Hard Water

Position in the list

About this entry

A hydroelectric town through four generations. The editors’ note placed it here on the basis of three criteria: durability across re-reads (or re-watches, or re-plays), influence on the entries that came after it, and the degree to which it could only have been made by the person — or team — who made it.

In the comparative table maintained by the Books desk, Hard Water sits within a band of 4 – 10 that contains some of the most contested swaps of the year. Editors vote with arguments; a swap requires three editors and one written defense.

Also in Literary

Same decade — 1970s