I was thinking about books that seemed to contemporaneously sum up the social culture of their own eras. Not just books that were popular, but books that attempted to reflect their own eras semi-realistically and capture the tenor of their time.
1980s: Less than Zero (and other Bret Easton Ellis story collections); Bright Lights, Big City; Bonfire of the Vanities; White Noise
1990s: Generation X; A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; maybe Infinite Jest (didn't read it, just guessing).
And then I realized that I have no idea which, if any, books match that same kind of era-defining cache for other decades. Maybe The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen would serve this for the early 2000s? But later? No idea.
What do you think are some books that had their finger profoundly pressed on the pulse of their own times in:
1940s-1950s? Maybe Catcher in the Rye, On the Road? What else?
1960s? Is there a more literary version of The Valley of the Dolls? There were also some big emerging contemporary authors, like Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, Philip Roth, John Updike. I'm not that familiar with most of them, but they seemed to be Zietgeist-y.
1970s?
2000s?
2010s?
2020s?
The 2000s+ seem to have been so full of disconnected fantasy YA fiction, has there been any oxygen for contemporary-real-world-set AND literarily aspirational reflections of the times that became iconic as such? Harry Potter & Twilight might have become the most popular book series for recent generations, but their intent was not to examine the era, if you get my distinction. The only thing I can think of in recent years that made a similar impact is the short story Cat Person by Kristen Roupenian.
by dasfoo