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.”
DIY MFA Reading List: “The Sportswriter” by Richard Ford
No man is an island. Except for possibly Frank Bascombe, Richard Ford’s uniquely American dreamer, drifting absently through an unexamined life in the New Jersey suburbs.
DIY MFA Reading List: “The Intuitionist” by Colson Whitehead
Lila Mae Watson is a black woman trying to move up in a world that keeps trying to push her back down. But she’s not having any of it in Colson Whitehead’s “The Intuitionist”.
DIY MFA Reading List: “Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes
War is Hell. But who knew the flames would be stoked by the drunken aspirations – or just the bumbling incompetence of – your fellow soldiers? Welcome to Vietnam.
DIY MFA Reading List: “The Brothers K” by David James Duncan
David James Duncan hits one out of the ballpark with this truly Great American Novel featuring the Chance family’s good-natured struggle with faith, regret, war, love … and baseball.