[COLOR=Magenta]For my lit class I need to read a novel by an American author that is at least 300 pages...any suggestions on what to read? :p [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=Magenta]For my lit class I need to read a novel by an American author that is at least 300 pages...any suggestions on what to read? :p [/COLOR]
Ulysses. ;)
(Come to think of it, do American authors write books over 300 pages? I can't think of one offhand.)
"The World According to Garp" by John Irving
"Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Or you know, any large print book for the visually impaired. A 35 page short story can suddenly become 350ish pages.
Wasn´t Joyce irish?
How many pages are "Grapes of wrath" by Steinbeck? I think it at least three hundred. My favorite Steinbeck book is The moon is down, but it isn´t long enough.
"Grapes of Wrath" is indeed long. The question is whether Steinbeck is an author. ;)
James Joyce was born in Dublin which is definately in Ireland. The World According to Garp is a good book - Garp has a very unusual conception. My paperback version of To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee has 309 pages which would just make it maybe., though you might have read this already. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote has 335 pages in paperback version. This book explores the mind and reasoning of two killers who callously murdered a whole family in an apparently motiveless crime. Though written as a novel, it's based on a real crime.
I'm not sure if David Guterson is American, but I'd recommend his novel 'Snow falling on cedars'. I don't know how much friendly you are with books, it's 480 pages. But well worth it, the story just doesn't let you to put it away easily.
Stephen King (he was an american right?) Nothing`s better than a good horror story:)
To emily655321: Have you read Ulysses? I`m thinking about reading it but I`ve heard some oppositional opinions on the book...
How about:
David Mamet (a.o.glengarry glen ross)
Bernard Malamud (a.o.God's Grace)
Henry James ( a.o. The portrait of a lady)
Toni Morrison ( a.o. The bluest eye, winner of the 93 nobel prize for literature)
The only author I have read out of these is Henry James [The Europeons]
and The Portrait of a Lady is oft-considered his best work. SO I'd say go for it.
My personal recommendation would have been The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, allready recommended.
Ulysses is Ulysses, once you have passed the first fifty pages you either love the story or hate it. Since I haven't read fifty pages of it yet, I am unsure. :)
I don't think Schools will allow a reading of Stephen King. Perhaps Hearts in Atlantis, but nothing else. They are too big a snobs to allow SK.
i found ulysses to be one of those books where there's so much going on that it helps to have some context for a few of the more difficult chapters. don't worry about getting it all right away, just think of each chapter as its individual story and piece it together later. that being said, i couldn't get going in it until i took a class where i had to read it..i got through about 50 pages (right about up to where you get the first real taste of stream of consciousness) before the class before i set it aside.
No, I haven't read it. I said it as a joke, because Sproutie specified "at least 300 pages." It's on my life's list, but I don't have any plans for it in the near future.Quote:
Originally Posted by Liina
I agree with Poehee's choice. Also The catcher in the Rye (Salinger) Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck) The Great Gatsby (Fitgerald) I would avoid Stephen King or the Mockingbird...
Enjoy it!
The Great Gatsby doesn't even cover 200 pages (at least the version I have).
I love All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. It's an awesome book.
A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, but that might not be 300 pages, meh read it anyways.
No. Unlike the Russians and many of the English, Americans have always understood the concept of economy of expression. "Less is more" doesn't translate well into other European languages, even the Queen's English. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by emily655321
Sproutie, try Wright's Native Son (which should be fairly close to oyur page count), or Faulkner's Light in August
I'm currently reading Native Son... kinda wish I was in a class so I could figure out what the fuss is all about, 'cause so far I'm not finding it as good as I've heard it's supposed to be.
Ha! Thought you were going to get away with this one huh? :D
East of Eden is about 778 pages long and I highly disagree with you that his craft and talent as a writer is questionable. Yes a lot of his works deal with a very specific period of time and `homesteading' and `working the land', but I loved East of Eden. It's a re-telling of Cain and Abel set in California and he has a remarkable way of humanising the landscape and he deals with very classic themes and the historical content and spirituality of his characters is well-known.
To a God Unknown also deals with power struggles and good and evil, classic themes, even racism, which do border on the depressing at times but he has a very keen way of developing memorable characters without being disrespectful.
Travels with Charley and America and Americans are also highly acclaimed travel writing he did in the latter part of his life.
