Contemporary Female Writers. (1 Viewer)

[Jim Daniels]

I have just finished off a couple of very nice books by Banana Yoshimoto and realised that I have read very few female writers. The previous one was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold a few years ago. This is bad form.

Any especially good ladies out there?

 

[Super Dexta]

off the top of my head..
Margaret Atwood
Siri Hustvedt
Jeanette Winterson
Toni Morrison
Alice Walker
Sylvia Plath
Virginia Woolf
Donna Tartt

and people I haven't read that are meant to be good:
Angela Carter
Arundhati Roy
Maya Angelou
Harper Lee

 

[billygannon]

Moniza Alvi! She's great!

 

[ICUH8N]

Seconded Margaret Atwood (The handmaid's tale! so topical!)
Donna Tartt: Read the Secret History, under no circumstances read the little friend, as (even taking into account the fact that taste is subjective) it's...shit

 

[george mcfly]

Moniza Alvi! She's great!

Jessica Fletcher - Murder She Wrote

 

[george mcfly]

Joan Wilder for her two books Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile

 

[ICUH8N]

AS Byatt, too. I recall Possession was rather good.

 

[Super Dexta]

oh and as far as Irish writers go, I like Mary Morrissy, Edna O'Brien is ok and, eh, my ma's not bad.

oh and, not Irish, but A.S. Byatt's pretty good.

edit: i been pipped to post by ICUREADIN

Maxine Hong Kingston is very good too.

edit again: and Lyn Hejinian is weird but oddly enjoyable. prose poetry type stuff.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Seconded Margaret Atwood (The handmaid's tale! so topical!)
Donna Tartt: Read the Secret History, under no circumstances read the little friend, as (even taking into account the fact that taste is subjective) it's...shit

I've read the Secret History - great book.
Reviews of The Little Friend were mixed to say the least!

 

[shitepipe]

arundhati roy- god of small things- is indeed great, fucking intense tho. dont know if she's going to write any more novels tho- she's mainly writing politically based stuff now.

 

[Bellatrix]

Arundhati Roy & Margaret Atwood = :heart:

Also (relatively) contemporary:
E. Annie Proulx
Iris Murdoch
Elizabeth Bowen

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Zadie Smith's not bad, I read White Teeth a number of years ago and the latest one, On Beauty is meant to be excellent.
Second The Handmaid's Tale. It's a great auld byouk.

 

[Super Dexta]

my godmother also writes books

they're a bit meh though

 

[george mcfly]

Harry Potter by J.R.R. Tolkien

 

[Scientician 0.8]

and you can't go wrong with a bit of Isabel Allende.

 

[Jim Daniels]

off the top of my head..
Siri Hustvedt

I read one of hers (What I Loved), based on the fact that she is married to Paul Auster. That sounds like a pretty chauvinistic reason, but it was good...

 

[ICUH8N]

I [strike]hated[/strike] didn't like White Teeth.

 

[Super Dexta]

I read one of hers (What I Loved), based on the fact that she is married to Paul Auster. That sounds like a pretty chauvinistic reason, but it was good...

i nearly did my thesis on her based on the fact that she's married to paul auster. but talked myself out of it.
I like What I Loved and The Enchantment of Lily Dahl but i do find myself going "oh shut up about paintings already!" a lot.

 

[Bellatrix]

I [strike]hated[/strike] didn't like On Beauty

 

[St. Fechin]

Margaret Drabble (A.S. Byatt's sister) is also good. Muriel Spark and Joyce Carol Oates are consistently readable.

If you do check out Jeanette Winterson, you only need read 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit', 'The Passion' and maybe 'Written On The Body'. You can skip her recent stuff, it's truly appalling IMHO.