High Five: Eric Goodman

(In this issue's High Five, author Eric D. Goodman discusses five influential Johns.)

As a fiction writer, my writing is influenced by so many different writers that it is nearly impossible to narrow it down to five. Although some of my favorite writers remain relatively stationary, my five favorite writers fluctuate; a new writer may flow onto the list as easily as a good page of prose, bumping an equally qualified author off the list without my even noticing it.

So rather than discuss my five favorite writers (and then realize I've forgotten the real top five when I read the published edition) I decided to make it a little more specific—and a bit easier. So here are my five favorite writers (that I can think of at the moment) with the name of John. (John was an easy name selection since my consistent favorite fiction writer is John Steinbeck.)

Steinbeck is probably my all-time favorite author. Every year I try to read one of his books for the first time, and one as a re-read. His writing gets to the point, but does so in a beautiful way. And the points he made during his career were sometimes melancholy (Of Mice and Men) sometimes hopeful (The Grapes of Wrath) and sometimes downright epic (East of Eden). Steinbeck's work is full of compassion for his fellow man. He wrote good fiction, but it was writing that stood for something or conveyed some essential truth. He had a knack for telling a story as though he were just a friend sitting next to you at the bar—his messages never come off as preachy. If you ever find yourself in the middle of a winter of discontent when it comes to your reading selections, pick up John Steinbeck.

Irving is one of those writers who can be comic and classic at once. At times, as I read his work, I feel like I'm in the middle of a campy bit of pulp fiction, but those same novels leave me feeling as though I've read a piece of good literature. It's not easy to live in both worlds—commercially popular and critically acclaimed. But with novels like The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Widow For One Year, and The Cider House Rules, Irving pulls it off. He may be one of Tom Wolfe’s three literary stooges, but he's a stooge worth reading. If you want fix of light literature, give John Irving a try.

Updike has been writing fiction since the 1950s—almost fifty years—and even after 22 novels, 13 books of short fiction, and two Pulitzer Prizes, he’s still producing high-quality work. Just this year, his novel Terrorist was published, tackling a touchy subject and pleasing his fans around the globe. What can be said of John Updike that the average reader doesn't already know? He may be another of Tom Wolfe's three literary stooges, but this rabbit knows how to run. If you want to read an author who has had something important to say for half a century—and continues to say it well—Updike’s up your alley.

Berendt is the only author on this list who writes nonfiction. But with an opening line like this, who cares whether it's fiction or polished fact? "He was tall, about fifty, with darkly handsome, almost sinister features: a neatly trimmed mustache, hair turning silver at the temples, and eyes so black they were like the tinted windows of a sleek limousine—he could see out, but you couldn't see in." Berendt’s technique of strolling into a town, meeting the people there, and pulling together a great story may make him the ultimate travel writer—even if Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The City of Falling Angels are his only two books. Want to do some armchair travel and meet some interesting people? Book your next fireside vacation with Berendt.

Franzen hasn't written a lot of books, but he makes the list based just on one: The Corrections. (Okay, technically it's Jonathan, not John, but let's assume John is what his friends call him.) Even before Oprah stamped his novel with her seal of approval, it was a hit with critics and the public alike. Franzen weaves together the sometimes depressing, sometimes comic events in the lives of three siblings and their parents so well that he was able to score back cover blurbs from the likes of Michael Cunningham, Don DeLillo, Pat Conroy, and David Foster Wallace. If you want to see what the masters are raving about, pick up Franzen's The Corrections instead of his memoir.