October 11, 2020
From Gerald R. Lucas
Novel Considerations covid-19: day 204 | US: GA | info | act
The bookstore is bothering me. I have to submit my book orders for the spring, and my novel class is holding me up. Here are the shortish, contemporary American and British novels I’m considering so far. The ⭐️ed ones are probably on the syllabus.
- Atwood — The Handmaid’s Tale ⭐️
- Ballard — Crash ⭐️
- Burgess — A Clockwork Orange
- Butler — Kindred
- DeLillo — White Noise
- Ishiguro — Never Let Me Go ⭐️
- Johnson — Jesus’ Son
- Mailer — An American Dream ⭐️
- McCarthy — Blood Meridian[1] / The Road
- Morrison — The Bluest Eye ⭐️
- Pynchon — The Crying of Lot 49
- Robinson — Housekeeping
- Roth — American Pastoral
- Vonnegut — Slaughterhouse-Five[2] ⭐️
I know: most are white men. I figure I can get in seven or eight novels. I guess it would help if I had a focus tighter than “the novel in English after WWII.”
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