Portnoy’s Complaint was published in 1969, making it Roth’s fourth published novel.

Jonathan Franzen published Freedom in 2010. The Broom of the System (1987) is by David Foster Wallace, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005) is by Jonathan Safran Foer, The Bluest Eye (1970) is by Toni Morrison, and Invisible Man (1952) is by Ralph Ellison.

The Corrections (2001) is concerned with the travails of the elderly Lambert couple (Midwesterners), their three adult children, and their grandchildren. It is a realist work that in part examines contemporary American family dynamic and in part investigates the nation’s paranoia, economic woes, and social structures. 

The Corrections (2001) is American novelist Jonathan Franzen’s third novel.

Raymond Carver wrote Where I'm Calling From (1988), Raymond Chandler wrote The Big Sleep (1939), Phillip Roth wrote The Ghostwriter (1979, and John Cheever wrote Oh What A Paradise It Seems (1982).

Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) is one of Philip Roth’s most famous novels.

Don DeLillo wrote White Noise (1985), Saul Bellow wrote Herzog (1964), John Updike wrote Rabbit, Run (1960), and David Foster Wallace wrote Infinite Jest (1996).

Although the book does contain a Jewish protagonist, Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) was most commonly banned for its explicit depictions of masturbation and other elements of human sexuality.

“Cathedral,” (1983) a story about a blind man and a husband and wife, is one of the most famous works by American writer Raymond Carver (1938-1988).

Don DeLillo wrote White Noise (1985), Saul Bellow wrote Herzog (1964), Thomas Pynchon wrote Gravity's Rainbow (1973), and Thomas Wolfe wrote The Right Stuff (1979).

“The Swimmer” is a 1964 story by the American writer John Cheever. All the rest are well known works by Raymond Carver.

“So Much Water So Close to Home” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” were included in Carver's 1981 collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. "Neighbors" was included in Carver's 1976 collection Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?. “Where I’m Calling From” was the titular story in the short story collection Carver published just before his death in 1988.

Although the term "minimalism" offended and bothered him, like Ernest Hemingway, Mary Robison, and Amy Hempel, Raymond Carver is known for his sparse, minimalist prose style and commitment to brevity and syntactic conciseness.

While all of these men worked as editors, Gordon Lish is the editor known for paring down Raymond Carver’s work and contributing significantly to the author’s hallmark terseness in his collections prior to Cathedral (1983). After splitting with Lish, Carver's work took on a more hopeful, expansive tone.