For the book about American literature, I’m going to do the realists vs the postmodernists and how the struggle between these two trends mimics the great American polarization.
The normies versus the pretentious crowd.
The stunned silent majority versus the angry wokesters.
Main Street versus the Met Gala.
Worrying over pronouns versus trying to make ends meet.
I don’t write about bad books, so both trends will be represented by excellent literature.
For the normies, I’m doing Richard Russo before he lost touch, Stephen Markley’s Ohio and Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. Maybe Dreamland for the non-fiction angle.
For the chi-chi frou-frous, I’m doing Jennifer Egan for sure, and I have to think of more. Oh, Philip Roth, obviously.
And then I’ll do the books where the two trends cross paths. I’m thinking Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Maybe Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy Barton.
Each of the books will speak to an important event or phenomenon.
Ohio is the Iraq War.
Russo is deindustrialization.
Kingsolver is the opioid epidemic.
Flynn is the 2008 recession. And the foundation of #MeTootery.
Egan is the Silicon Valley, the transhumanism, all that.
Roth is the PC culture and the racial tensions.
Clarissa's Blog 
Science fiction, like jazz is the truly American contribution to world literature.
As is “young adult fiction”. Though like rap I am embarrassed we invented it. Unlike rap some of it is very good.
Start with Little Women, then Daddy Long Legs.
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I really, really hate Little Women. Maybe you have to read it in childhood to appreciate but I have a suspicion I wouldn’t like it even then.
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I do not blame you. It is, however, a seminal work, which not only broke the power of the Sunday School librarians, but re-shaped the minds of a generation of writers.
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Why do you hate Little Women? It was absolutely one of my favorite books when I was about 10 or so. And then I went on a Louisa May Alcott kick and read all sorts of her books. I still enjoy reading passages from it.
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I was in my thirties when I read it, not knowing it was aimed at kids, not adults. We are taking Klara to a theater performance based on it, so maybe I’ll like it then.
Of course, I’ll first have to check if all the little women are actually women and not boys because with theater today, you can’t automatically expect all female roles not being given to men. In Matilda, both the mom and the teacher were male. Apparently, going back to the practice where women aren’t allowed on stage is progressive.
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ooh, I liked Little Women when I was a kid, and before I had read half a dozen other Victorian novels where the one token virtuous character dies of consumption.
But Daddy Long Legs was absolutely horrible even on the first reading. Just super creepy.
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Throw Stephen Wright’s “Going Native” into the mix.
That has an event associated with it as well: the collapse of the so-called “American Dream”.
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I’ll look into it, thank you. He sounds postmodern, which would work.
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This sounds wonderful. Have you considered writing an English version too?
Realists vs the postmodernists reflecting the great American polarization would interest many Americans who, like me, don’t know Ukrainian. A similar phenomenon could be happening in some European countries, so your work could inspire their academics to check what happens in their countries, and if their literature reacted differently, analyze why.
Have finished “Demon Copperhead,” and now considering Stephen Markley’s “Ohio.”
Looks like my dream of finding English novels of the crisis had to wait a few years, but now the list is sufficient?
Which novel/s by Richard Russo, Philip Roth and Jennifer Egan would you recommend for this purpose?
“Each of the books will speak to an important event or phenomenon.”
What about Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy Barton?
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“Have you considered writing an English version too?”
As I told the publisher, “no, thanks, I really like to be employed.” 🙂 For the first time in my life, I’m writing freely, unbothered by anybody’s hangups and dramas. I can’t give that up. I spend so much time already pretending, faking and censoring myself, I need an outlet to just not do it.
“Btw, have you read Stephen Markley’s “The Deluge”? The description makes one wonder whether he joined what you call “the chi-chi frou-frous” like Russo.”
He absolutely did. I tried to read but it was very bad. The guy can’t do postmodern to save his behind. He should have stayed with realism but he wanted to be fancy.
“Which novel/s by Richard Russo, Philip Roth and Jennifer Egan would you recommend for this purpose?”
None. Postmodernists don’t write about such things, it’s beneath them. And Russo went upper-middle-class woke, fussing about BLM and stuff. Beyond Demon Copperhead and Ohio, (and the first 15 pages of Steven King’s Mr Mercedes), there’s nothing.
“What about Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy Barton”
This is more about family disintegration than anything else.
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Btw, have you read Stephen Markley’s “The Deluge”? The description makes one wonder whether he joined what you call “the chi-chi frou-frous” like Russo.
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I am now on a two week vacation because of religious holidays, so hoped to go to a bookshop for second-hand English books after receiving your recommendations. 🙂
Btw, started searching on google for your last book in Ukrainian and only later realized it hasn’t been published yet. Will you tell us when it’ll become available?
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I definitely will. And I decided that donating books to troops is actually a great idea whether the soldiers will use the volumes as projectiles or not. 🙂
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\ Beyond Demon Copperhead and Ohio, (and the first 15 pages of Steven King’s Mr Mercedes), there’s nothing.
What about “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” by Jessica Bruder?
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Btw, if you want more fiction for normies for your book, “Bastard out of Carolina” may be suitable. It is excellent literature. The abuse appears only in several chapters and the descriptions aren’t graphic, while most of the book is dedicated to describing lives of poor Southern whites.
” Set in the rural South, this tale centers around the Boatwright family, a proud and closeknit clan known for their drinking, fighting, and womanizing. Nicknamed Bone by her Uncle Earle, Ruth Anne is the bastard child of Anney Boatwright, who has fought tirelessly to legitimize her child. When she marries Glen, a man from a good family, it appears that her prayers have been answered. However, Anney suffers a miscarriage and Glen begins drifting. He develops a contentious relationship with Bone and then begins taking sexual liberties with her. Embarrassed and unwilling to report these unwanted advances, Bone bottles them up and acts out her confusion and shame. Unaware of her husband’s abusive behavior, Anney stands by her man. Eventually, a violent encounter wrests Bone away from her stepfather. In this first novel, Allison creates a rich sense of family and portrays the psychology of a sexually abused child with sensitivity and insight. Recommended for general fiction collections.
-Kimberly G. Allen, National Assn. of Home Builders Lib., Washington, D.C. “
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