5. Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections (2001)
喬納森·弗蘭岑，《糾正》（2001年）

Franzen's edgy multigenerational family saga, winner of a US National Book Award, was among the first novels to capture the zeitgeist of the century's first decade. As Alfred and Enid Lambert and their three adult children gather at the end of the 20th Century for "one last Christmas", the father's Parkinson's disease progresses, and the US is on the verge of economic meltdown. "The Correction, when it finally came, was not an overnight bursting of a bubble but a much more gentle let-down, a year-long leakage of value from key financial markets," writes Franzen. "Franzen secured his place as a major American writer." Laurie Hertzel, senior books editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune adds, "This big, sprawling, fat novel touches on some of the most important themes of the early years of this millennium – economic uncertainty, the conflicts between parents and their drifting middle-aged children and the enormous issues of an aging society past its prime. He does it with great storytelling and a lot of humour." (Picador)
這本小說榮獲美國國家圖書獎(jiǎng)，講述了一個(gè)尖銳的幾世同堂的家庭故事，成為首批緊隨21世紀(jì)最初10年時(shí)代精神的小說之一。20世紀(jì)末，阿爾弗雷德、伊妮德·蘭伯特同三個(gè)已成年的孩子齊聚一堂，一起慶?？赡苁亲詈笠粋€(gè)闔家團(tuán)圓的圣誕節(jié)。此時(shí)，父親阿爾弗雷德的帕金森綜合征更加嚴(yán)重了，而美國也正處于經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)的邊緣。弗蘭岑寫道：“《糾正》不是指主要金融市場(chǎng)一夜之間突然發(fā)生泡沫破滅，而是更溫和的衰退，持續(xù)一年的價(jià)值漏損。” 《明尼阿波利斯星壇報(bào)》資深圖書編輯勞里·赫茨爾評(píng)論道：“弗蘭岑再次證明了其作為美國重要作家的實(shí)力。這本小說布景廣闊，觸及了新千年早期最重要的一些主題——經(jīng)濟(jì)動(dòng)蕩、父母和漂泊不定的中年兒女之間的沖突，以及黃金時(shí)代過去后老齡化社會(huì)之中的諸多問題。弗蘭岑用幽默的筆法寫了一個(gè)好故事。” （Picador出版社）

6. Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000)
邁克爾·夏邦，《卡瓦利爾和克雷的神奇冒險(xiǎn)》 (2000年)

Joe Kavalier, a Houdini-like escape artist, smuggles himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague in 1939 and ends up in New York City. With his Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay he invents a superhero character called the Escapist and launches the golden age of comic books. "Chabon's capacious, propulsive and many-storied novel is exquisitely written, emotionally rich and historically and morally profound," says Booklist senior editor Donna Seaman, who made the Pulitzer Prize winner her number-one choice. "It can also be seen as a bridge between the 20th and 21st centuries in its perspective on WWII and the birth of comic-book superheroes as a new. Chabon's novel has greatly influenced other outstanding works of 21st Century fiction. But The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is also a timeless inquiry into our tragic proclivity for hate and war, our abiding need for stories and our persistent longing for magical powers and transcendence." (Random House)
喬·卡瓦利爾是一位藝術(shù)家，1939年，他奇跡般地從布拉格的納粹集中營(yíng)逃脫，最終抵達(dá)紐約。卡瓦利爾和住在布魯克林的表兄弟薩米·克雷聯(lián)手設(shè)計(jì)了一個(gè)叫“逃脫俠”的超級(jí)英雄，由此開啟了漫畫書的黃金時(shí)代。這本書曾榮獲普利策獎(jiǎng)，《書目雜志》資深編輯多納·西曼將這本書列為他的書單的第一位，“夏邦采用了寬廣博大、層層推進(jìn)的創(chuàng)作手法，寫法上精巧，情感上豐沛，歷史和道德意義深遠(yuǎn)。二戰(zhàn)期間誕生了超級(jí)英雄漫畫，這本小說從這個(gè)角度搭建起了20世紀(jì)和21世紀(jì)的橋梁，并極大地影響了21世紀(jì)其他的優(yōu)秀作品。但《卡瓦利爾和克雷的神奇冒險(xiǎn)》也提出了一個(gè)永恒的疑問，關(guān)于仇恨和戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的悲劇性、人類對(duì)傳奇故事持久不竭的需求，對(duì)神奇力量、超脫存在的持久不變的渴望?！保≧andom House出版社）

7. Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010)
詹妮弗·伊根，《惡棍來訪》（2010年）

Egan's Proustian meditation on time, fame and music won the National Book Critics Circle and Pulitzer awards. Who's the goon of the title? "Time is the stealth goon, the one you ignore because you are so busy worrying about the goons right in front of you," she says. Egan concocts her narrative around punk rocker-turned-music producer Bennie Salazar, his sticky-fingered assistant Sasha and a circle of wannabes, has-beens and hangers-on. Colette Bancroft, book editor of The Tampa Bay Times, named Egan's novel her top pick "not just because it is a splendidly written experiment in form that succeeds resoundingly, but because the 21st Century is its essential subject matter. Egan juxtaposes timeless literary themes, most notably the inexorable journey from youth to age, with an exploration of the ways in which a rapidly changing world reshapes the human experience. It's a novel that is prescient, surprising, wise and simply a blast to read." (Anchor)
伊根對(duì)時(shí)間、聲譽(yù)和音樂進(jìn)行的普魯斯特式思考成就了此書，并因此榮獲美國國家書評(píng)人獎(jiǎng)和普利策獎(jiǎng)。那標(biāo)題中的惡棍是誰呢？“時(shí)間是最大的惡棍。人們總是因?yàn)槊τ趽?dān)憂眼前的‘惡棍’而忽略了時(shí)間這個(gè)隱藏的惡棍?！弊髡咧v述了一些列故事：曾經(jīng)的朋克搖滾歌手、現(xiàn)在的音樂制作人——本尼·薩拉查，有盜竊癖的女助手薩莎，以及一群想成名的人、曾經(jīng)成名的人和無處不在的瘋狂的粉絲?！端翞硶r(shí)報(bào)》的圖書編輯科萊特班·克羅夫特在他的書單中將《惡棍來訪》列為第一位，“不僅僅因?yàn)檫@本小說的寫作手法頗具實(shí)驗(yàn)性且異常成功，更因?yàn)榇藭幕局黝}是21世紀(jì)。伊根將永恒的文學(xué)主題——不可阻擋的韶華易逝，以及如何在急速變化的世界中改變自己適應(yīng)社會(huì)并列起來，給讀者帶去了睿智的、有先見之明的，但又驚奇簡(jiǎn)單的閱讀體驗(yàn)?！保ˋnchor出版社）

8. Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2012)
本·芳汀《比利·林恩漫長(zhǎng)的中場(chǎng)休息》，（2012年）

Eight rookies from the US army's Bravo squad, fresh from a firefight with Iraqi insurgents, in which one of their fellow soldiers died and another was disabled, are dubbed war heroes by the Fox News cable channel. Their two-week stateside victory tour ends with a halftime salute at a Dallas Cowboys game. Fountain captures the excesses of Texas, American football, business and war, and gives us a memorable narrator in 19-year-old Billy Lynn, with his combination of lust, bedazzlement and post-traumatic stress disorder. "It is sort of weird," he tells a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, "being honoured for the worst day of your life." (Ecco)
在與伊拉克反叛分子交火中，美軍一個(gè)突擊小隊(duì)的一名士兵犧牲，一名受傷，幸存者中的八名士兵卻因?yàn)楦？怂闺娨暸_(tái)的宣傳而成為國家英雄。他們回到美國本土，進(jìn)行為期兩周的“勝利展演”，最后一站是在達(dá)拉斯牛仔隊(duì)橄欖球比賽的中場(chǎng)進(jìn)行亮相。芳汀用19歲少年比利·林恩的口吻講述了這個(gè)令人難忘的故事，他的渴望、他的困惑迷茫和他的創(chuàng)傷后應(yīng)激障礙交織在一起，融合進(jìn)了無節(jié)制發(fā)展的德州、橄欖球、商業(yè)和戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)里面。比利告訴達(dá)拉斯牛仔隊(duì)拉拉隊(duì)隊(duì)長(zhǎng)：“在你最糟糕的一天獲得榮譽(yù)，真是瘋了！”（Ecco出版社）