Best of the Millennium Archives

Dissecting the List: An Excursus

Garth Risk Hallberg - 10.13.2009 | 1

The Bourdieuvian posture - I've come to think of it as the Who-Are-You-Going-to-Believe,-Me-Or-Your-Lying-Eyes? school of criticism - may be as much an infection as a diagnosis. It seems to have invaded, unexamined, online discourse about books, movies, music, and art.

Garth Risk Hallberg - 10.13.2009 | 1

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Best of the Millennium

Best Fiction of the Millennium (So Far): The Longlist

Garth Risk Hallberg - 10.2.2009 | 16

Best of the Millennium Reviews

Top 20 Alternative: Manjushree Thapa’s The Tutor of History

Sonya Chung - 9.30.2009 | 5

There is certainly something to be said for heady novels written by women, when so much of “women’s fiction” is about inner emotional lives and domestic relationships. But it does make me ask the question of why we write and why we read.

Sonya Chung - 9.30.2009 | 5

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Best of the Millennium

Best Fiction of the Millennium (So Far): Honorable Mention

Garth Risk Hallberg - 9.29.2009 | 6

As we sifted through the ballots, what struck us was not a "unified sensibility," but an exhilarating diversity, which we plan to share with you in the coming days.

Garth Risk Hallberg - 9.29.2009 | 6

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Best of the Millennium Notable Articles

Best of the Millennium, Pros Versus Readers

C. Max Magee - 9.25.2009 | 85

Best of the Millennium Notable Articles

#1: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Margot Livesey - 9.25.2009 | 36

In the spring and summer of 2001, people who were listening could hear The Corrections coming.

Margot Livesey - 9.25.2009 | 36

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Best of the Millennium

#2: The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Jean Thompson - 9.24.2009 | 7

Jones' refashioning of antebellum history is profoundly subversive and profoundly satisfying.

Jean Thompson - 9.24.2009 | 7

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Best of the Millennium

#3: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Lauren Groff - 9.24.2009 | 13

It is hard not to make sweeping pronouncements after having lived this book.

Lauren Groff - 9.24.2009 | 13

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Best of the Millennium

#4: 2666 by Roberto Bolaño

Paul La Farge - 9.24.2009

2666 encroaches on memory; it encroaches on reality itself.

Paul La Farge - 9.24.2009

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Best of the Millennium

#5: Pastoralia by George Saunders

Porochista Khakpour - 9.24.2009 | 6

Saunders isn’t simply one of our best writers, but one of our best humans.

Porochista Khakpour - 9.24.2009 | 6

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Best of the Millennium

#6: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Bret Anthony Johnston - 9.23.2009 | 12

No matter how desolate the story, it is made bearable through language.

Bret Anthony Johnston - 9.23.2009 | 12

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Best of the Millennium

#7: Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald

Elise Blackwell - 9.23.2009 | 3

In its layered explorations of the limitations and possibilities of the narrative I and the narrative eye, Austerlitz changed how I read and how I think.

Elise Blackwell - 9.23.2009 | 3

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Best of the Millennium

#8: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

Yiyun Li - 9.23.2009 | 3

If resonating with the work of either Hemingway or Sebald is enough to make a novel good, Out Stealing Horses, with its echoes of both, is a rare book indeed.

Yiyun Li - 9.23.2009 | 3

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Best of the Millennium

#9: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro

Michelle Huneven - 9.23.2009

Alice Munro has taught us to find literary pleasure in leaping over time, in the odd swerves life takes, in the unexpected sources of comfort and sustenance, and in the idiosyncratic arrangements made for human happiness.

Michelle Huneven - 9.23.2009

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Best of the Millennium

#10: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Elif Batuman - 9.23.2009 | 1

This book made me cry for days.

Elif Batuman - 9.23.2009 | 1

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Best of the Millennium

#11: The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

Martha Southgate - 9.22.2009 | 6

I grabbed it, flipped open to the directed page--and found there one perfect sentence.

Martha Southgate - 9.22.2009 | 6

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Best of the Millennium

#12: Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg

Sarah Manguso - 9.22.2009

Life is impossible; it can't possibly continue; and then it does.

Sarah Manguso - 9.22.2009

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Best of the Millennium

#13: Mortals by Norman Rush

Garth Risk Hallberg - 9.22.2009 | 9

The story of hapless CIA functionary Ray Finch's midlife unraveling in Botswana is uproarious and deadly serious, ruminative and suspenseful, psychological and philosophical. Think Graham Greene as written by Saul Bellow. Or Thomas Mann as written by Jonathan Franzen.

Garth Risk Hallberg - 9.22.2009 | 9

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