# Any "modern" novels being used in English Lit classes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2003, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-modern-novels-being-used-in-english-lit-classes/209781 "2003-10-27T03:34:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@Jello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jello)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2003, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-modern-novels-being-used-in-english-lit-classes/209781/21 "2003-10-27T23:40:07Z")
We’ve read a number of newer ones - The Things They Carried (great), Slaughterhouse-Five, and Song of Solomon being among them, as well as Cuckoo’s Nest and Catch-22, but those are over 40 years old now. Another class read Ender’s Game. The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, seems to be a popular book among English teachers, but it’s also the worst book ever written. In my opinion, of course, but let’s just say in this case it also doubles as fact. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is another lousy newer (mid '70s) book we’ve been treated to. ---
**Author:** ![Michele\_in\_SoCal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Michele\_in\_SoCal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michele_in_SoCal)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2003, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-modern-novels-being-used-in-english-lit-classes/209781/22 "2003-10-28T02:13:59Z")
My kids (class of 1997 and class of 2001) both read _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ --John Irving, in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2003, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-modern-novels-being-used-in-english-lit-classes/209781/23 "2003-10-28T03:20:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Michele in SoCal \* > \*\*My kids (class of 1997 and class of 2001) both read _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ --John Irving, in high school. \*\* How did that go over? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-modern-novels-being-used-in-english-lit-classes/209781/24 "2003-10-28T04:04:07Z")
I read _Beloved_ in eleventh grade and thought it was decent, but just about everybody else in the class hated it. In my mandatory introductory lit crit class in college we read _The Woman Warrior_, which went over pretty well. The only other example I can think of, from a later college class, was _Ratner’s Star_, by Don DeLillo. Everybody who took the class, including myself, now recoils in horror at the mere mention of that book. Dreadful, truly dreadful. I got a minor in English lit, but all the classes that I specifically took were from before the 20th centruy. I honestly have no idea what’s read in the 20th centruy classes. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2003, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-modern-novels-being-used-in-english-lit-classes/209781/25 "2003-10-28T04:24:21Z")
We read _White Noise_ by Don DeLillo in my intro college English class. It was only 10 years old or so at the time. I admit it would have been interesting to do _Diamond Age_. I bet I could write some great college English bullshit about that “ending”. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2003, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-modern-novels-being-used-in-english-lit-classes/209781/26 "2003-10-28T04:50:07Z")
We read **Fifth Business** by Robertson Davies in high school. The book was about twenty years old at the time (it was published in 1970). I feel that it was the best book I read for a high school class. About three years later, I read **A Wizard Of Earthsea** (published in 1968) for a college English Lit class. I still have no idea why. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2003, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-modern-novels-being-used-in-english-lit-classes/209781/27 "2003-10-28T06:04:05Z")
My favorite “modern” novel from a lit class was _The Bean Trees_ by Barbara Kingsolver. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2003, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-modern-novels-being-used-in-english-lit-classes/209781/28 "2003-10-28T06:26:35Z")
Here’s a list for a class I’m taking this semester. H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds A. E. Van Vogt, “Black Destroyer” Murray Leinster, “First Contact” Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers James Blish, A Case of Conscience Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness Stanislaw Lem, Solaris Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic Joe Haldeman, Forever War Octavia Butler, Dawn I love college. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![nefertari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7bcc69/32.png) [@nefertari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nefertari)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2003, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-modern-novels-being-used-in-english-lit-classes/209781/29 "2003-10-28T10:11:21Z")
We did “The Crying of Lot 49” (Pynchon), “Wide Sargasso Sea” (Rhys) and Foe (Coetzee). Go lit class. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-modern-novels-being-used-in-english-lit-classes/209781.md?page=1)