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June 1997
Suggested by Sherri McCarthy, from contributions by the members of Fiction_L.

(To use this list in your library, book club, etc., please include the following credit line: "Compiled by the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list." This list may not be used for commercial purposes.)

ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren. In my opinion, the greatest American novel ever written. Covers politics -- particularly Southern politics (based on the career of Huey Long) -- ethics, morality, and mortality written by an author who is a master of the English language, description, and characterization.

THE SPORTSWRITER along with its sequel INDEPENDENCE DAY by Richard Ford. The story of Frank Bascombe, who by the time of the sequel, is 44, divorced, and a former sportswriter who finds his life at a "turning or at least a curving point" on the 4th of July weekend, 1988. If you must choose, the first book is said to be better than the sequel.

THE PAPERBOY by Pete Dexter (also his PARIS TROUT). Strong characters; great writing; Dexter's novels have been called an archeology of the American male psyche. "The Paperboy" examines the newspaper business and current journalistic practices including "star" reporters.

BEGIN TO EXIT HERE by John Welter (also his NIGHT OF THE AVENGING BLOWFISH). Laugh-out-loud funny, yet moving portrayal of loneliness, falling in love, and the struggles of an alcoholic trying to stay dry. The first one also takes a look at journalism in a more lighthearted way than Dexter.

LOVE WARPS THE MIND A LITTLE by John Dufresne, a novel that begins with an offhand love affair and focuses on painful truths: for instance, that everybody's going to die, unpleasantly in most cases, but someone still has to walk the dog. See also his LOUISIANA POWER AND LIGHT.

RULE OF THE BONE (or others) by Russell Banks. This author lives in upstate NY near Plattsburgh and Au Sable. His work usually portrays the lost, the dispossessed, the homeless, the fringe of society. "Bone" concerns a young teen who drifts into drugs and petty crime and winds up in Jamaica with a Rasta wise man. Humorous, compelling, disturbing, insightful.

DIRTY WORK or FATHER AND SON by Larry Brown. A great author that many great authors mention as their favorite. The first novel depicts two wounded Vietnam War riflemen, bedridden in a VA hospital, as they talk through the night. One is black; one is white. Both are from small towns in Mississippi. Brown was a 29-year-old firefighter in Mississippi when he decided to become a writer. The second book describes a summer of hate set in a southern town, hate between a son and his father and between the son and the sheriff of the town.

SUTTREE by Cormac McCarthy. Many say that Suttree is his best; also consider THE CROSSING and ALL THE PRETTY HORSES. McCarthy -- often compared to Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor -- litters his novels with lives destroyed by incest, murder, theft, insanity.

A FAN'S NOTES by Fred Exley, who was born in Watertown, NY, and spent most of his life between Alexandria Bay, NY, Hawaii, and Florida. A "fictional memoir" of his life growing up as the son of a football hero in Watertown, his struggles with mental illness and alcoholism, and his obsession with the football hero Frank Gifford. Funny, crude, painful, at times profound.

THE RISK POOL by Richard Russo. Ned Hall is trying his best to grow up in a town -- and family -- without any adults who can accurately be called grown-up. This author, from Gloversville, NY, also wrote NOBODY'S FOOL, made into a movie with Paul Newman.

EDISTO (and its recent sequel, EDISTO REVISITED) by Padgett Powell. A coming-of-age story set on the coast of South Carolina. The narrator, Simons Manigualt, has a unique voice in literature. Edisto is also mentioned by many great authors as one of their favorites.

THE SHIPPING NEWS by E. Annie Proulx (pronounced "pru"). Set in Newfoundland, concerns the life of a hapless journalist and his eventually finding self-knowledge and happiness. Proulx is an eccentric character whose writing style is very unusual, including many coined words. Difficult to get into until about half way through, but THEN ... it is more than worth the effort!

IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS by Tim O'Brien. In this haunting, morally vertiginous novel, there were too many reasons for Kathy to vanish. All of them are connected to her husband, John, an attractive if morally confused politician whose career has lately ended in a defeat so humiliating that it has driven the Wades to an isolated cabin in the Minnesota woods. O'Brien also wrote an acclaimed collection of stories of the Vietnam war called THE THINGS THEY CARRIED.

WOLF WHISTLE by Lewis Nordan, retells the story of Emmett "Bobo" Till, an African-American teenager murdered by two white residents of Money, Mississippi, after Bobo entered a country store there, asked Carolyn Bryant (a married white woman) for a date, made insulting remarks, and "wolf-whistled" at her. The defendants admitted what they had done at the trial, but they were found not guilty despite the public confession.

SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS by David Guterson. A Japanese-American on San Piedro Island is charged with murder. In the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, who were exiled in their own community.

THIS BOY'S LIFE (an autobiography made into a movie with Robert DeNiro) and any collection of short stories by Tobias Wolff, such as his latest, THE NIGHT IN QUESTION. Until very recently, Wolff was a writer-in-residence at Syracuse University.

A CHILDHOOD: THE BIOGRAPHY OF A PLACE by Harry Crews (best read in the collection Classic Crews, so you can read the introduction first, then the autobiography, then a heart-rending essay called "Fathers, Sons, Blood," plus a couple of his novels). Describes his childhood in rural Georgia and a harsh way of life that nonetheless provided a sense of place lacking in modern life.

OTHER AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: A DRINKING LIFE by Pete Hamill describes his life as a hard-drinking reporter and his eventual coming to terms with alcohol. GROWING UP by Russell Baker is a wonderfully written memoir of this journalist's childhood through early adulthood. STOP-TIME by Frank Conroy describes his childhood and adolescence; the writing is praised as unique, transcending the genre of autobiography.

www.webrary.org/rs:flbklists/Men.html
First published on the Web: 1/26/1998
Last updated: 1/12/2002