Recommended Reading

I know a lot of y'all out there might think that mostly what someone in grad school for literature and writing does all day is read and write. You're probably right in that assumption, though we do more, so much more: teach, grade, chat, argue, daze off into space, whine, whimper, and start all over again. But the majority of my time at least is spent reading and writing, which are good things--my favorite things short of fluttering my social butterfly wings at happy hours around town.

As someone whose business is reading and writing, I feel like I have a certain ethos when it comes to recommending books. I'm pretty well read, at least moreso than you're average 23-year-old yuppie, though I'm not going to touch on the discrepancy between my "deep understanding of people and the world around me" and her fat paychecks. Instead, I'm going to recommend some books for your summer reading pleasure, ones that I've thoroughly enjoyed this semester, I hope, too, that you'll recommend some of your favorites to me.

Novels

Wolf Whistle by Lewis Nordan-- a stunning little novel dealing with racial guilt and "white trash" identity in a community of poor white people in fictional Arrowcatcher, Mississippi, after one of their own murders a fourteen-year-old black boy for allegedly "wolf whistling" at a white woman, a la Emmett Till.

Fun Home by Allison Bechdel--a memoir in the graphic novel form about a young woman who deals with coming out to her family and discovering that the father she never could connect with was secretly gay her entire life. By reliving the past and rummaging through his papers and letters after his untimely and possibly intentional death, Bechdel must deal with her assumptions about her father and her own identity in light of discoveries that draw her closer to him in a lot of ways.

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison--most of you have read this story of a little girl from Greenville, S.C., who faces physical and sexual abuse, poverty, and every bad thing imaginable to understand who she is and what she will become after being labeled "trash" her whole life. But read it again. God, it's a great book.

Poetry

Time and Materials by Robert Hass-- just won the Pulitzer! It's worth giving a gander to see how Hass's subject matter, which as the title suggest is just about everything, gets woven into a cohesive collection that is smart, political, and thought-provoking for modern readers and poets working to find new things to do in their work. Particularly see "Futures in Lilacs," "The Destruction of Happiness," and "Time and Materials."

The School Among the Ruins by Adrienne Rich--politically motivated, interested in giving voices to those at the margins, and deeply feminist in the ways it uses text on the page (no phallogocentrism here!), this collection is worth a look for the title poem and the prose poems/mini essays in the second section called "USonian Journals" for the ways they help you get clear understanding of Rich's political and poetic project.

The Beauty of the Husband by Anne Carson--Now, I've disagreed with one of my dearest grad school friends about Anne Carson. He thinks she's gimmicky, and I think she's poignantly insightful. You be the judge with this collection, which she calls "a fictional essay in 29 tangos" in which each movement is prefaced and inspired by excerpts from Keats exploring the idea that beauty is truth. The story/poetry collection deals with the rise and fall of a marriage, and it's oh-so-wonderful. But, then, now I'm just leading you towards by opinion.

Drama (because who ever thinks to read plays in her free time?)

August: Osage County by Tracy Letts--READ THIS PLAY! SEE IT IF YOU GET THE CHANCE! 2008 Pulitzer Prize winning drama about a family of three daughters who must return to their childhood home in Oklahoma to help care for their mother after their poet-professor father commits suicide and the abuse, violence, and perverted family history that surfaces.

Angels in America by Tony Kushner--both parts, "Millennium Approaches" and "Perestroika," though "MA" is the best. Hands down one of the best plays written in the 20th century, Kushner's drama deals with AIDS, sexual identity, Reaganomics, friendship, love, and crisis utilizing the most intelligent, humorous characters I've come across in nearly any work in any literary genre. If you don't like this play, you have no soul nor personality. (Again, leading your interpretation).

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams--It's just one of those lightbulb texts, one of those things I've read and the lights went on and I realized, "yes, this is why I am an English major!" Blache duBois is unbeatable, and you never know if you love or hate that over-grown boy Stanley, this classic play is definitely worth a read or re-read this summer. Then watch the 1950s film version. Marlon Brando's Stanley will make you tingle in all the right places.

Okay, there are my selections. Now, if you'd be so kind, share with me some of your recent favorites so I can add them to my summer list. And then we can discuss!