21st Century Literature discussion

Nominations are now open until September 30th for the November 2024 Wild Card.

The purpose of the Wild Card is to choose books that fall outside our usual rules by being more on the ‘genre’ side of things (e.g., sci-fi, fantasy, YA, romances, westerns, graphic novels, etc.) but still of literary interest. More about the Wild Card can be found here:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Nominating guidelines:
- Fiction (original & translation, if applicable) first published between January 1, 2000 and November 1, 2023. For translations the latter date must be an English edition.
- One nomination per person (please do not nominate or vote for a book unless you are certain you can read and discuss if it wins)
- A book this group has not yet read (see group bookshelf or the Index of all Group Reads)
- A book that does not qualify for the Open Pick category

If you are nominating, please begin your post by stating "I nominate [name with hyperlink to book]"

The discussion will start on November 1st

We need some nominations.

I nominate by Huck Out West Robert Coover

I nominate DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi.

Thanks Sam and David. Will close nominations and start the poll in the morning (UK time).

David wrote: "I nominate DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi."

That sounded very promising, presumably strongly influenced by Dictee?

Alwynne wrote: "That sounded very promising, presumably strongly influenced by Dictee?"

I'm not sure. I read DMZ Colony a few years ago when it came out. I enjoyed it but caught fewer references than I'd like. It might be a good one to read in a group. I also read Mirror Nation recently and want to revisit the earlier DMZ Colony.

David wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "That sounded very promising, presumably strongly influenced by Dictee?"

I'm not sure. I read DMZ Colony a few years ago when it came out. I enjoyed it but caught fewer..."

Okay I checked and definitely a major influence - lot of overlap in terms of format, sensibility if the description is at all accurate. And apparently Muriel Rukeyser another influence which I found more surprising, although I thought her Spanish Civil War novel Savage Coast was fascinating.

Nominations are now closed. The poll is up here and will run until Tuesday 7th October:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...

Seems fitting that Coover won the poll given his passing two days ago. Sam, thank you for letting us know in the comments under the poll about his death and would you be willing to lead this discussion?
(I don't seem to be getting many/any GR notifications lately, so if I'm late to replying to anyone or noticing something that needs addressing, please don't take it personally.)

Marc wrote: "Seems fitting that Coover won the poll given his passing two days ago. Sam, thank you for letting us know in the comments under the poll about his death and would you be willing to lead this discus..."

Yes, I can lead.

Thanks Sam

Much appreciated!