Book of the week: fiction guide

6th July 2001, 1:00am

Share

Book of the week: fiction guide

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/book-week-fiction-guide

The Good Fiction Guide
Edited by Jane Rogers
Oxford University Press pound;19.99
TES Direct pound;17.99, 020 8324 5119

This book is a browser’s delight. Look up one author and you’ll be sidetracked into many others. The “snapshot of fiction in English at the beginning of the 21st century”, compiled by novelist Jane Rogers with contributions from 60 writers, critics and translators, is arranged in two parts.

A series of brief essays by writers with specialist knowledge (such as Lesley Glaister on short stories, Valentine Cunningham on social issues, Robert McCrum on adventure) is followed by reference material on more than 1,000 authors, including many whose work is translated into English.

Reader-to-reader recommendation is the book’s guiding principle, and distinguishes it from more objective reference works such as Margaret Drabble’s Oxford Guide to English Literature and the Bloomsbury guides. As only fiction is covered, there’s room for discussion of genres such as glamour, Western and spy novels alongside literary heavyweights past and present.

The selection ranges from best-selling authors such as Jeffrey Archer, Catherine Cookson and Helen Fielding to Thackeray, Austen and Joyce, and has an international, multicultural flavour: Toni Cade Bambara, Fred D’Aguiar, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Janette Turner Hospital and Jaroslav Hasek are among those included.

Entries are more than just booklists, with each title given at least a brief comment, and the approach is helpful to the newcomer: “Begin with...”; “typical of her work is...”; “don’t let that put you off...”.

This friendly guide offers a wealth of information and opinion. With its contemporary emphasis, the breadth of its embrace and its focus on reader enjoyment, it accompanies but does not compete with the literary reference books already available.

A longer version of this review appears in this week’s Friday magazine

Want to keep reading for free?

Register with Tes and you can read two free articles every month plus you'll have access to our range of award-winning newsletters.

Keep reading for just £1 per month

You've reached your limit of free articles this month. Subscribe for £1 per month for three months and get:

  • Unlimited access to all Tes magazine content
  • Exclusive subscriber-only stories
  • Award-winning email newsletters
Recent
Most read
Most shared