本书是英美文学文库丛书之一，是一部反映美国当代小说发展的历史，全书以主题为纲来组织小说，书中涉及的小说超过了100部。不仅数量大，而且种类多、覆盖面广，是一部难得的概述当代美国小说及其社会文化背景的专著。本书适合英美文学研究者参考学习。

本书是一部当代美国小说史。作者通过大量阅读当代美国小说，就“丧失梦想的一代“小说家对美国的批判进行了深入的讨论，分析巧妙，结论可信。本书以主题为纲来组织小说，书中涉及的小说超过了100部。不仅数量大，而且种类多、覆盖面广，是一部难得的概述当代美国小说及其社会文化背景的专著。对于想在较短时间内广泛了解当代美国小说及其研究现状的中国读者来说是一部必备的佳作。

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction i

Chapter One

  The Shocks of Transplantation

World’s End * Continental Drift * How the Garcia Girls Lost

Their Accents * The Joy Luck Club * China Men * The Mambo

Kings Play Songs of Love * The Xenogenesis Trilogy * Jasmine

Chapter Two

  Mythical Innocence

Dandelion Wine * The Bluest Eye * Mama Day * Continental

Drift * Original Sins * So the Wind Won’t Blow It All Away *

Deadeye Dick * The Things They Carried * 1968: A Novel *

Invisible Man * The Sot-Weed Factor

Chapter Three

  Yearning for Lost Civilization

Fools Crow * Mr.Sammler’s Planet * The Dean’s December *

Love in the Ruins * Snow White * The Free-Lance Pallbearers *

Flight to Canada

Chapter Four

  Seeking Spiritual Reality

House Made of Dawn * Rabbit, Run * Rabbit Redux * Rabbit Is

Rich * Rabbit at Rest * Bless Me, Ultima * Legs * Billy Phelan’s

Greatest Game * Ironweed * An American Dream * Gravity’s Rainbow

Chapter Five

  The Fragility of Democracy

  The Crying of Lot 49 * The Book of Daniel * Libra " The Terrible

  Twos * The Terrible Threes * The Turner Diaries * Ecotopia *

  Ecotopia Emerging * Cities of the Red Night * The Moon Is a

  Harsh Mistress * Vineland

Chapter Six

 Demonic Visions

The Free—Lance Pallbearers * The Public Burning * One Flew

  over the Cuckoo’s Nest * Woman on the Edge of Time * Blood

  and Guts in High School * American Psycho * Why Are We in

Vietnam? * Mercy * Bearheart：The Heirship Chronicles*

  Almanac of the Dead

Chapter Seven

  Liberating the Land of Freedom 

Sombrero Fallout： A Japanese Novel * Dhalgren * Tripmaster

Monkey： His Fake Book * Griever： An American Monkey King in

China * Always Coming Home * The Dispossessed * Woman on

the Edge of Time * He, She and It * The Fifth Sacred Thing

Chapter Eight

  Small Is Beautiful 240

Sula * Hiding Place * Damballah * Sent for You Yesterday *

Tracks * Love Medicine * Ceremony * The Beans of Egypt,

Maine * Letourneau’s Used Auto Parts * Merry Men * Slapstick;

or, Lonesome No More! * Islands in the Net

Chapter Nine

  The Failure of the Dream in Fiction

Notes

Bibliography

Index