# recommend a book for a "contemporary american lit" class

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-contemporary-american-lit-class/475507>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 3, 2008, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-contemporary-american-lit-class/475507 "2008-12-03T14:48:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-contemporary-american-lit-class/475507/21 "2008-12-04T02:35:23Z")

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> [@mack](#):
>
> Orwell and Huxley are Brits.
> 
> Isn’t Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest a pretty standard book for an American Lit class?

Seconded, I loved that book.

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**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-contemporary-american-lit-class/475507/22 "2008-12-04T03:27:21Z")

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Two of the books I remember from my modern American lit class were \*_Ellen Foster_ and _The Bean Trees_. _The Bean Trees_ touches on child/sexual abuse and racial issues, but not nearly as explicitly as _The Bluest Eye_.

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**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-contemporary-american-lit-class/475507/23 "2008-12-04T04:03:59Z")

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What counts as “contemporary”? Steinbeck is accessible to all ages, _The Grapes of Wrath_ if you want length, _Of Mice and Men_ or _The Pearl_ if you want something brief.

Arthur Miller’s _The Crucible_ is popular and deals with complex themes without being too dark–the sexual stuff is all implied, and the older ones will see it but the younger ones will still get plenty without it.

Speaking of drama, Lorraine Hansberry’s _Raisin in the Sun_ deals with race issues with insight and power while staying fairly PG.

Tim O’Brian’s _The Things They Carried_ is a popular contemporary work among high school teachers these days, but I haven’t read it.

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**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-contemporary-american-lit-class/475507/24 "2008-12-04T04:49:57Z")

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> [@MandaJo](#):
>
> Tim O’Brian’s _The Things They Carried_ is a popular contemporary work among high school teachers these days, but I haven’t read it.

I read the first chapter of that one in a lit class. I really liked it. I second this one.

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**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-contemporary-american-lit-class/475507/25 "2008-12-04T12:53:13Z")

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> [@MandaJo](#):
>
> Speaking of drama, Lorraine Hansberry’s _Raisin in the Sun_ deals with race issues with insight and power while staying fairly PG.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Go Tell It On the Mountain

I seem to remember both of these fitting that description from an Africian American lit class I took in college (we did make fun of The Color Purple though)

On the same lines, but not racial is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

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