The American Novel Today (Fall)

Discuss major new work by today’s top writers, including emerging novelists, award-winners, and established favorites, all of whom are central to today's cultural conversation.   We will investigate a variety of inventive narrative strategies, explore the psychology of numerous fascinating characters, and examine important topics within a context of changing times, changing lives and a changing world. Together we will explore:  a father-son road trip to Mt. Rushmore, a surreal black hole in Silicon Valley, all those who lived in a single cabin in the American north woods across the centuries; immigrant Jews, African Americans and the mysteries and surprises of life in a small town in Pennsylvania; Gen X, marriage and the pursuit of happiness in the North Shore of Chicago;  the same day, the same family in three different years in a Brooklyn brownstone; two American wives in Saigon in 1963 and sixty years after;  summer stock on a beautiful lake and taking stock in a beautiful orchard in bucolic Michigan; a four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl  who goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine; a young Asian American chef  who prepares decadent dishes  for a secretive millionaire in an exclusive a mountain top safe haven. Readings: Ann Patchett, Tom Lake , Richard Ford, Be Mine ; Daniel Mason, North Woods ; James McBride, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store ; Nathan Hill, Wellness ; Michael Cunningham, Day ; Alice McDermott, Absolution ; Amanda Peters, The Berry Pickers ; Pam Zhang, The Land of Milk and Honey ; Sarah Rose Etter, Ripe . Students should read Ann Patchett, Tom Lake for the first class.
 

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