Twentieth Century Lesser-Known Classic Novels - recommended reading 1950-2000

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<< STUDY SKILLS << LITERARY STUDIES << 20C LITERATURE 20C Lesser-known Classic Novels recommended reading: 1950-2000 This is a selection of lesser-known classics from the twentieth century. Great writers such as James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, and D.H.Lawrence are covered elsewhere. Here you might find some pleasant surprises. Ralph Ellison's, Invisible Man (1952) is the search of an unnamed black American for his own identity in a society which denies it to him at every turn. It is told with a combination of deadly seriousness and great comic panache. The hero is presented with or stumbles into a range of roles - from Uncle Tom, through political activist, to Superstud and Black Muslim. He uncovers the racism and existential inauthenticity in all of them, and in the end 'goes Underground'. This novel is profound, beautifully written, and very funny. It's a shame he wrote so little else. Alejo Carpentier's The Lost Steps (1953) is a story told twice. A disillusioned north-American musicologist flees his empty existence in New York City. He takes a journey with his mistress to one of the few remaining areas of the world not yet touched by civilization - the upper reaches of a great South American river. The novel describes his search, his adventures, the revival of his creative powers, and the remarkable decision he makes in a village that seems to be truly outside history. Wonderful evocations of Latin America from the founder of 'Magical Realism'. Günter Grass's The Tin Drum (1956) is a brave and imaginative attempt to come to terms with the German experience between 1930 and 1950. Set in Danzig where Grass grew up, it starts with the rise of fascism, goes through the horrors of WWII, and ends just after the dubious Economic Miracle of the post-war years. The ambiguous hero is a dwarf who is pathologically attached to his toy drum, who wills himself not to grow, and whose voice can shatter glass. This is a comic yet disturbing fantasy which combines elements of Grass's own biography with notions of collective and individual responsibility for German war guilt. Despite his later fame and productivity (plus the Nobel Prize in 1999) this is his best novel. Boris Pasternak's Dr Zhivago (1957) is a sprawling epic of the Russian revolution, a passionate love story, and a memorable portrait of a doctor-poet caught up in the merciless wheels of history. Zhivago seeks to do good and live with simple dignity, but his efforts are thwarted by war, a revolution in which he is forced to participate, and his love affair with Lara, who is married to a Bolshevik general. Pasternak received the Nobel Prize for this novel in 1958, but was forced to refuse it by the Soviet authorities at the time. DVD There is a film version of Dr Zhivago - one of David Lean's epics, with all his good and bad points. Outstanding performances from Omar Sharif as Zhivago; Julie Christie as Lara, the love of his life; and Rod Steiger as Strelnikov,the man to whom she is married. Good supporting roles from Ralph Richardson and Tom Courtney. Some of the settings look a bit artificial and unconvincing by modern standards, but on the whole it is an emotionally accurate rendering of the original. Jean Rhys', Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) is a rare case of a 'prequel' which is as interesting, well written, and as original as the work to which it refers. This is the story of Mr Rochester's first wife (before Jane Eyre) and how he came to bring her from the West Indies. It's a vivid evocation of the Caribbean; a psychologically convincing portrait of a woman's identity under threat from the twin forces of male dominance and enforced deracination; and a wonderfully lyrical narrative, full of poetic imagery and brooding force. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, (1967) is the novel which really put 'magical realism' on the world literary map. It is a sprawling epic which conveys the essence of Latin America via the saga of the Buendia family that mirrors the history of Colombia. Like many of his works, it is set in the fictional town of Macondo, a place much like García Márquez's native Aracataca. Mixing realism and fantasy, the novel is both the story of the decay of the town and an ironic epic of human experience. Expect levitating priests, time which goes backwards, and plagues of flowers and civic forgetfulness. Marquez has gone on to write many more novels, but this one remains his greatest. Heinrich Böll's The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, (1969) is a short, dramatic novel loosely based on the Baader-Meinhof affair and is Böll's scathing critique of tabloid journalism at its worst and Germany's panic-driven anti-terrorist laws. A young woman is arrested for harbouring her lover, a suspected terrorist, who is in fact an army deserter. She is harassed by the police and a particularly obnoxious reporter. When he confronts her at her mother's funeral she agrees to give him her story; but when they meet up and he suggests they have sex, she shoots him instead. Böll is a left-wing Catholic in the mould of Graham Greene. This is an intelligent and sensitive response to the moral panic over 'terrorism' which began in the late 1960s. Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate (1989) is a novel of modern life, written in verse , and set in California. Very charming, yet dealing with important fundamentals such as birth, friendship, love, and death. It was inspired by Pushkin's novel in sonnet form, and contains some wonderfully poetic images and stunning rhymes. A celebration of everyday existence, with strong ecological sympathies and an amazing variety of quite credible domestic pets. Guaranteed to please. Don't let the idea of a novel in verse put you off: it's a gem, and a linguistic treat. Nadine Gordimer's, The Conservationist (1990) has possibly emerged as her greatest novel. A white South-African businessman keeps a farm in the country which he visits at weekends. He tries to do The Right Thing ecologically but cannot, because he does not truly live there. The Africans who work for him eventually emerge as the true inheritors of the earth. Gordimer charts the problems of a society divided by racism, colonialism, class, and its political history. She expresses very eloquently the relationship between people and land. Fluent writing, great style, and lots of political commitment, but wrapped up in a non-judgemental way. 20C Lesser-known Classic Novels 1900-1950

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20C Lesser-known Classic Novels

recommended reading: 1950-2000