For me, the question is whether it reflects that time, realistically, as part of a larger project, or merely lets it pass uncommented on (or even buys into it, which GWTW does).
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That rings a few bells for me. Many a backyard game like that, and I was a little Barry Sanders wannabe (or would have been if he had been playing that far back) dodging all the giants.
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I do not see that response as coming from a “cultural executioner” crucifying someone from his “enlightened specialness.”
It is possible to disagree with someone without making it personal, e.g., saying that his pov is “enlightened specialness.”
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Let us not forget “Mr. Roberts,” by Thomas Heggen. Not a great novel in the usual sense, but a must read. I wasn’t in the Navy, but anyone who served will recognize characters that are only a slight exaggeration of those one encounters in uniform, but hard to discuss out of context.
I read it on the recommendation of an English teacher, a stereotypical old maid, who just loved it, laughed at even a mention of it.
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“The Great Gatsby” is a work of art, beautifully written, insightful, and entertaining. “Catcher in the Rye” not so much; I view Salinger and Hemingway as necessary to understanding American literature, but mostly overrated. I tried to reread “GWTW” a few years ago, and could not stomach it. “To Kill a Mockingbird” is the great American novel.
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If you can explain The Goldfinch to me and why a single person thought it was any good then I might consider it.
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a great anti-American novel.
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Sorry, I’ve never read it. I think I saw the film, but don’t really remember it. I remember reading John Barth’s “End of the Road” as a youngster and loving it. 50 years later, I read it again and really disliked it because the characters were horrible. I was surprised by that. Wallace Stegner’s work is worthy and I really enjoy Alice Munro.
I loved Cuckoo’s Nest, but Sometimes a Great Notion was magnificent. It’s got my vote for TGAN.
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I’m still laughing over Portnoy’s Complaint.
The Sand Pebbles.
I like writers who play with language. Stanley Elkin is a trip. His book, “The Dick Gibson Show” is his best in my opinion. “Searches and Seizures” as well.
Yea verily! Loved the film also.
While we’re at sea, The Good Shepherd.
Fiction, but could have been a documentary, it was so realistic. I had two uncles who survived convoy duty WW2.
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I have never read GWTW but when I was in high school my friend’s mom took us to the movie. When Rhett uttered his famous line and walked out I was one of 2 people in the theater who laughed out loud. It was long past time for him to walk out on her. Kinda dented my relationship with my friend’s mom, though - she was sobbing when Rhett walked out. I’ve wondered about that other person who laughed - would have been interesting to talk to them.
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Have you read Fall by Neal Stephenson? The part with the drive through Ameristan is prophetic
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This is a great American novel
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Thanks. I’ll check it out.
Thank you for this feature. I have enjoyed seeing what the TPM staff recommends and thought I might offer a book for the readership as well. But first, in appreciation (and because I have a little time on my hands today), I thought I would offer recommendations to those reporters and staff who contributed this month.
For Matt Wozniak, who seems to like something about the CIA infiltrating in unusual places, I would like to recommend: “The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book” by Peter Finn & Petra Couvee. The true Cold War CIA operation that made Boris Pasternak a Nobel Prize-winning cultural Super Star, but put his life, and the lives of those he loved, in danger because he defied USSR censors. Words matter. Ideas matter. The pen truly IS more powerful than the sword. Also, the government used to be full of intellectual types who understood this!
I have a few “fail safe” books that I recommend for those who seem to me to read widely across genres in fiction and nonfiction but I have no idea what they really might catch their interest. So for Joe Ragazzo I would like to offer up Nicholson Baker’s “Mezzanine” because it is a fiction like no other and makes the world seem different. Like, minutiae. Also I recommend “Open City” by Teju Cole. Ruminative and rich, original and understated, it speaks to us about dislocation, love, meanderings, history, memory. I was very taken with that book and maybe Mr. Ragazzo will be too.
For Christine Frapech: “Rumours of Peace” by Ella Leffland. I seriously don’t know why this coming of age story isn’t as popular as “To Kill a Mockingbird”. It tells the story of 10 year old tomboy Suse, growing up in northern California as WWII looms. It is about finding your moral & intellectual sense and also about loss of innocence & growing up in tumultuous times. If you like Scout, I think you will like Suse. Bonus book: “True Grit” by Charles Portis.
For Matt Shuhan I would like to propose the essays of Geoff Dyer, “Otherwise Known as the Human Condition”, and his book, “Out of Sheer Rage” about Dyer trying to write a book about D.H. Lawrence while living his wildly fun and distractive life. He is such good company and writes & thinks deeply about, well, everything!.
For Josh Kovensky I have 2 picks: “The Cold Millions” by Jess Walter and “A Prayer for the Dying” by Stewart O’Nan. Both historical fictions, both about men grappling with events outside of their control. One has much humor, one has no humor. But after “Blood Meridian” I have a feeling your up for anything! I loved your reporting on the Ukraine debacle, btw.
For Nicole Lafond, who dares to read poetry, I would like to suggest “Possession” by A.S. Byatt. The simplest description of this book is that it is a literary mystery, but that really doesn’t do it justice. It tells dueling stories - one from the present and one from the Victorian era, told in many voices including through poetry, letters, romance, seances, high-mindedness, faerie tales, and so much more. It is a true tour-de-force, put on this earth to dare the literary minded with its bravura presentation. Bonus book: “Leaving the Atocha Station” by Ben Lerner.
And for Jackie Wilhelm I would like to suggest “Twelve Years a Slave” by Solomon Northrup for a different take on the civil war (also, like GWTW, made into an excellent movie). Additionally I recommend, “The Maze at Windmere” by Gregory Blake Smith, a historical fiction that tells five parallel stories that range from the present to colonial times at a specific place in Rhode Island. It shows how we grapple throughout time with the same issues: money, love, power, race, sexuality, society …so many things. It is plotted in distinct looping voices that gradually get shorter and pick up speed to a very satisfying ending. And “Gatsby”, Yes!
Lastly, I would like to offer a general pick: “The Imperfectionists” by Tom Rachman. It is a novel about a dying expat print newspaper in Europe (something like the old International Herald Tribune) as the internet age emerges, but it is REALLY about the people who make up the heart & soul of the paper, because what is a news gathering and disseminating enterprise but a collection of disparate personalities? Rachman, himself, was a reporter on such a newspaper. It is a novel that illuminates the lives of those whose names are on the masthead, or have the byline on the story of the day, or who handle the finances. It is a book that makes you appreciate the news, in all its current forms, and those individuals who bring the news to us.
Thank you for all your hard work. I am grateful for TPM.
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The problem is that Gone with the Wind - both the book and the movie - romanticize the ante-bellum south and thus inevitably chattel slavery itself.
Leni Riefenstahl was a talented filmmaker - but her work was still Nazi propaganda.
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Those three Henry Green novels are all great. The publisher’s description on the back of the New Directions paperback of his shell-shock novel Back begins: “The compassionate yet detached regard that is Henry Green’s hallmark…” Seems spot-on to me.