Historians and romantics have to appreciate something he's touched on. Someone not from North America can get an authentic sense of the settling of the west; the issues of displaced peoples; and struggle to live a meaningful life from his works.
Tortilla Flat, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, Cannery Row, The Winter of our Discontent, East of Eden, The Red Pony and possibly more of his novels were made into films, and for an American author, that's pretty high kudos as film has been such an important contemporary medium for artists as well.
Oh yeah, and for what it's worth, he won the Nobel Prize in 1962.
Quote:
Originally Posted by emily655321
forgot about to a god unknown. :) remember loving that in my teens, also cannery row. found grapes of wrath good, but not riveting. for some reason i think i read torilla flat, but am not sure. did like cannery row.
I've read The Pearl, Of Mice and Men, Travels With Charley, and the first half of Grapes of Wrath (one of the few books I've had no qualms about not finishing). Travels With Charley was interesting enough from a historical point of view, seeing what rural America used to be like. I just dislike his terse, macho writing style. Same as Hemingway.
Thomas Hardy's
I don't remember finding Travels with Charley and his other works full of machismo, what was it that triggered macho impression emily?
Isn't the Pearl rather short, around 100 pages?
Giles Goat Boy by john barth--challenging, but well worth it
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. There's so much "insight" and "hidden meanings" bundled up in that work you could probably write anything you wanted to about it and get by easily. Everyone else seems to. Ex: By wishing to have sex with his sister is Quinten desiring to crawl back in the womb or is he simply jealous of what he can never have? God! The crap reviewers have came up with from that book! I guess I should read it again (it's been about five years) and come up with something just as off-the-wall from it myself.
Yes, the Pearl's a shorty.Quote:
Originally Posted by simon
By "macho" I don't mean chauvinistic. Just his manner of speech -- remember a while back in one of the threads we discussed how men and women tend to speak differently? I guess I just don't relate to the very "male" way Steinbeck wrote; concise, terse, literalistic. I just don't enjoy it.
Re: The Sound and the Fury post
I think maybe Faulkner might have had families about the "sleeping with your sister" problem. That creeps up all of a sudden in Absalom, Absalom in that Henry forces his best friend on his sister because he obsessed with her virginity in that it doesn't, according to him, exist until its gone. and since he can't take it himself (which seems unfortunate for him) he brings in a man who is just as obsessed with
See! That's what I'm talkin' about with Faulkner--it's some pretty messed up ****. I guess that's what always attracted me to his writing, though. Absalom, Absalom is sounding more and more appealing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vronaqueen
WB, Black Flag. :)
I am trying to find an interesting book by an American author, preferably set in the late 1800's to early 1900's. The book must contain a young woman (or women) either using the rules of society to her own advantage, outrageously or covertly, or a young woman flouting the rules of society and succeeding in spite of her rebellion.
I'm comparing and contrasting the roles of women in a research paper, and i must choose the last two books. I've already picked Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and am considering "Trifles,” by Susan Glaspell. I haven't read it; any opinions?
Basically any point of view or suggestions would be helpful.
From my understanding Kate Chopin's Awakening would be a good novel to use about a woman who rebels against society's rules. I've never read it, but I have read a short story by Chopin and my professor for American Literature briefly discussed this book in class. Hope that can be of help.
Yes, The Awakening comes to mind...set in New Orleans, early 1900's, can't remember precisely what year. It could work; the heroine rebels, although it's arguable to say whether or not she actually succeeds in the end...but it's a really good book to choose nonetheless, I think it would really contribute to the paper.
The Awakening... doesn't that woman walk into the ocean or something? I believe one of my friends mentioned it to me. I will check it out, but hopefully I can find something a little more cheerful. I like books with happy endings and three books in a week is a lot to read when you don't like the subject material.
Edit: rec posted does not meet the required criteria
How about "The Philadelphians" by Richard Powell?
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How about The Scalet Letter by Hawthorne? Female lead character written in 1850, but novel setting is somewhere in the 1600's I think.
Or how about Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.
Let us know what you choose.
thanks everyone here
Your Worship, I have a question. How did you find Little Women? I mean do you think that it is good?
How about Gone With the Wind? Scarlett O'Hara is all that and more.Quote:
Originally Posted by Your Worship