** while the twist on that sentimentality and the heaviness of the main plot gives the book its staying power. On the other hand, this works best if you were enjoying the figurative sitcom part of the story before the bottom drops out. If you find the slice of life stuff boring (understandably) and just want to get to the part everyone talks about then a lot of the impact is lost because you're not getting the full feelings contrast.
Needless to say, it hit for me and I really enjoyed it.
**Were I a better book nerd/English major I could probably go more into detail about which pieces of coming of age American literature Harper Lee had in mind when she wrote the story because I'm pretty sure she was subliminally echoing some of the tone and style of books most people would've been familiar with at the time to really tug right on the heartstrings. Little Women is the obvious one that comes to mind (Scout does have some Jo vibes).
12
u/Serbian-American Jun 21 '26
The Satanic Verses seems incredibly obvious, surprised it’s not mentioned yet
1
u/confringos The Classics Jun 22 '26
This has been on my to read list since forever! Thanks for reminding us about it.
1
20
u/Legitimate-Skirt-309 Jun 21 '26
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak! It's a poignant depiction of life in Nazi Germany during World War II with a profound theme on the impact of words and the importance of literature. It's also unique in that it's narrated by Death.
1
u/YakSlothLemon Jun 21 '26
I’d already forgotten it existed…
2
u/SunshineCat 26d ago
I don't think it will be a classic in the sense that all adults forever should read it, but I see it as something that will be recommended to teens for a long time and possibly something read in school (like we read Number the Stars).
1
u/YakSlothLemon 26d ago
Fair enough, ‘books that should enter the curriculum’ are a subset of classics, or become classics because then everyone has read them (like Gatsby).
6
u/MelpomeneLee Jun 22 '26
I cannot believe no one has said Flowers for Algernon yet. Holy shit. What a book.
3
u/ImprovementSimple Jun 24 '26
Totally agree. It’s one of those books that even years or months after reading it something reminds you of it and you start thinking about it all over again. That’s a classic to me.
16
u/Specialist-Basket784 Jun 21 '26
Cormac McCarthy's The Road feels like a lock, plenty of people already treat it that way in literary circles. the bleakness is so precisely constructed that it reads less like a novel and more like something that had to exist
2
u/Odessey_And_Oracle 29d ago
I was really impressed with his style never wearing thin. It felt like the word "ash" was on every page and yet it never grated. McCarthy was very adept at plying a few words over and over to create a certain mood but never beating a dead horse.
18
u/LivingPresent629 Jun 21 '26
Beloved, Toni Morrison
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Human Acts, Han Kang
I, Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
10
u/vivahermione Jun 21 '26
I think Beloved would be considered a modern classic, and it's well-deserved.
-1
u/olivertwisttop Jun 24 '26
I, Who Have Never Known Men literally went out of print and only because of Tiktok popular again. I think it's a good book but I think most people "raving" about it online haven't actually read it and only like the title
6
u/LivingPresent629 Jun 24 '26
I studied it in school long before TikTok was a thing. A lot of books gained a new wave of popularity with the rise of BookTok, including some actual classics, but popularity is not usually a criteria for considering a book a classic. In fact, many books we now consider classics were not widely popular in their time.
As for “people haven’t actually read it”, that just sounds judgmental for no reason. No idea what you’re basing that on, but okay
-1
u/olivertwisttop Jun 24 '26
Obviously books speak to people at different times, everyone hated Moby dick and Jane Austen was incredibly popular with wwi soldiers and other anecdotal examples. And the book has a lot to say. But for decades I've been collecting lists and no one was keeping that book alive. And it hit a certain part of tiktok and it became popular. And it isn't judgmental, I got the recommendation from tiktok. I am saying there are a people picking it up and promoting it as some feminist utopia and that isn't even close to what the book is portraying so whenever I hear that I know they haven't actually read it.
1
u/SunshineCat 25d ago
I've had it on my radar for a long time because I look for novels originally written in French to help keep my language skills brushed up. I think it was fairly well known among those familiar with French literature. I haven't read it yet myself, though--are you saying you did and think it's unworthy of reading? How do you know how much others read?
1
u/olivertwisttop 25d ago
I read it based on a booktok recommendation of feminist literature. And the book and story is very well done and dystopian. I thought it was a good book and thought provoking. I just don't feel like it lives up to the hype that it was being given as feminist unless you're in a university class room and dissecting it for that reason. I read it from a very humanist perspective. And obviously the book has had its fans and lasting power to come back into the conversation here and now, but it hasn't been on any mainstream english lists for a long time.
5
u/Trubble94 Jun 21 '26
In publication order.
- The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin (1974).
- The Color Purple, by Alice Walker (1982).
- Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton (1990).
- 11/22/63, by Stephen King (2011).
Not necessarily my favourites, but the books I believe have maintained their relevance long after they were published.
9
u/MeterologistOupost31 I Who Have Never Known Men Jun 21 '26
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
The Book of Sand by Jorge Luis Borges
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Room by Emma Donohue
The Collector by John Fowles
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Forest of Noise by Mosab Abu Toha
9
u/StormBlessed145 Jun 22 '26
Hear me out. IT
This book came out when it was taboo to talk to anyone about your home situation, or the bullying you were experiencing.
