November 30th, 2007
Don’t Forget About Contemporary Classics
I’ve been on a kick lately to read the classics from the 1940’s – 1970’s, our contemporary masterpieces, the ones my mom may have been reading while I was a baby napping. After reading two modern novels that left me deeply unsatisfied – one amused by it’s own level of shock appeal, the other a writing prompt that never really had a story behind it, it was time to get back to some solid writing. I picked up Sophie’s Choice, a heavy tome of a book that weighs me down as it lies across my lap, and I can’t put it down. It’s gripping story and beautiful use of language set a perfect picture of life in Brooklyn post WWII. How many years need to pass before a book is regarded as timeless? So here are a few great reads I have found in recent years. Would love to hear from others about their great modern reads – if not I may be forced to read another modern snoozer!
· The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath – for anyone who’s been a despondent college student, wanted to live abroad/has lived abroad.
· Fear of Flying, by Erica Jong – for anyone who’s fascinated by the women’s lib movement and exploring the freedom of sexuality.
· Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron – for anyone!
· I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith – a classic, almost young adult novel – come on, you were once a seventeen-year-old who wished she was living in a castle in England, and falling in love with charming local English men, and swimming in moats under a full moon!
