The not-good-enough book list 4

Robert Crowther Jun 2026

Little American Literature

Lesser‐known?

Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West: Short book about a man coerced into writing a Lonely Hearts column in a newspaper. Bleakness stalks the American city. A book that drains your soul, line by line. Good writing, noneso. Maybe that’s why it’s not on any list I’ve seen—‐would anyone call this their favourite?
Call it Sleep Henry Roth: The spiritual coming of age of a poor child raised in the Jewish culture of New York. Not a book, an experience. Never forgotten. Call it sleep. Couldn’t sell this to anyone, wouldn‘t try. If this is not on your list, your list is no good. That means everyone.
True Grit Charles Portis: Maddy. And Rooster. Justice and God’s will. And Maddy. Funny as heck, with violence undisguised. Which is a fact. It’s probably the films… the films have killed any idea there was a book.
The Ballad of the Sad Café Carson McCullers: One long story and some shorts, as I recall. This form maybe disclaims it. But in this country at one time popular. For good reason.

When does obscurity start and stop? Do we measure a book’s greatness in inches of thickness?

Other English

After the Guardian list arrived, there was heavy criticism that Irish literature was not well represented. It’s rather arguable that in fact Irish, even as it currently stands, is about as different as American, and that’s not to mention Indian English and so forth. The attempt by the Guardian 2026 list to cover African English only exposes a lack of coverage of many places where English is used for writing.

Once Were Warriors Alan Duff: Story of a community marginalised, dramatised through a family finding no or limited ways forward. Not read it, but know of it. Have I proved there something? All the concern for representation… well, where is this? Is it too far away, so not relatable? Don’t see that in other picks. Physically, it’s the far side of the world, sure; but socially, it’s Western European culture. Go figure.
The Grass Is Singing Doris Lessing: This author usually represented by ‘The Golden Notebook’ (Guardian), which is consistent to the author, but very different material. Story of farmers in a poor land. Lean sentences build the world for you. For me, I could really believe I was there, so nothing shocking, until I meet the everyday world, then the world of the book becomes alien. Did this author drain her stock with one placement? Are we admitting one cause means more than another? That causes are an influence?

Translations

Are they allowable? I don’t believe that a book’s virtue is necessary lost in translation, so I think they should be. My take.

However, a translation, the fact of translation itself, can expose that culture matters. It is not only a transfer of the text as written, it is a translation of reader culture. I’ve never been of a mind to say that work is too obscure in, say, court ritual but I need enough to help me care—not every book in a foreign language is worth translation. Also, fact, some text translates better than others. Also, fact, some texts are translated better—that I’ve experienced.

I read through this section and see it’s European ‐centred. First, see other entries. Second, do I care? No.

Monkey (attr.) Wu Cheng’en: Or, in China I was told, ‘Tales of the Monkey King’. Translated by Arthur Waley. A mix of yarn, religion, philosophy, poetry whatever—the translation is edited down to folk story. One thousand years old and it will put a stupid grin on your face. I’ve bluffed my way from arches by recommending this. A wonderful TV series may have sunk knowledge of the book forever. On a serious note, however you weigh, China is relevant to my Protestant European country.
Journey to the End of the Night Louis‐Ferdinand Céline: In which miserable, stubborn characters stand for the worst society can offer, behaving as we all would. The worst society can offer is not only the appalling behaviour of colonialism, but the pettiness of human affairs—the soap‐opera you never wanted to experience. Written in a caustic brew of common speech with artistic figures still weird. No self‐actualised society would stand for this. Number six on Le Monde Books of the Century (‘Le Monde’ = French newspaper).
Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse.: Story in story and a Magic Theatre. I’ve seen this in on several shelves, in several places, heard it in multiple mentions. One of the best selling authors ever, however counted. It’s in your heads, but not on a list.
Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak: The story of the Russian Revolution through character drama. Told in a style both Romantic—tides of place and society carry characters—and a touch of modernism in text fragmentation and deliberate plot coincidence. Fine writing throughout a huge book. At the end of World War Two, as the Western powers faced Russia in Berlin, it meant much—it was a way for Old Europe to understand. Does not appear on any list I have seen. I think people will say this is because it’s common time has passed. But that shows common time, people’s search for identity and meaning, runs deeper in these lists than ‘canonical’ objectivity.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: A short book. Delivers on it’s title—is one day in a Russian Gulag. A day beyond hell, that has no more meaning that the digging of a grave. Either be glad you’re not there, or consider how much is true for you. The publication of this book was an enormous shock for any nation with any contact. Sixty years years later, that shock remains. Perhaps not ‘favourite’, but never forgotten, and never should be.
We Yevgeny Zamyatin: The author story is a kind of tragedy modern. Arthur Waley translation. Superb writing lures you in to wonders. The most profound discussion about now. Reputedly an inspiration for the book ‘1984’ by George Orwell. Easily stands by itself, devastating. Absence from lists suggests it slips through the net, available yet unknown.
Solaris Stanisław Lem: Mankind goess to another planet, finds life, but can make nothing of it. Worse, after years of experiment, some contact is made and here’s the crunch, as these astronauts float over an alien world, contact tells us nothing. The book is written with long tracts of genuine, a rarity, scientific language. This can be hard work, but with entries voted for like ‘Moby Dick’ by Herman Melville and ‘House of Leaves’ by Mark Z. Danielewski, depth is clearly not the criteria. Perhaps because the book was near‐unavailable for a long time, or because SciFi doesn’t count? Am I the only one to think that, as we stare into the possibility of the internet, the basic premise of ‘Solaris’ is with us today?
The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek: In which an old Empire is thrown into war. Though nobody but generals care, the main character is enthusiastic for serving the occupying army at the front. But every effort he makes seems to put him further and further from the action. The author died while writing the book, so we’ll never know if Švejk reached his stated aim. Notes suggested Švejk would become a prisoner of war, and a journalist Karel Vaněk finished the book. Some have said this book is difficult to translate. Looks good to me, and translation has been attempted into over forty languages. Maybe those translators are apologising for why this book is not good enough for a book list?
Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler: An old party member is arrested, then told to confess to crimes for which confession he will be executed. Without modern explicitness, the text crawls with fear and logic unanswerable. Regarded, despite being fiction, as a key text by all governmental powers of the time. Though written in German, got on a list of greatest books in English. But not the lists we talk about, because that’s not our concern nowadays. Or is it? Or is it not? Who is threatening me this week? Get me a newspaper!

Afterword

Not complete. Take your horrible little concrete pillars and go away. Please.