Just got the reading list for the contemporary fiction class I’m taking in the fall. I’ve only read one (Life of Pi) and of the other authors, I’ve only read Tim O’Brien and Proulx’s New Yorker stories. I think I’m excited. I’m getting started as soon as Powell’s delivers them to my damp doorstep. (It’s raining; it rains a lot in Pittsburgh).
Susan Perabo, Who I Was Supposed to Be
Dan Chaon, Among the Missing
George Saunders, Pastoralia
Annie Proulx, Close Range
Dan Chaon, You Remind Me of Me
Stuart Dybek, I Sailed with Magellan
Tim O?Brien, The Things They Carried
Yann Martel, Life of Pi or Patrick McCabe, The Butcher Boy
Francine Prose, Blue Angel
If it’s any consolation, I’ve only read two of the books on that list too!
O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato may be my all time favorite book.
Ooh, O’Brien is hot! Powell’s is sold out of “The Things They Carried” and will not backorder. On to the next cheerful online vendor.
You Remind Me Of Me might be one of my most favorite books of all time. Dan Chaon is a genius. You should really pick up his collection Among The Missing — it was up for the national book award the year Franzen won.
Thanks Tod! We’re reading Chaon’s Among the Missing, too. I hear he’s coming to Pitt in the fall for a weekend or something — I hope as grad students we get to spend a little time with him.
He’s an exceptionally nice guy. You should Paperhaus him. I bet he’d have some interesting picks. And when is Pitist debuting?