** Need an antidote to all of the Amy Tan weepiness, Gabriel Garcia Marquez magical realism and Judy Collins mush? Find refuge in the musty pages of a classic junk novel, as one of our fathers refers to vintage thrillers and spy novels from the era. It was a time when (almost) all the bad guys were cardboard commies or Nazis, and the good guys were (almost) invariably flawed-but-honorable Americans. Among our favourites:

• Anything by serial author (and MASH creator) W.E.B. Griffin, starting with his Brotherhood of War series.
• Red Storm Rising (Tom Clancy, 1986 — a bit too sweeping and high concept to be junk, bit…)
• Berlin Game, the first volume of Len Deighton’s intensely satisfying first trilogy
• Frederick Forsythe’s The Odessa File was printed in 1974, but we discovered it second-hand in the ‘80s. And its protagonist is a German. But whatever — it’s so good, it get a pass.
• The Brotherhood of the Rose , the first in a trilogy by Rambo creator David Morrell, one of the most under-appreciated thriller writers of the ‘80s
• The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum, which made its debut in 1980, heralding the original trilogy and the movie series that would follow decades later

One more thing: We discovered him long after the 1980s. In fact, we actively resisted the pull of his work throughout the decade on principle. (Which principle? We’ve forgotten.) But know this: Stephen King is the best author of the decade — period — when it comes to storytelling. You may not like the story, but the telling of it (in language, structure, characters, everything) is unparalleled.