Modern Epics

Denerick

When I think of modern epics, I imagine books like Cider House Rules, Bonfire of the Vanities, The Once and Future King, and the two Claudius books by Robert Graves. Chunky books that assume an epic scope and/or attempt to comprehensively nail a chain of events. I feel this kind of book neatly ties in to my love for history. I still maintain a fondness for the blockbuster genre and for Jeffrey Archer in particular (Kane and Abel, As the Crow Flies), I love a book that basically tells the life of someone or a group of people, and does so with a slightly arrogant style... I recently watched the BBC I, Claudius series (I had recently read the two books) and I can't get over how good Grave's books were and how marvellous and poignant they remain, many years later.

Can anyone recommend some books in this vein? I'm currently reading Count Belisarius by Graves but its a comparatively short book. I have plans to read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, I really liked the tv miniseries (I found some flaws in the plot constructions, but I'll not get pernickity here) So as you can see I'm including what you would consider literary fiction and books more generally classed as 'genre' fiction.

I'm using a pretty generous definition of 'modern' by the way, I, Claudius was written in the 1930s so anything goes really.

diddlybit

*sigh* Love John Irving. Maybe "A Prayer for Owen Meaney" or "The World According to Garp" if you haven't read them already?

"Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides is pretty epic, two continents, three generations and the screwy influence of genetics. It also has possibly the most perfect opening line ever.

I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detriot day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.

Denerick

I've read The World According to Garp, thought it was decent. A Prayer for Owen Meaney is the next of my list. Its comforting to me that every time I bring John Irving up somebody comes along to proclaim their love for him. What is it about Irving that makes so many of us behave like fawning schoolgirls?

tHE vAGGABOND

never heard of 'The Once and Future King' - sounds brilliant, its wizzing its way to my kindle as we speak

diddlybit

I think I adore him because I fall in love with every single one of his charcaters, no matter how flawed they are. I never want the books to end because I fell that I'll be missing people from my life.

That there sounds like the words of a crazy lady. :eek:

Hermy

I read Cane and Abel last Christmas - I thought it was awful.
I tried reading Bonfire of the Vanities a few years back and gave up after a 100 pages (something I don't like to do!) - I just couldn't have cared less about any of the characters. I thought it strange that the author utterly failed to engender any empathy for anyone or anything in the plot up to the point where I quit.
I'm reading The Tin Drum at the moment which is rather epic in every sense.
And The Fountainhead might be considered an epic and I quite enjoyed that too. Although I only managed to get halfway through Atlas Shrugged before I had had enough of the tedium.
Haven't read any John Irvine yet - on my list now though.

SBWife

The Godfather by Mario Puzo is amazing in this genre, the other books that might fit the bill are those of Leon Uris. Some catagorise him as historical fiction but I think he might also fit in here.

chasmcb

Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers is a cracking read (and, like I Claudius was also the subject a terrific BBC serialisation) and it forms part of the 6-novel Barsetshire series so that should keep you going for a bit.

I really enjoyed Susanna Clarke's fantasy novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell with its absorbing, imaginative tale of the rivalry between two English sorcerers during the Napoleonic wars.

And Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita maybe fits in here as well, its action is divided between the Biblical drama of Christ's interrogation by Pilate and the wild black comedy that ensues when the Devil manifests himself in 1930s Moscow

Travel is good

Another John Irving fan here, "A Prayer for Owen Meany" is one of my favourites. I found out about it from the BBC's top 100 Reads, which was on the TV a number of years ago. I also found "Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks, and now he is another favourite author of mine.

chasmcb

I know OP was inviting suggestions in the area of fiction but if I may go off on a tangent; if you have a love of history and works on an epic scale, Shelby Foote's 3-volume narrative history of the American Civil War is a fantastic read, every bit as gripping and involving as a great novel.

Paddy Samurai

Shogun would definitely meet your criteria as a modern epic.

'Historical' fiction is something of a misnomer, as books placed in this category are almost always fiction first and 'historical' only in time and setting. Shogun, however, comes close to being a true example of this field, detailing the late 16th century exploration and exploitation of the Orient by the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, and English. As few Americans are aware of some of the atrocities and cruelties committed in the name of crown and religion during this period, some of the scenes depicted in this book may come as shock. But they provide an excellent background portrait of the European mind-set of those times, a palette that Clavell uses to contrast and define the extraordinarily different culture of the Japan of that time.

“I can’t remember when a novel has seized my mind like this one....It’s not only something you read–you live it.” –New York Times Book Review

Sergeant

2666 by Roberto Balano.

An astonishing novel in scope and plot. From the Eastern Front in World War 2, a border town in Mexico, literary criticism, philosophy, and a load of other themes.

Glowing

Urgh just saw reference to 'A prayer for Owen Meaney' - I read the first chapter 6 months ago and it's been on the floor under the bed ever since. An awful first chapter, it bored me senseless.

Is it worth sticking with it?

Giselle

Another vote for Shogun here, although its not quite what the op is looking for being an historical novel.

Eliot Rosewater

Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess seems to fit the bill! It's chunky (800 pages, small font). It is narrated by a successful novelist who is related in a way to a very powerful archbishop. It spans most of the 20th century and cleverly interweaves with actual history; at one point one of the characters in the book inadvertently saves a very famous political figure from being shot (I won't tell who!). I was young enough, from a books point of view, when I read it, so most of it probably went over my head. The word "erudite" describes it pretty well.

The opening line is very famous:

"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."

bullpost

Harlot's Ghost by norman Mailer. weighs in at well over a 1000 pages and chronicles the beginnings of the CIA from the perspective of a number of personalities , who will definitely fit the bill of arrogant etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Harlots-Ghost-Novel-Norman-Mailer/dp/0345379659

Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa is around 500 pages but reads like an epic. The shocking account of someone returning to a Dominican Republic which they were forced to flee many years earlier during the reign of the notorious dictator Trujillo.

http://www.amazon.com/Feast-Goat-Mario-Vargas-Llosa/dp/0374154767