Books about people aged 25-35?

August 30, 2005 12:28 AM

Please recommend some good novels about people between 25-35.

I just finished Little Children, which I enjoyed, and I realize it's been a long time since I've read something with characters who are about my age. Reading about adolescents was great when I was one and passes the time well now, and reading about middle-aged folks is fine sometimes too, but I'd love to immerse myself in the lives of (fictional) people my own age a little more often. Help me out.

posted by callmejay to Media & Arts (23 answers total)

Pretty much anything by Douglas Coupland fits the bill perfectly.
posted by NYCnosh at 12:33 AM on August 30, 2005

...if you want an unsatisfying novel without a plot (OK, maybe only true for Microserfs).
posted by grouse at 12:46 AM on August 30, 2005

I recently enjoyed My Life in Heavy Metal, a collection of short stories by Steve Almond. I think most characters in Haruki Murikami's works fit the right age range; The Wind-up Bird Chronicle is my current favorite of his.
posted by fatllama at 12:53 AM on August 30, 2005

I'm almost sure everyone's read this by now, but: High Fidelity. The main character is 35, but reads younger . . . if that makes sense.
posted by mumble at 2:00 AM on August 30, 2005

I think the main character from American Psycho should fall within that range.
posted by Derive the Hamiltonian of... at 2:35 AM on August 30, 2005

"Rachel's Holiday" by Marian Keyes is a good read, about a girl who ends up in a rehab. Not as depressing as it sounds, it's actually very funny.
posted by essexjan at 3:52 AM on August 30, 2005

Little Childrenby Tom Perrotta is quite good.
posted by captainscared at 4:15 AM on August 30, 2005

It's a while since I read it, but I'm pretty sure David Eggers' Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius deals with characters in that age bracket, and it's a very good read.
And, again it's been a long time, but wouldn't Raskolnikov(?) from "Crime and Punishment" fit in, too? I hope so, because I think it's a book that everyone who can read should read.
posted by bunglin jones at 4:30 AM on August 30, 2005

Brett Easton Ellis's Less than Zero. Vintage now, but still good.
posted by Dag Maggot at 4:41 AM on August 30, 2005

For a short read, Steve Martin's Shopgirl fits the bill.
posted by itchie at 5:44 AM on August 30, 2005

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. This book caused so many moments of recognition for me, seeing myself & friends at this particular moment (25-30 mostly). Lots of issues with identity, doubt, inner vs outer worlds, intellectualism side by side with hedonism, and so much more. Danielewski's fans can get a bit wolfish and ridiculous (like Palahniuk's), but ignore all the PR/fandom and enjoy the book itself. [I mentioned Palahniuk, but Danielewski is worlds above him.] Enjoy!
posted by ibeji at 6:20 AM on August 30, 2005

Pretty much anything by Ann Beattie fits the bill. My fave is probably Chilly Scenes of Winter. It takes place in the 70s, which automatically makes it cool.
posted by scratch at 6:22 AM on August 30, 2005

Fortress of Solitude (and probably other books) by Jonathan Lethem. Just finished this a couple of weeks ago, and loved how many things I could relate to about the protagonist.
posted by misterioso at 6:36 AM on August 30, 2005

For light (read the book in an evening) reading, the Shopaholic books by Sophie Kinsella are good - also, anything by Jane Green or Marian Keyes (mentioned above). They're fluff, but they're funny.
posted by WaterSprite at 8:17 AM on August 30, 2005

I've never read it, but The Great Gatsby is considered a classic, and its main character is in his early thirties.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 8:28 AM on August 30, 2005

Bright Lights Big City or anything by Jay McInerney. I love his style and his characters and they perfectly capture alot of what the world and my life was like when I was in my 20s (during the 90s).
posted by spicynuts at 8:36 AM on August 30, 2005

Broom of the system, David Foster Wallace.
posted by fatllama at 8:47 AM on August 30, 2005

I've never read it, but The Great Gatsby is considered a classic, and its main character is in his early thirties.

Gatsby is one of the few perfect novels of the 20th Century. It kind of shocks me that there are people out there who haven't read it: to my decidedly stodgy mind, every single high school sophomore should be forced to read Fitzgerald's masterpiece. And then, when you're old enough to stop thinking of it as a "school book," you'll probably come back to it and see just how touching (and literarily untouchable) it is.

But regarding your question, callmejay, I'd suggest Day of the Locust by Nathanael West. Tod Hackett, a recent Yale graduate, moves to Hollywood to take a job as a production designer at a major studio: he falls for the wrong girl, gets hooked up with the wrong freewheeling midget, and meets the wrong Midwestern headcase. To be blunt, it's awesome. Incredibly funny, darkly poetic, and with hands-down one of the greatest endings of any story. Ever.

So, there's my two-cents. By the way, has anyone considered a MeFi reading group? Could be fun. I suggest we tackle Pale Fire, then head on from there. : )
posted by ford and the prefects at 9:10 AM on August 30, 2005

How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets.
posted by arielmeadow at 9:50 AM on August 30, 2005

Nobody's mentioned Chuck Palahniuk yet, but I usually think of him as having the issues and anxieties of the generation that is now that particular age dialed-in. I just finished Haunted and would recommend it.
posted by Hildago at 9:59 AM on August 30, 2005

The characters are in that approximate age range for most of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, I think. And it's good.

I'm currently in the middle of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, suggested above, and recommend it as well.
posted by librarina at 10:52 AM on August 30, 2005

I'm just reading Go by John Clellon Holmes, published five years before On the Road and featuring thinly fictionalized versions of the same real people (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Cassidy, Huncke, etc.), as told by another person in their social circle. Ignoring the fact that many of the characters will become famous later, it's basically the story of a group of mid-20s friends in late-1940s New York City, male and female, exploring the then-still-very-underground boho underground, sleeping with each other, doing drugs, tapping away at their blogs typewriters, wondering where they're going. Holmes is pretty perceptive about human nature in general, and the ambiguous and selfish ways that people occasionally deal with friends and lovers and spouses. It's somehow both an interesting period piece and not very dated at all.
posted by lisa g at 11:56 AM on August 30, 2005

Murakami, The Corrections, Anna Karenina, Persepolis 2.
posted by scazza at 3:18 PM on August 30, 2005