Please help me find more novels to read!
August 24, 2013 11:39 PM Subscribe
Lately I've been reading novels and memoirs about unconventional/rough upbringings. Please help me find more!
I especially liked The God of War, so more books with the same "feel" would be welcome.
Recently, I've read and liked The God of War, The Glass Castle, and White Oleander. I'm interested in reading more books with the same tone.
Thanks for your help!
Recently, I've read and liked The God of War, The Glass Castle, and White Oleander. I'm interested in reading more books with the same tone.
Thanks for your help!
Doesn't get much rougher than Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison. BUt be warned it is absolutely heart wrenching.
You might also like Stones from the River by Ursula Heigi (Coming of age story of a woman with dwarfism in a small town in Germany between the wars and in WW2). A fantastic novel, tough but hopeful.
Housekeeping has its tragic aspect but it is also quirky and funny at times. A great movie, too. About two orphans taken on by their eccentric aunt.
Shyam Selvadurai's breath taking debut novel Funny Boy is about a gay boy growing up in war torn SriLanka and his family's politics and hardships.
Susan Juby's Alice, I think. Growing up with spaced out alternative parents in Smithers BC! Hilarious! (Youth lit, but the author bills it as for "immature adults" and I agree.
Carmen Aguire Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter Memoir about a Chilean-Canadian girl, taken back to Chile from Vancouver when her parents want to re-join the revolution they had to flee from. (on my list, husband several friends loved it, heard great interview with her on CBC radio).
posted by chapps at 12:28 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
You might also like Stones from the River by Ursula Heigi (Coming of age story of a woman with dwarfism in a small town in Germany between the wars and in WW2). A fantastic novel, tough but hopeful.
Housekeeping has its tragic aspect but it is also quirky and funny at times. A great movie, too. About two orphans taken on by their eccentric aunt.
Shyam Selvadurai's breath taking debut novel Funny Boy is about a gay boy growing up in war torn SriLanka and his family's politics and hardships.
Susan Juby's Alice, I think. Growing up with spaced out alternative parents in Smithers BC! Hilarious! (Youth lit, but the author bills it as for "immature adults" and I agree.
Carmen Aguire Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter Memoir about a Chilean-Canadian girl, taken back to Chile from Vancouver when her parents want to re-join the revolution they had to flee from. (on my list, husband several friends loved it, heard great interview with her on CBC radio).
posted by chapps at 12:28 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
I really liked Laura Shaine Cunningham's Sleeping Arrangements--it's the author's memoir of being raised in the Bronx by her two eccentric uncles after her mother's death.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:29 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:29 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Augusten Burrough's memoirs of his childhood, Running with Scissors and A Wolf at the Table, might fit this bill. (A caveat: I found them both so horrifically disturbing--particularly the latter--that they left me feeling "off" for days.)
posted by whistle pig at 5:17 AM on August 25, 2013
posted by whistle pig at 5:17 AM on August 25, 2013
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would fit right in! Awesome book.
posted by The Toad at 5:21 AM on August 25, 2013
posted by The Toad at 5:21 AM on August 25, 2013
Unstrung Heroes, by franz Lidz.
Sickened by Julie Gregory.
posted by Ideefixe at 5:30 AM on August 25, 2013
Sickened by Julie Gregory.
posted by Ideefixe at 5:30 AM on August 25, 2013
-Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
-The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie--I recommend this all over AskMe whenever I can.
posted by ActionPopulated at 6:13 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
-The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie--I recommend this all over AskMe whenever I can.
posted by ActionPopulated at 6:13 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory. That is a novel that describes an unconventional upbringing, for sure. On the autobiographical side, Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard.
