The Greatest Novels Of Our Time

While we're in a literary vein, take a look at the Book Review's polling of what are, in the view of the "writers, critics, editors and other literary sages" sampled by the Times, the "Best Work of American Fiction in the Last 25 Years."

The winner, Tony Morrison's "Beloved". The runners up were Don DeLillo's "Underworld" (which would have gotten my vote), Cormac McCarty's "Blood Meridian", the four Rabbitt Angstrom novels of John Updike and Roth's "American Pastoral". Quite a stunning collection.

The balance of great novels that received multiple votes was also not too shabby. Roth, DeLillo, McCarthy each have several works listed. They are joined by the likes of John Kennedy O'Toole, Marilynne Robinson, Mark Helprin, with his magnificent "A Winter's Tale", Raymond Carver, Tim O'Brien, Norman Rush, Dennis Johnson, Richard Ford and Edward P. Jones.

Plenty to contemplate and argue about over a good scotch.