The list of writers considered is extensive, including Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith, Martin Amis, A. S. Byatt, David Peace, Hilary Mantel, Patrick McCabe, and Kazuo Ishiguro, to name just a few … Whether the writers discussed extend the techniques of postmodernism, the search in so many of these novels is for positions that assert objective reality or ethical values. Accordingly, the essays consider topics such as regionalism, youth subcultures, postcolonialism, historical fiction, the mingling of realism and experimentalism, and the “neuronovel” (new perceptions of the brain and the novel). The collection's four helpful appendixes provide time lines (of works, national events, and international events) and biographies of prominent writers. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.

CHOICE

This volume offers academics a useful starting point to explore the challenges faced by contemporary British literature and to understand the various economic, cultural, sociological and political factors which shaped it. There are plenty of leads here for other scholars to pursue, which surely must be a key goal for collections of this kind.

English Studies