A father enlists the Founding Fathers to try and teach his increasingly maladjusted teenage son the true meaning of “independence”, in Richard Ford’s lyrical sequel to “The Sportswriter”.
DIY MFA Reading List: “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut
Listen up: Kurt Vonnegut speaks truth to power (and yes, he’s talking directly to YOU), in this melancholy meditation on the psychological costs of war and violence.
DIY MFA Reading List (Double Header): “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” and “Anna Karenina”
“Don’t Worry, Be Happy!” – Muriel Barbery channels Leo Tolstoy (and Bobby McFerrin) in this rich little literary treatise on time.
DIY MFA Reading List: “Jesus’ Son” by Denis Johnson
Denis Johnson’s starry-eyed protagonist fumbles towards ecstasy, in this lyrical collection of linked short stories about addiction, loss, and recovery.
DIY MFA Reading List: “Shadow Country” by Peter Matthiessen
Father, Son … and Unholy Ghost: Peter Matthiessen’s “Shadow Country” presents an America struggling to recover from the hangover of the Civil War, as an entire community bears witness to the killing of “bloody” Mister E. J. Watson.
DIY MFA Reading List: “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” by Michael Chabon
Holy Shazaam Batman! Michael Chabon transmogrifies the business behind the comic book industry into an allegory on escaping from the shackles of race, sex, and capitalism in “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” … and the result is out of this world.
DIY MFA Reading List: “Best American Short Stories 2005″ edited by Michael Chabon
Sometimes it takes science fiction or fantasy to hammer home the most poignant observations about the American Condition.
DIY MFA Reading List: “Oryx & Crake” by Margaret Atwood
Will the world end in fire, or in ice? Or in a hemorrhagic virus leaving behind a few crazed survivors … and a race of genetically engineered, multi-colored midgets? Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx & Crake” takes us back to the future.
DIY MFA Reading List: “Under the Volcano” by Malcolm Lowry
What if Hell isn’t other people at all? What if it’s just, well … you? Have a stiff drink (you’ll need it), as we descend into Malcolm Lowry’s infernal novel “Under the Volcano”.
DIY MFA Reading List: “Underworld” by Don DeLillo
Jump-cutting back and forth through Americana, from the “shot heard ’round the world” to Lenny Bruce’s extended monologues on the Cuban Missile Crisis, Don DeLillo shines a light on America’s dark impulse to violence in “Underworld.”