Books please!

October 14, 2009 9:10 PM

Recommend some great literature in the Steinbeck tradition.

I'm looking for some great books in the style of East of Eden. Big, lush narrative fiction spanning generations. I'm meh on Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, John Irving, Barbara Kingsolver and Lawrence Hill. Big fan of M.M. Kaye, Robertson Davies, Somerset Maugham, and obviously John Steinbeck. My overall taste in books varies widely and I read voraciously. I tend to get bored quickly, however, and need something really gripping to bother finishing a book. I'd prefer generally uplifting to hopelessly tragic. I also enjoy period fiction (gothic, Victorian) and have a secret weakness for trash literature (Valley of the Dolls). Thank you for your recommendations!

posted by Go Banana to sports, hobbies, & recreation (18 comments total)

Some of Charles Frazier's work is on the multi-generational/epic scale, e.g. Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons. Also, Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections is recent-ish, huge, and all about family stuff.
posted by ShadePlant at 9:25 PM on October 14

Of the greats, try George Eliot's Middlemarch, Trollope's Barchester and Palliser novels, Galsworthy's Forsythe Saga, Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, all of Edith Wharton and depending on how you like her, maybe some of the more accessible Henry James. Hahahaha! Just kidding, there is no accessible Henry James.

Susan Howatch is a lot like M.M. Kaye; I devoured Cashelmara at about the same age as when I read The Far Pavilions. Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon might possibly float your boat, or Jean Auel's Cave Bear series.

Of the contemps you might like Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin saga, Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy or Michael Chabon's Kavalier and Clay. Updike's Rabbit series and Philip Roth are generally very highly thought of, though not by me. In my idiosyncratic opinion the real heir to Steinbeck is the Nevadan science fiction writer Susan Palwick; her Shelter is wonderful.
posted by rdc at 10:05 PM on October 14 [1 favorite]

I guess he's pretty well-known to Mefites and you might already have read him, but your 'spanning generations' comment brought to mind Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and the preceding Cryptonomicon (better than the B.C. in my opinion).
posted by mannequito at 10:44 PM on October 14

Ken Kesey's "Sometimes a Great Notion." Lush, stunningly characterized and unified. Go read it now. I also second "Middlemarch" and "Forsyte Saga," although with the reservation that both of them need to be read 2-4 times before you really see it.
Also, Vladimir Nabokov's "Ada, or Ardor." Unbelievably brilliant and moving. If you're looking for lush, that's where you'll find it. Should you choose either A or A or S a GN, please let me know what you think!
posted by lucky25 at 12:09 AM on October 15

Wallace Stegner's "Angle of Repose," among others.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 3:29 AM on October 15 [1 favorite]

I can't recommend Norwegian author Lars Saabye Christensen's masterpiece The Half Brother enough. I'm generally no fan of multi-generational family novels but The Half Brother is wonderful (and wonderfully translated by poet Kenneth Steven, I might add).
posted by Kattullus at 4:14 AM on October 15 [1 favorite]

My mind is drawing a blank, but perhaps someone can remember the author who seems to be up your alley. The author has written several books that focus on a geographic place in England and covers several generations. One is about London, another is about a region outside of London and somewhat involves a community where a cathedral is being built (not Ken Follet). Generally, the titles are "Name of Place" and that's it.
posted by Atreides at 6:08 AM on October 15

Yes, Wallace Stegner is great, but it's Crossing to Safety that's one of my favorite books ever. It isn't multi-generational, but it covers a lifetime in the lives of two couples.
posted by booth at 6:32 AM on October 15

Joyce Carol Oates, Bellefleur
posted by candyland at 6:46 AM on October 15

Thanks for ideas! I loved Middlemarch and Edith harton, no great fan of Mists of Avalon or Neal Stephenson. I did also adore the Cave Bear series in my youth. I though Shogun was pretty awesome too. Doesn't necessarily need to be family epic; solo epic OK too.
posted by Go Banana at 7:17 AM on October 15

With Roberston Davies and Steinbeck in mind, I'd say Robert Penn Warren - All the King's Men and Sherwood Anderson - Winesburg, Ohio. These are gripping stories, though not necessarily uplifting.

(I'm reluctant to mention Milan Kundera and Herman Hesse, but I also loved Robertson Davies. I'd maybe read a page in a bookstore and see what you think).
posted by ejaned8 at 7:42 AM on October 15

Have you read any Toni Morrison or Louise Erdrich?

Also: if you haven't already, check out The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

I haven't read this one, but it seems to fit the bill: Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides.

Happy Reading!
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 8:15 AM on October 15

I read and enjoyed Beloved and The Bluest Eye. I tried Middlesex...didn't go so well. Will finally succumb to peer pressure and read Time Traveler's Wife. I also enjoy Hesse; will have to explore Kundera.
posted by Go Banana at 8:23 AM on October 15

Some Faulkner might work for you, Light in August; The Sound and the Fury; Absalom, Absalom! Sprawling books that follow how people and events fall into ugly patterns, with that sort of uniquely American outlook flavoring all. He doesn't have the...empathy, I guess, of Steinbeck, though, and the writing is much more mannered.

Sort of an offbeat suggestion - try Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Bonesetter's Daughter). The same kind of generational love and hate, incorporating a different facet of the American experience.
posted by peachfuzz at 8:32 AM on October 15

Maybe not exactly what you're describing (although it's lush and spans generations), but I enjoyed Orlando by Virginia Woolf quite a bit when I read it in school.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:48 AM on October 15

Woot. A little searching found what I was thinking of: Sarum, A Novel of England, by Edward Rutherford.

It's a very cool book that traces several sets of families from the Stone Age to the Modern Era in the area that is present day Salisbury, England. I'd call it an epic undertaking as you see the ebb and flow of English history, as new families arrive via the Romans, the Saxons, the Normans, etc., and covers themes like the Reformation and what not. If you like it, he's done similar works. He's described as being a lot like James Michener.
posted by Atreides at 9:39 AM on October 15

True North by Jim Harrison.

He's got a few others that might suit your 'epic' needs.
posted by OilPull at 9:59 AM on October 15

Seconding Jim Harrison.

Also, 'Deliverance' by James Dickey. Incredible book, even if you already know what happens.

Independent People by Halldor Laxness is unimpeachable.
posted by Darth Fedor at 12:55 PM on October 15