Sometimes it takes science fiction or fantasy to hammer home the most poignant observations about the American Condition.
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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.”
Continue readingDIY 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.
Continue readingDIY 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”.
Continue readingDIY 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.
Continue readingDIY 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.
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