After the gloomy vitriol of yesterday's discussion about the world's most overrated writers, today we're going to be celebrating the underrated, the overlooked, the writers who we think deserve a spotlight but for whatever reason aren't getting it.
belwebb came up with the idea, so let's start with some of her suggestions (of which, possibly because they are so very underrated, I have read none): The Solitude of Thomas Cave by Georgina Harding; Julius Winsome by Gerard Donovan; The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë; Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell; The Assistant by Bernard Malamud; Disturbing the Peace by Richard Yates; and The Short Day Dying by Peter Hobbs.
Adamastor also wanted to celebrate the positive yesterday, urging readers towards the underrated Stefan Themerson, Thomas Love Peacock, Charles Doughty, AD Hope and Anthony Hecht. kevinruairi pointed us towards the "criminally underrated" TC Boyle (yes! I've read him! Agree!), while thinkbank tipped Iain Banks. Banks has a pretty high profile, I'd say – but I love him too; the kite scene in The Wasp Factory is etched on my memory.
Milan Kundera, meanwhile, is one of the few writers to win the dubious accolade of being called both overrated ("The Unbearable Shiteness Of Being," says theswagman) and underrated ("why Kundera hasn't won the Nobel prize is beyond me," says @m0ses). I'd go for over, I think: I read The Unbearable Lightness of Being when I was going through a pretentious phase, age 18, and I have to say I cannot remember a single thing about it. It might just be me ... but that can't be good, usually I retain at least an inkling of plot.
m0ses is also hoping for more recognition for Tove Jansson. I think she's undergone a bit of a revival of late, but always deserves more. And Workshop, YummieMummie: Jane Austen is underrated? Are you mad? People are obsessed with Jane Austen, she doesn't need her profile upping.
Now, my picks. First, the weirdly fantastical short story writer Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners and Pretty Monsters. I think she's brilliant. Her odd little stories are by turns funny, sad, bizarre, scary, but always excellent. She was originally published by little US press Small Beer, and, after gathering lots of accolades was picked up by HarperCollins. She's now with Canongate, and deserves far more attention than she gets. Maybe it's the short story thing, maybe it's because the easiest way to describe her is as a fantasy writer, but she has yet to gather a wide following.
Second, an author who I think is often dismissed for being a fluffy historical romance novelist – Mills & Boon for the Regency period – but is actually witty, sharp and funny: Georgette Heyer. She was reissued a while ago by Arrow, and good on them for doing it, but I think she's so much better than lots of historical novelists writing today (Philippa Gregory for one) and would love to see her pushed more in bookshops.
Third, an author of the same ilk, although a little more serious: Anya Seton. I don't know why but she's a relatively recent discovery for me and I just think she's wonderful, again knocking the socks of lots of today's big historical authors, the ones grabbing all the spaces at the front of bookshops.
Fourth, Shirley Jackson, another recent discovery, but I am racing through everything she's written, and she is, honestly, the scariest author I think I've ever read, making the likes of James Herbert and Dean Koontz look like a cosy evening in front of the fire, while also – unlike many (most?) horror authors – managing to write beautifully.
It makes me a bit depressed sometimes when I realise how much there is to read: how will I ever keep up with the new when the old is so good – and how am I ever supposed to know about all the other authors who are just as good as Seton and Jackson, when there's no one to point me towards them? That's where you come in, I hope. Please tell us about the writers, dead and alive, writing in English or not, who you think are underrated.
