The Jonathans

On 9/25/10, I posted about "The Alices" -- contemporary women writers named Alice whom I admire. Today, in a gesture of gender equality, I offer a list of "Jonathans" -- contemporary male writers named, yes, Jonathan. Unlike the Alices list, in which I only listed writers I have read and admired, from this list I have read novels by only four of the six Jonathans (Dee, Franzen, Coe, Tropper), and like the work of some of them better than that of others. Still, I can't resist pointing out (and I am not the first to do so) the abundance of Jonathans on the early twenty-first century literary scene. And, as it turns out, I am currently reading one of them and listening to another on CD, so they are prominent in my reading life just now. So, without further ado, here is the list:

-Jonathan Dee (“The Privileges," about which I posted on 3/31/10)
-Jonathan Franzen (“Freedom,” “The Corrections”). Franzen is perhaps the ur-Jonathan, the most famous Jonathan of all among contemporary writers (for our current purposes, we will leave out the great but long-dead Jonathan Swift), especially right now as his book "Freedom" tops the bestseller list AND is receiving rave reviews. I read and liked "The Corrections" and have just started reading "Freedom," which I imagine I will be posting on in the near future.
-Jonathan Coe. Coe is a British writer; I am currently listening to his book "The Rain Before It Falls" on CD during my daily commute to work.
-Jonathan Tropper (“This is Where I Leave You,” which I read and mildly enjoyed before I started this blog)
-Jonathan Safran Foer (“Everything is Illuminated,” which I halfheartedly tried to read at one point and gave up on; I hear that it is a great book, but it was not to my taste)
-Jonathan Lethem (“Chronic City”)