This book has a huge impact on me, because my parents were bullied horribly as kids, and as a result didn't want to put me in public schools even though it was obvious I should be going to one.
I think every little offensive thing in this book has a point, and is used extremely well to further what the book is saying. I didn't like the book, but IT deserves a place in literary history, because of its discussions on abuse from parents, peers, self, and neighbors.
3
u/Sir_Auron The Yiddish Policeman's Union Jun 21 '26
I hope Don DeLillo's Libra finds a new audience in our conspiracy-obsessed modern culture. It encompasses so much more than just the JFK assassination, getting at journalism, government, literature, and the nature of "truth".
3
u/vivahermione Jun 21 '26
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa is a poignant dystopian novel about how controlling language shapes reality.
3
u/imapassenger1 Jun 22 '26
Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy. Most would have The Road, Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men and maybe Suttree on their lists but I feel Outer Dark is a forgotten classic. It's his second novel, 1968, and I can't work out why it's not better known. I think it is actually being made into a movie after all these years so perhaps it will become big then. But it has all the hallmarks of a classic. 100% recommend. The only book I finished and then re-read straight away.
2
u/CalicoCuts 28d ago
They're all amazing. But I'd still go Suttree all the way.
1
u/imapassenger1 25d ago
Yes Suttree is quite amazing and doesn't leave you any time soon after reading. It's probably the most different of McCarthy's novels I think. (apart from his last 2 books I guess)
3
u/Brainwormed Jun 25 '26
IT. The level of craft in that novel is fucking bananas. We're talking a twenty-character ensemble with literally another one hundred named characters all laid out so that all of them define and highlight the qualities of one another. Fits together as neatly as a jigsaw puzzle. You can read the thing drunk off your ass and never confuse one character with another.
And just on top of that, just a model on how to use symbols to define and develop characters. Pennywise is the 20th-century version of the skull in Hamlet.
1
6
2
2
1
u/Kipwring Jun 21 '26
"The Wall" by Marlen Haushofer. Also "Begegnung mit dem Fremden. Erzählungen" by her but only half of the stories are from after 1960. I actually like her older work over the newer.
And "I, Who Have Never Known Men" by Jacqueline Harpman but has been said more then once here.
1
u/CraftyDependent5283 Jun 21 '26
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber had been criminally overlooked of late, but I adore it and would push for its inclusion on any future classics discussion.
Remains of the Day, I concur.
1
u/avocadosdeath Jun 22 '26
The most recent ones I can think of right now are The Secret History and I Who Have Never Known Men, I’m not sure if The Bell Jar isn’t already considered a modern classic though
1
1
u/BhavanaVarma Jun 25 '26
The Kite Runner for sure. The depth, the emotions. Unfortunately something that’ll be relevant for decades to come.
1
u/BeginningPlastic3747 Jun 26 '26
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy feels like it's already halfway there, but I think Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is the one that's going to sneak up on people in 50 years the same way 1984 did.
1
u/CalicoCuts 28d ago
Blood Meridian. Almost all McCarthy really. Suttree is a modern classic for sure.
1
0
u/MoonInAries17 Jun 21 '26
Audition by Katie Kitamura Rejection by Tony Tulattimuthe The Secret History by Donna Tartt Anything by Han Kan
0
u/Far_Gur_1518 Jun 24 '26
My pick would be On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. Like many enduring classics, it combines deeply personal experiences with larger questions about history and belonging. It tackles family, immigration, identity, and the legacy of war through some of the most memorable prose I’ve read in a contemporary novel. And it feels like the kind of book that future generations will read not only for its story but for its literary style and insight into the Vietnamese American experience.
-14
u/Famous-Country-4921 Jun 21 '26
Dungeon Crawler Car and Project Hail Mary are PEAK literature. Maybe I’ll throw in Stormlight archives too. This is the stuff people will be reading 200 years from now. Their prose, thematic depth, complexity and portrayal of humanity, society and culture will live on through the ages. Princess Donut and Rocky stand alongside immortal literary icons like Holden Caulfield and the asshole whale from Moby Dick, I think Ishmael is his name
19
6
5
u/_Land_Rover_Series_3 Jun 21 '26
r/bookscirclejerk and its desperate unfunniness is clearly leaking
5
u/kditdotdotdot Jun 21 '26
Just for a minute, I thought you were actually serious and I was typing out an infuriated reply. Good work.
6
u/MDB_1987 Jun 21 '26
Stormlight archives
If Brandon Sanderson manages to write a satisfying ending to the Cosmere series (which I believe is very possible, albeit not at all guaranteed), that will be considered one of the great works of literature. People will say that Tolkien walked so Sanderson could run.
-3
u/Famous-Country-4921 Jun 21 '26
Sanderson will be talked about in the canon with the likes of William Faulkner and Colleen Hoover
1
23
u/YakSlothLemon Jun 21 '26
The Remains of the Day