Toni Morrison, author and recipient of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel Beloved, is retiring from a 17-year professorship at Princeton University.

Her retirement coincides with Beloved being named by the NYT Book Review the best fiction of the past 25 years.

I loved Beloved and unlike many others I also loved the movie’s interpretation of the complicated book, in particular Thandie Newton’s performance as the title character.

But the best fiction book in 25 years?! I don’t read widely enough to do more than suggest a few other equally weighty’subject books as worthy or even more worthy of such praise:

A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley

The Red Tent, Anita Diamant

The Princes of Ireland, Edward Rutherfurd

The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen

The Sea Road, Margaret Elphinstone

Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier

Ursula, Under, Ingrid Hill

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Daily Princeton article here

Morrison bio here