Modern Fiction Classics

by Mark Frutkin
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5 books
This is a list of five books that have had a strong influence on my own work and are considered classics of ‘modern’ fiction. The term ‘modern’ is used to cover the period 1500 to 1945 but these works cover the period from about 1890 to 1988, thus, modern with a touch of contemporary. These are classics because they are both engaging stories and are written with a skill that is striking in a literary sense.
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Murphy

Samuel Beckett, 2011
A work of fiction exploring the nature of love, madness, comedy and self-knowledge. Set in Ireland and England, it is a fine example of Beckett’s skill with storytelling and high-level use of the English language. Beckett is particularly skilled at linking form and content, ensuring that the way something is written actually reflects the content of what is being presented. (I discuss this more thoroughly, with examples, in my own book of essays, The Walled Garden.)

Kafka's Selected Stories

New Translations, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism
Franz Kafka, 2007
A wide selection of short stories from the famous writer, Franz Kafka, including such stories as The Metamorphosis, A Hunger Artist, In the Penal Colony, The Hunter Gracchus, and The Great Wall of China. Newly translated by Ian Johnston. Kafka’s stories are classic and entertaining, always engaging and understandable. He has attracted more translators (from the Czech to English) than almost any other foreign writer, and for good reason. His stories are intelligent, entertaining and always surprisingly modern.

Love in the Time of Cholera

Gabriel García Márquez, 2014
Best known for his excellent, famous novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Garcia Marquez won the Nobel Prize in 1982. The author is originally from Colombia, and has been a long-time resident in Mexico City. Love in the Time of Cholera tells an engaging tale of love that covers an entire lifetime of two characters. Romantic fate at its most memorable, this story is told with astounding panache and delight, while the spectre of cholera always lurks in the background. A wondrous work.

Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov, 2010
A novel about love and sex, but especially love, as well as an almost psychiatric exploration of a relationship between an older professor and a young girl. A work that is unsettling but captivating at the same time. An engaging read, extremely well written and enjoyable, Nabokov explores this world with an insightful eye and mind.

The Nigger of the Narcissus

A Tale of the Sea
Joseph Conrad, 2010
A work of fiction with the most problematic title. In fact, its first American edition was published with the title Children of the Sea. In this fascinating story, a black sailor, James Wait, is slowly dying as his merchant ship, the Narcissus, sails from Bombay, India home to London, England. The ship almost sinks in a storm and some of the sailors take care of Wait, to ensure his safety. Others tend to unfairly blame him. A thoroughly engaging tale on every level.