Where are the authors like Baldwin and Victor Hugo today?

I recently read 'Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen and 'American Rust' by Phillip Meyer, both these books apparently earned National Book Award in America. Regrettably, they both hurt my sensibility and decency, by their vulgarity and violence, on top of their deep despair and cynicism.

What they are portraying may very well represent a part of the reality today; but, does that mean these authors have to keep hammering on those points until we become numb to them? Do they not know how to rise above these pettiness, and create characters and stories that show us some light in the darkness?

Victor Hugo was right when he said "What a writer writes reflects his soul." These writers have won National Award, but what's reflected through their writings doesn't speak highly of their soul.

On the contrary, I also read "If Beale Street Could Talk" by James Baldwin. That's a story where the characters don't give in to despair; they struggle on, hold on to their dignity till the end, even if that means being beaten down by the system. His characters and their stories inspire us, give us hope. At no point, the author takes recourse to showing extreme violence, even though one can feel that happening underneath; nor does he use an over-abundance of vulgarity or repeated obscene language.

Where are the authors like Baldwin and Victor Hugo today? I shall really appreciate if some of you can point me toward some positive and constructive writers.

One of the reasons I gave up on Game of Thones was the repetive murder and graphic sexual assault seemingly for little dramatic purpose other than to be sensational. After three volumes I just didn't care anymore about the characters or plot - for the author it seems the plot of the story is just what had to happen between sex/murder scenes. I am no prude BTW, just find action without purpose other than to shock the reader pointless in a novel.

Sorry can't help you with modern authors as I rarely spend time reading books published in our times - I would recommend Salman Rushdie as someone who sees the light and the darkness and writes intelligently and Umberto Eco.

You might try Mark Helprin. His output is uneven, but A Winter's Tale and A Soldier of the Great War I would consider modern classics. He is certainly an author who attempts to depict the best in humanity.

How about winners and nominees for the Nobel Prize in literature? (Sorry if this is too obvious!) It was created to reward "the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction", and tends to go to writers with a generous outlook on life.

William Trevor. His writing is about the least cynical, most gorgeous and compassionate of anyone I can think of.

Thank you all for your suggestions, I will have a look.

On the subject of violence in novels: At present I'm reading 'The Big Rock Candy Mountain' by Wallace Stegner. You can feel there is violence underneath, but the writer has done a superb job to understate it, which makes it all the more effective, without violating the sensibilities of the readers. I felt really sick reading the violence in Meyer's 'American Rust'.

There are two categories of writers when it comes to dealing with writing about crimes:
In the first category, you have someone like Victor Hugo, who can first see things from Jean Valjean's point of view, i.e, why he steals and thinks his actions are justified; and then Victor Hugo can rise above all crimes, to create a character like The Bishop who, by his actions of generosity alone and no blah-blah of moral lessons, shows Jean Valjean a fresh light of what's right, an action so powerful that it ultimately forces Jean Valjean to give up his crime and care for the humanity.

In the second category, you have writers like Mary Higgins Clark and Karin Slaughter, who no doubt understands their characters' criminal motivations with keen insights, but then, instead of rising above these crimes, they sink these characters even deeper into their crimes, and let things end in a total despair.

Now, you may say it's not the writer's responsibility to show us the light of life, but, at least, you can see that these two categories of writers don't have the same impact on our psyche. All I'm saying is: what a writer writes truly reflects his or her soul.

What has happened to the souls of our writers today?

>6 CorinneT: All I'm saying is: what a writer writes truly reflects his or her soul.

I think it is dangerous to mix up the writer and the writer's work. Writers are often exploring questions and looking for answers, not giving them. I'd say Clark and Slaughter are more concerned with what makes a good story than with the deep questions of human existence. But there are some contemporary writers who use crime precisely to explore those questions:

John Banville, The Book of Evidence
Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace
Donna Tartt, The Little Friend

And slightly lighter reading:

Wiley Cash, A Land More Kind Than Home

I would like to suggest Michael Cox, who was an expert on Victorian literature. When I read his novel 'The Meaning of Night', it was like reading a lost Wilkie Collins novel.