Lev Grossman

[Liam]

I haven't read anything by this author and don't know much about him, but there was a funny little piece by him today in TIME, so I thought, why not start a thread.

His Wiki page.

His novels include:

• Warp (1997)
• Codex (2004)
• The Magicians (2009)
• The Magician King (2011)

The TIME piece in question: Confessions of (Another) Book Reviewer

[Liam]

Although I hasten to add, I've just had a look at his Top Ten Novels of the 2000s list, and it's dumb as shit. Even without all the obvious duds like Harry Potter and The Corrections, there's not a single great book on that list. Moderately good, yes. But really the best of the decade, even if we limit ourselves to what's written in English? In the comments section somebody's complaining why The Hunger Games didn't make it. Ancestors preserve us.

[Eric]

Shit is good for spreading on fields to make things grow. I'm afraid that Lev Grossman is relying on David, Vasily, and Edith to support his surname. But as Liam suggests, the list is garbage. Utter garbage. He simply reaches for a random list of mainstream books, mostly written in English. This man has never seen the world or its literature. He's just a lowly listmaker who presumably can't even read one foreign language to discover anything for himself, but relies mostly on multinational publishing houses to present him with books, written in or translated into English, on a plate.

Too many people on the WLF seem mesmerised by lists of "best" things. Why should some random journalist be any kind of authority? You and I could create such subjective and pointless lists. The only thing is: we don't work for very visible, mainstream magazines that are available at newsagents throughout the world, so we won't get listened to.

[Liam]

And here I was beginning to like the man based on his humorous and sympathetic piece about book-reviewing, .

[miobrien]

I generally dont mind Grossman's articles as theyre rather harmless. And i am somewhat intrigued in his magician series but it seems like light fare and thus not high priority. Nonetheless that list is downright bizzare haha. It is neither literary nor commercial - kind of strange list of hip books. I like Richard Price but havent read that book. Never Let Me Go is the only worthy one.

[Liam]

A recent piece by Grossman on the "death" of hysterical realism.