by Scott Bennett

Created on: February 07, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

In No Particular Order

1) Use of Weapons: Iain M Banks

2) The Lord of the Rings: JRR Tolikien

3) Hunger: Knut Hamsen

4) The Book of Illusions Paul Auster

5) Beloved Toni Morrison

USE OF WEAPONS is a fantabulous piece of science fiction. There I just lost half of you. Oh well. It's a shame people automatically shut down when they hear the phrase sci-fi especially given that so many sci-fi novels (1984, A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World, The man in the High Castle) dominate the lists of important 20th century reads. Iain Banks' culture novels are a fantastic mirror on the human condition and reading them all is highly recommended. I like this one best.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS really does not need any more written about it. (least of all by myself with the number of essays and dissertations on it I have written over the years. It's greatness is assured.

HUNGER is a book so few English speakers have heard of and yet it describes the party now pay later lifestyle of our times so well it is a scandal it doesn't appear in these lists more often. The story of a journalist, it was written in the late 1800s and deals with his inability to manage his life and money. Rich one moment dirt poor the next Hamsun captured all the human horror of not coping with the rat race before the starting pistol had even been fired. Seminal.

THE BOOK OF ILLUSIONS is, to my mind, Paul Auster's finest work. That is really saying something. I could very easily have allowed myself to have a list composed of four of his works and Hunger. Interestingly Hamsun and Auster's characters often deal with the same themes and troubles in their lives, struggling with money and self worth while also dealing with storytelling. This novel looks to the birth of cinema for it's narrative drive and is about the nature of art. Is it in the eye of the beholder or can art exist separately from society. I cannot recommend this enough.

BELOVED tears through the heart and mind like a hot poker through butter. Few novels can have the emotional impact of Morrison's tale of the slave woman who wants to protect her children from a life of slavery. Unforgettable and unimaginable that the story was this good would make it a great book; that Toni Morrison could do it with such style is even more stunning.

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