People starting strong or at the top of their game: Christine Schutt, Roxane Gay, Matt Bell, Gary Lutz, Ben Loory, Blake Butler, Lorrie Moore. Moore might fall under the "minor-epiphanies-of-ordinary-people" rut, but she's a wonderful writer, and supposedly smells lovely.

The Flame Alphabet is considerably more accessible than The Age of Wire and String. The language is still inventive, but in more of a Scorch Atlas type of way (coherent but original).

"I find there's not that much to get super excited about contemporary American fiction…"

It's very loose, bouncing from character to character without leading the reader to the connections between them. It has the quickness and readability of Remainder, but less structure. I enjoyed it, so, check it out, maybe?