Carol’s Recommended Books
Tree of Smoke by Dennis Johnson
I didn't think I wanted to read another Vietnam story, but Tree of Smoke belongs
up there in the constellation with
The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien), Dogs of War (Robert Stone), and Dispatches (Michael Herr). It is also a story of war in our own time. As David Ignatius
explains in his review, it is the story of men addicted to war, "feeding on it
in a frenzy, being made crazy by it." While its length and cast of characters
may put you off at first, this novel is the real thing. It draws you into its
world and refuses to let go long after you've closed the book.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Diaz.
Junot Diaz's wild and wonderful storytelling is sheer delight. The life he
describes is that of an improbable science-fiction loving nerd from the
Dominican Republic transported to New Jersey. The context is the 30-year reign
of President Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. Told with a flair and irreverence
reminiscent of Henry Fielding I predict this novel will become a cult classic.
Junot's language may offend some readers, but then I can't imagine many
high-school teachers were able to hand out copies of
On the Road 50 years ago either. It is probably better to let students delight in the brief
wondrous life with Oscar Wao and without us.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
A dramatic monologue modeled on Albert Camus' The Fall, recounts the story of Changez, a young Pakistani living the American dream.
After
9/11, Changez is upset by his adopted country's "growing and self-righteous
rage" and nostalgic for home.
”Changez looks at his American companion,”says Hamid,” and wonders: is he just a nervous visitor or a CIA assassin here to kill me?
And the American looks at Changez and wonders: is he just a talkative guy with
a beard or a murdering terrorist? Mutual suspicion reflects the suspicion
between America and Pakistan, between the Muslim world and the West."
Animal's People by Indra Sinha
Told in a remarkable, compelling narrative voice, Animal's People is the story
of a community still poisoned by the Union Carbide chemical explosion in
Bophal, India. The opening sentence will hook most readers at once. "I used to
be human once. So I'm told. I don't remember it myself, but people who knew me
when I was small say I walked on two feet just like a human being." Shortlisted
for the Booker Prize, the novel will make you want to learn more about how this
tragedy played out.
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
In the tradition of stories bounded by a single day, Murakami's novella takes
place over the course of seven hours of a Tokyo night. It is the tale of two
sisters, one a sleeping beauty, the other her wakeful sister. The urban
landscape, including the interior of an all-night Denny's, is vivid and for me
compelling. It would be interesting to pair this book with Ian McEwan's
Saturday, Graham Swift's
Tomorrow, Hanif Kureishi's Intimacy, or Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man. My students are enchanted with Murakami's novels, particularly Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore.
An Iliad by Alessandro Baricco
Contemporary Italian novelist Alessandro Baricco retells Homer's tale through a
modern lens. This isn't a new translation but rather a re-imagining of the
Trojan War - its glory and its cost. Created for performance, the story employs
the voices of 21 Homeric characters and keeps the gods out. Baricco explains,
"Behind every action of a god in the Homeric text almost always cites a human
one that duplicates the divine gesture and brings it down to earth." The volume
closes with a short essay called "Another Kind of Beauty: Note on War" that
offers hope for a more peaceful world.
