30 Best, Since 50-A Duel

[Steelhead]

OK.  Bonnie's assault on Gaddis set me off. It made me wonder exactly what
all the technoheads think passes as "real literature" these days.  So I
decided to do something totally absurd, which is to publish a list of what
I, Steelhead, consider to be the 30 most important American books of
fiction published since 1950.  Remember: I wasn't born till '59, and I've
tried to sprinkle in a little diversity.  Here goes.

1.  Gravity's Rainbow, TRP
2.  JR, William Gaddis
3.  The Recognitions, Gaddis
4.  Armies of the Night, Mailer
5.  Far Tortuga, Peter Matthiessen
6.  V., TRP
7.  Junky, Burroughs
8.  What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver
9.  Welcome to the Monkey House, Kurt Vonnegut
10. Them, Joyce Carol Oates
11. Something Happened, Heller
12. On the Road, Kerouac
13. Advertisements for Myself, Mailer
14. Sometimes A Great Notion, Ken Kesey
15. Airships, Barry Hannah
16. Jazz, Toni Morrison
17. Come Back Dr. Caligari, D. Barthelme
18. The Indian Lawyer, James Welch
19, Collected Stories, Flannery O'Connor
20. The Sotweed Factor, John Barth
21. Neuromancer, William Gibson
22. The Gospel Singer, Harry Crews
23. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter Thompson
24. Light Years, James Salter
25. Dog Soldiers, Robert Stone
26. Fathers & Crows, William Vollman
27. Women & Men, J. McElroy
28. Second Skin, John Hawkes
29. An American Dream, Mailer
30. Mumbo Jumbo, Ishmael Reed

Flail away.  I can take it.