I need your help!
Next semester I will be a teaching assistant for an undergraduate intro-level creative writing class. Our job is to lead a once-weekly mini-group workshop, using basic writing exercises and longer works as our basis. As a result, each TA gets to choose their own novel and their own memoir to teach. Memoirs? I'm good. I read like, seventeen a year. I have some favorites and many ideas.
Novels? I need help, and here's why. Most of the fiction I read is either a)short, b)classic (see:old and not cool for freshmen), or c) too advanced (garcia marquez, kundera, all out). So far the only idea I have is the Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, because I'd love to do something modern and international, but that's really not Lahiri's best work, so...
I need recommendations for novels that do the following:
1. Will appeal to young undergrads (so are interesting, modern, and not too complex).
2. Not super long.
3. Still in print so my students can buy it used on amazon for cheap.
Basically, think of those books you LOVED in high school, especially those books that made you love books, love writing, and maybe even want to do some of your own.
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"Maybe every essay automatically is in some way experimental--less an outline traveling toward a foregone conclusion than an unmapped quest that has spriung from the word question." ~ John D'Agata
3 comments:
How about "The Catcher in the Rye"? I read a very silly book called "Grab On To Me Tightly As If I Knew The Way" this year..I thought it was insane but freshmen might like it.
If you want to both modern and international then you may want to look at "The Foreigner" by Francie Lin.
PS: Apologies for this unsolicited comment. Was just browsing random blogs and bumped into yours.
Unsolicited comments are the best!
Catcher in the Rye is just the kind of book I'm looking for. I'm thinking of that or Black Swan Green (the more modern, British version).
Very cool.
I did not know that a novel called Black Swan Green exists. I just read its gist on Amazon and loved it! I think I will go get it from the public library today.
Your blog is very interesting, but some of the posts are a little too long :-). I will probably read them during the christmas holidays.
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