Early this year, the Book Review's editor, Sam Tanenhaus, sent out a short letter to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify "the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years." Following are the results. (and following those are my snippy, without-thought comments)

THE WINNER:
Beloved
Toni Morrison- I've read it three times, twice with the aim to teach it, and it certainly has the verisimilitude of greatness, but then why can't I reach out and call it great? Too many ghosts- too self-aware in its attempts at grandness, too many pointing moral fingers

THE RUNNERS-UP:
Underworld- wow, I love a lot of DeLillo, but I wouldn't put this in his top five- wildly inconsistent
Don DeLillo

Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy- clearly, this should have been the winner- I have two colleagues who think he ruins things through his "adolescent obsession" with extreme violence- to which I can only respond, "You just don't get it."

Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels
John Updike- I couldn't make it past fifty of the first one, and I loathe his non-fiction.

American Pastoral
Philip Roth- after I finish The Counterlife, this is next.

THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ALSO RECEIVED MULTIPLE VOTES:
A Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole- I'm a sucker for Ignatius, but this is silly given the question asked.

Housekeeping
Marilynne Robinson- I appreciated the creepy southern gothic eerie mood but I did not undertand this book at all.

Winter's Tale
Mark Helprin- have not read- do not want to read a Republican speechwriter's fiction because I commodify people by placing them into narrow categories based on tiny pieces of information.

White Noise
Don DeLillo- his best? Arguable, but certainly a more coherent and enjoyable read than the slog that was Underworld. How come nobody ever talks about Ratner's Star?

The Counterlife
Philip Roth- I'm rereading this right now, and it's fantastic, even if you're not a Jew who's cheating on his wife.

Libra
Don DeLillo- what speculative historical fiction ought to be.

Where I'm Calling From
Raymond Carver- aren't you glad the cult of Carver wave has crested and run off to the sewers of the 80s? OK, that's cheap, but for crying out loud, the best of the past 25 years?

The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien- I've read this one over 15 times and loved it each time. It's no Blood Meridian in terms of literary quality, but it is wonderfully compelling and it makes me cry, sappy bitch that I am.

Mating
Norman Rush- have not read

Jesus' Son
Denis Johnson- my favorite Johnson and a fine read, but absurd for this question. He also has to be one of the most overrated writers in America.

Operation Shylock
Philip Roth- have not read

Independence Day
Richard Ford- I loved The Sportswriter and loathed this one. This novel did to me what Jon Carroll seems to do to Tuna (where is that bitch, by the way?), which is to make my skin crawl with its male oversensitivity.

Sabbath's Theater
Philip Roth- man do they love Roth- often brilliant but erratic and over-the-top- still, this one is alive and I need to reread it.

Border Trilogy
Cormac McCarthy- lesser McCarthy, and I thought The Crossing was a yawnfest, but I've taught Horses a number of times now and have come to appreciate it. Will have to reread Cities someday. Anyone tried to read all three straight through?

The Human Stain
Philip Roth- more Roth I have not read

The Known World
Edward P. Jones- I appreciated the quality but did not enjoy this at all. Must all slavery books be overpraised?

The Plot Against America
Philip Roth- clearly, I have some Roth catching up to do