posted by Decani at 7:16 AM on August 25, 2013
posted by Decani at 7:16 AM on August 25, 2013
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
posted by rabbitsnake at 7:48 AM on August 25, 2013
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
posted by rabbitsnake at 7:48 AM on August 25, 2013
This Boy's Life, Tobias Wolff
posted by Bron at 8:10 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Bron at 8:10 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn
I'll also second The Liars' Club and This Boy's Life.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:35 AM on August 25, 2013
I'll also second The Liars' Club and This Boy's Life.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:35 AM on August 25, 2013
The Kappa Child, Hiromi Goto
posted by snorkmaiden at 9:34 AM on August 25, 2013
posted by snorkmaiden at 9:34 AM on August 25, 2013
Room by Emma Donoghue. Or, similarly, the memoir of Jaycee Dugard, A Stolen Life.
posted by kbar1 at 9:51 AM on August 25, 2013
posted by kbar1 at 9:51 AM on August 25, 2013
Seconding Stones from the River - it's my favorite book, beautifully written. Also The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. Very good, occasionally heartbreaking; she makes braces for her own teeth at one point.
posted by deliriouscool at 10:27 AM on August 25, 2013
posted by deliriouscool at 10:27 AM on August 25, 2013
As a companion to Tobias Wolff's (excellent) This Boy's Life, there's also The Duke of Deception, which is his brother Geoffrey Wolff's memoir of their father.
posted by scody at 12:30 PM on August 25, 2013
posted by scody at 12:30 PM on August 25, 2013
Hearing Jacki Lyden on NPR reminded me: Daughter of the Queen of Sheba
posted by lukemeister at 2:07 PM on August 25, 2013
posted by lukemeister at 2:07 PM on August 25, 2013
When Katie Wakes. Very disturbing though, be warned.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:28 PM on August 25, 2013
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:28 PM on August 25, 2013
Oops my link didn't work, here's a better one.
When Katie Wakes
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:30 PM on August 25, 2013
When Katie Wakes
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:30 PM on August 25, 2013
They Cage the Animals at Night - author Jennings Michael Burch's memoir of his childhood growing up in foster care.
Lullabies for Little Criminals - a novel about a 12 year old girl growing up in Montreal with her heroin-addicted father.
Blaze - an obscure Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) novel following a ginormous brain-injured man who commits a serious crime. The novel flashes back to his childhood with an abusive father.
Homecoming / Dicey's Song / A Solitary Blue - These are three in a series of excellent young adult novels following the lives of a fictional family of kids after their unstable mother abandons them. They're written for teenagers but they're still pretty great- Dicey's Song won the Newberry Medal in the 1980s.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 3:19 PM on August 25, 2013
Lullabies for Little Criminals - a novel about a 12 year old girl growing up in Montreal with her heroin-addicted father.
Blaze - an obscure Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) novel following a ginormous brain-injured man who commits a serious crime. The novel flashes back to his childhood with an abusive father.
Homecoming / Dicey's Song / A Solitary Blue - These are three in a series of excellent young adult novels following the lives of a fictional family of kids after their unstable mother abandons them. They're written for teenagers but they're still pretty great- Dicey's Song won the Newberry Medal in the 1980s.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 3:19 PM on August 25, 2013
Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found by Jennifer Lauck
posted by llnerdj at 8:02 PM on August 25, 2013
posted by llnerdj at 8:02 PM on August 25, 2013
A Fortunate Life - not a novel, but a biography.
posted by Brent Parker at 9:08 PM on August 25, 2013
posted by Brent Parker at 9:08 PM on August 25, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks for all the recommendations, everyone!
I have a long commute and average about a book per day. Since I asked this question, I've read:
The Liars' Club
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
Homecoming, Dicey's Song, and A Solitary Blue
The Virgin Suicides (hadn't read this since I was like 12)
All have been excellent and have really hit the spot, so to speak.
posted by easy, lucky, free at 11:28 PM on August 31, 2013
I have a long commute and average about a book per day. Since I asked this question, I've read:
The Liars' Club
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
Homecoming, Dicey's Song, and A Solitary Blue
The Virgin Suicides (hadn't read this since I was like 12)
All have been excellent and have really hit the spot, so to speak.
posted by easy, lucky, free at 11:28 PM on August 31, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by lukemeister at 11:52 PM on August 24, 2013 [1 favorite]