They still write American fiction?

I don't read much fiction any more, but I am still surprised to find out how little.

The New York Times today did a poll of "experts" to see what they thought was "the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/books/fiction-25-years.html?8bu&emc=bu

Twenty-seven books are listed as receiving multiple votes. I have read none of them.

This can probably be best interpreted as a combination of appalling ignorance on my part and the shrinking relevance of modern American long fiction to modern American life. (to get more extreme, consider modern American poetry)

I've printed out the list and I am resolved to read at least 3 of these books by the end of the year.  Complicating this is that I've realized there are a lot of earlier classics that I would benefit from re-reading or have never read; I've been wading through "Anna Karenina" for some time now.  (Clearly 19th century Russians had a longer attention span than 21st century Americans.)