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.
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.
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.”
I am only noting that Song of Solomon is in my list, Auntie, to bring this thread back to page one.
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)!
essvee, oops, sorry, I was skimming the list and didn’t see it. Good choice. 
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.
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.
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.)