本书探讨了20世纪70年代初至90年代末美国小说创作的成就，对29位当代作家的34部代表作进行了洋细的分析，既提供了当代美国小说的发展概况，又兼顾文本解析，是第一部总结近30年当代美国小说发展的著作。

Introduction

1 Family Values

 Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye

 Russell Banks Affliction

 E. A. Proulx The Shipping News

 Jay Mclnerney Bright Lights, Big City

 Barbara Kingsolver The Bean Trees

 John Dufresne Louisiana Power & Light

2 Genderand History

 Bobble Ann Mason In Country

 Jayne Anne Phillips Machine Dreams

 lane Smiley A Thousand Acres

 Alice Walker The Color Purple

3 The West

 Cormac McCarthy Blood Meridian

 E. A. Proulx Close Range

 Sherman Alexie The Lone-Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

 Tim O'Brien Northern Lights

 Donald Antrim Elect Mr Robinson for a Better World

4 Consumerism, Media, Technology

 E. L. Doctorow Ragtime

 Don DeLiUo White Noise

 Don DeLillo Mao II

 Don DeLillo Underworld

 Po Bronson Bombardiers

5 Language and Power

 Gish Jen Typical American

 Chang-rae Lee Native Speaker

 John Edgar Wideman Philadelphia Fire

 Paul Auster The New York Trilogy

 Barry Hannah High Lonesome

6 Sport

 Richard Ford The Sportswriter

 William Kennedy Billy Phelan's Greatest Game

 Leonard Gardner Fat City

 Don DeLiUo End Zone

 Robert Coover The Universal Baseball Association, inc. J. Henry Waugh, PROP.

7 Imagining Subjectivity

 John Updike Memories of the Ford Administration

 Philip Roth American Pastoral

 E. L. Doctorow Billy Bathgate

 Louise Erdrich Tales of Burning Love

Conclusion

Bibliography