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Originally Posted by demonrail666
I struggle to think of a really great living british novelist at the moment. Ian McEwan maybe, but he seems less and less interesting with every book he publishes. Ballard I still think is a master but I imagine he's not to everyone's taste. Certainly Britain hasn't produced a figure to match the likes of Bellow, Wolfe or DeLillo. Amis has tried but, as has been discussed, his insights tend to become compromised by his awful style. Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth' was OK but seemed more a reflection of its time than a reflection on them. I haven't read 'On Beauty', but I suppose I should, having heard it's quite good - albeit by the same people that celebrated 'White Teeth'.
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what about Ishiguro? The Remains Of The Day and The Unconsoled have convinced me that he's a great British novelist.
I've made a note of getting a copy of Herzog now, sounds like my kind of thing from the synopsis.
I think Success is Amis' best, followed by London Fields. They have the problems of all of his novels but the highest memorable-descriptive-phrases-to-nonsense ratio.