# What contemporary novels would you like to learn about? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2003, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contemporary-novels-would-you-like-to-learn-about/165945 "2003-04-02T13:11:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contemporary-novels-would-you-like-to-learn-about/165945/41 "2003-04-05T14:16:21Z")
Very cool. I’ve got my mojo, and more important my computer at home, working again. Charles Simmons WRINKLES John Gregory Dunne TRUE CONFESSIONS John Sayles UNION DUES Kurt Vonnegut SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE Laurie Moore ANAGRAMS Peter Lefcourt ABBREVIATING ERNIE Thomas Mallon DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN Carol Shields LARRY’S PARTY Joseph Heller CATCH-22 Anne Tyler CELESTIAL NAVIGATION Russell Banks CLOUDSPLITTER Norman Mailer THE NAKED AND THE DEAD Philip Roth: OPERATION SHYLOCK Thomas Pynchon, CRYING OF LOT 49 Nora Ephron, HEARTBURN Richard Yates EASTER PARADE Mary Gordon, SPENDING Reginald McKnight, I GET ON THE BUS John O’Hara SERMONS AND SODAWATER Don Delillo UNDERWORLD Paul Auster CITY OF GLASS Nicholson Baker THE MEZZANINE T.C. Boyle TORTILLA CURTAIN Richard Yates THE EASTER PARADE Charles Webb, THE GRADUATE Alice Adams, RICH REWARDS John Irving GARP Tobias Wolff THE BARRACKS THIEF John A. Williams, CAPTAIN BLACKMAN and there’s another stack of books around here someplace…I’ve got a lot of reading to do. Thanks for the lst and keep 'em coming. As to aims–they’re mixed. I want to include some of my favorite novels to include some classics and some more recent works, representing the full period of 1945-yesterday to include novels that my students will be stimulated by to have a reading list that’s representative of ethnic backgrounds and genders other from mine, without being too p.c. about it to find a theme running through my selections to lend focus to the course and all this, and probably more, without going over ten books in total. Oh, I’d also like to include at least one graphic novel. I’ve taught MAUS several times, so I’m looking towards something else, for variety’s sake. Keep 'em coming. Your suggestions are appreciated no end, folks. Thanks a lot for all the wonderful ideas that will keep me reading for months. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contemporary-novels-would-you-like-to-learn-about/165945/42 "2003-04-05T19:47:46Z")
Here’s a wishlist I recently compiled for a class I’m TA’ing. Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner The Last Picture Show/Horseman, Pass By/All My Friends are Going to be Strangers – Larry McMurtry Neighbors/Little Big Man – Thomas Berger A Fan’s Notes – Frederick Exley One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald The Day of the Locust – Nathanael West Bastard Out of Carolina – Dorothy Allison Housekeeping – Marilynne Robinson Call It Sleep – Henry Roth The Iowa Baseball Confederacy – W.P. Kinsella The Natural – Bernard Malamud Nobody’s Fool – Richard Russo Postcards – E. Annie Proulx Spartina – John Casey Sophie’s Choice/The Confessions of Nat Turner – William Styron A Walk on the Wild Side/The Man with the Golden Arm – Nelson Algren Manchild in the Promised Land – Claude Brown A Feast of Snakes/Karate is a Thing of the Spirit – Harry Crews The Last Detail – Daryl Ponicsan Johnny Get Your Gun – Dalton Trumbo Go Tell It on the Mountain – James Baldwin In Cold Blood – Truman Capote Factotum/Ham on Rye – Charles Bukowski Ask the Dust – John Fante My Year of Meat – Ruth L. Ozeki Midnight Cowboy – James Leo Herlihy Fat City – Leonard Gardner Going After Cacciato/The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien Men Without Women/Nick Adams Stories – Ernest Hemingway Sorry about the pre\_WWII stuff. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contemporary-novels-would-you-like-to-learn-about/165945/43 "2003-04-05T21:05:25Z")
I don’t see Toni Morrison mentioned yet. If you’re going to choose one of hers, let it be **Song of Solomon** or **Beloved** or one of the early ones – anything but **Paradise**. Mean and hateful, that book was. I think it’d be pretty cool if you post your list, in case some of us would like to read along. And ya know, I don’t see anything wrong with putting Stephen King in there somewhere. I know he’s not a not white male, but he’s done some good work. At the least, you could end up with some enlightening discussions on whether something can be popular and still be “good.” ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contemporary-novels-would-you-like-to-learn-about/165945/44 "2003-04-06T15:47:12Z")
I am only noting that Song of Solomon is in my list, Auntie, to bring this thread back to page one. ---
**Author:** ![Kithara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8491ac/32.png) [@Kithara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kithara)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contemporary-novels-would-you-like-to-learn-about/165945/45 "2003-04-08T22:24:33Z")
I just wanted to let you know that this thread inspired me to sign up for _American Literature 1920 - Present_ for the Fall semester. I needed an american literature course for my degree, but decided on this one largely as a result of all the responses here. Thank you everyone for helping me choose one of my classes (even if you didn’t know you were)! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contemporary-novels-would-you-like-to-learn-about/165945/46 "2003-04-08T22:35:37Z")
essvee, oops, sorry, I was skimming the list and didn’t see it. Good choice. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contemporary-novels-would-you-like-to-learn-about/165945/47 "2003-04-09T00:35:50Z")
Cool. Kithara, LMK what the reading list for that course is. Maybe I’ll glom some ideas from it. Speaking of “glomming,” maybe I’ll add some Jerome Charyn to the list, except he’s white, jewish, New York City–all the things I need no more of. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contemporary-novels-would-you-like-to-learn-about/165945/48 "2003-04-09T04:41:47Z")
If you’re looking for the diverse viewpoint thing, I would highly recommend Sherman Alexie’s _Reservation Blues_. Alexie is Native American, and I particularly like this novel because it is a non-romantic look at reservation life in the present day, and not a bunch of Noble Indians running around being Noble with Bison or anything like that. Also, it’s not too long. That sounds terrible, but your students only have so many hours in a day to devote to your reading list, and length of the books will probably be a factor. _All the King’s Men_ squeaks in at 1946, this is one of my favorite books. Have you considered _Peyton Place_ by Grace Metalious? I think this one is sort of interesting because it was rather scandalous at the time, and I think for quite a while it was viewed as a very NON literary, sensational, trashy housewife book. But the writing has aged much better than one might think. It might also be interesting (if it’s in the scope of the class) to look at the societal impact of this book. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contemporary-novels-would-you-like-to-learn-about/165945/49 "2003-04-09T12:39:37Z")
I like All The King’s Men, too, though the first time I read it in grad school it seemed long, gloomy, overly intricate, long, tiresome and long. Did I mention long? Also written by a white guy. But it’s a great novel. I have considered Metalious, though THE TIGHT WHITE COLLAR rather than PEYTON PLACE. I don’t know if I’m ready to knock someone like Pynchon off the list to get her on, but I see where you’re going, I think. Maybe O’Hara (who was banned in NY state for raciness) could assume part of the issue of societal standards. he’s a much better writer than metalious (probably my favorite 20th century writer, in fact.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contemporary-novels-would-you-like-to-learn-about/165945.md?page=2)