More Recommended Reading
   
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James Agee 's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Death in the Family is one of the most famous American novels, though since the book is not much publicized today, it seems to be little read by readers who are not part of the core literary audience in this country.  The novel was unfinished at Agee's death (1955) and was posthumously edited and published.  In it, Agee accomplishes miracles of writing and storytelling that you won't find in any other book.  His portrait of a competent, humane father and of moments between a father and son are unparalleled in their articulation of masculinity. Available from Amazon.

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Susan Minot's novel Evening has been hailed by reviewers and readers everywhere as an elegant, engaging, beautiful read. Following on her earlier novels, Monkeys and Folly, and her story collection Lust, Minot fulfills her promise as one of the eminent storytellers and stylists of our time. Available from Amazon.

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Shirley Hazzard's masterly novel Transit of Venus won the National Book Critic's Circle Award for Fiction and stands as one of the remarkable works of fiction of our era.  The book is as near to perfect as a novel can be, and, as Gail Godwin wrote, it "combines the satisfaction of a family saga ... with a highly structured plot reminiscent of Greek Tragedy."  Rich, complex, luminous, mature, fully satisfying, this book and author are especially recommended for writers who are teaching themselves to write by reading.  Available from Amazon.  (Footnote: Hazzard, who is originally from Australia, is the widow of noted Flaubert biographer and scholar Francis Steegmuller.)
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The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro.  A new collection by the best short story writer currently writing and publishing in the world today.  Most of these stories originally appeared in The New Yorker. Available from Amazon.
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Lorrie Moore is one of the most accomplished short story writers in America.  Intelligent and funny, Moore is a must read for anyone who wants to discover the front edge of talent in short fiction.  Birds of America includes her famous story "A Terrific Mother" — originally published in The Paris Review — as well as  "Which is More Than I Can Say About Some People," one of the best stories to have appeared in The New Yorker in recent years.  Birds of America is from Knopf and available from Amazon.





 

E. L. Doctorow's novel Billy Bathgate is one of those rare novels that has both the dramatic urgency of great fiction and the lyric perfection of poetry. A tale of prohibition-era gangsters, including the real-life figure Dutch Schultz. Billy Bathgate concerns the title character's ingenuously threading the needle of his own fortunes amid the peril he takes on apprenticing himself to mobsters. The movie made from this novel has its moments but doesn't begin to express the riches and pleasures Doctorow weaves into the book. It's a great study in sustained first-person narration.
 

 

The New Yorker remains the nation's most popular literary periodical. We're recommending a number of pieces, which we will be teaching in our classes:

> Further recommended reading