Yesterday’s Fiction for the Discerning Reader: Jason’s Top Five Picks

So I gather you are like me, cooped up in your house and wanting something to do. You’ve read all the books on your shelves and you don’t know what to read now. Well, here I am to the rescue with some timely choices! Originally I wanted to call this blog “Great historical fiction from long ago.” But I would be using the term incorrectly. I’m not here to persuade you to buy books of historical fiction. I’m here to convince you to read fiction of a bygone era. Fiction that moved people and said something about its place and time. So, here are my top five picks of literature from recent history I think you should give a try.

5.) A Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, 1912. I read this book when I was in graduate school over ten years ago. I have to admit that I didn’t really get it. But I keep returning to it, finding a tragic-comic story about an artist who has disciplined his entire life and lets it all go to hell over an erotic obsession. The story could have become a lot darker but for that discipline the protagonist uses to discreetly love his muse from afar—until the end. Pick this one up.

4.) Salem’s Lot by Steven King, 1975. I was never a fan of English class until my third semester of community college. I signed up for a class called “Literature of Horror.” This was the second time I had read Steven King and boy, was this good. By the time I found it, Salem’s Lot was almost 20 years old. It still kept me up at nights. I will always remember what the young woman turned into a vampire said to the little boy to try to get in his room. THAT was the first time I had to put a book down and process what I had just read. Still super scary!

3.) The Natural by Bernard Malamud, 1952. My senior English teacher in high school was Mrs. Tosney. She was one of those bohemians, shabby sheik, ladies that I had never experienced before and I had a pretty bad crush on her. Anyways, she had a crush on Robert Redford. So, in addition to the Great Gatsby, we read The Natural. Now I LOVED this book because it was about sports (which I was really into at the time,) but there was this extended allegory about chivalry and courtly love. I got most of the allegory and it changed the way I thought about books. The ending was a plot twist, too! If you haven’t read it, you should!

2.) Burmese Days by George Orwell, 1934. I don’t remember if I had to read this for class, or if someone gave this book to me in college. Regardless, this book had a profound effect on me. The protagonist, John Flory, finds himself in the crosshairs of a shady Burmese businessman who wants to join the local Gentlemen’s club. The radical thing about this book is that the villain, who is not white, is treated like a three dimensional character and it does not end well for anybody. Racism, imperialism and identity lend a complexity to this book you wouldn’t expect. A great book with a dark turn.

1.) Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stow, 1852. I still can’t believe what a modern book this still is. It has the pacing and plotting of a 20^th century novel. It does away with flowery descriptions you would expect from a mid-19^th century novel and leaves you with moving characters. Its only flaws, from a modern perspective, is its occasional use of the miraculous as a plot device. At the same time, the author Stowe does not shy away from the reality of sexual abuse that existed for female slaves. In between the melodrama are themes about identity, exploitation, violence, hope, and despair.

During the Black Power movement Uncle Tom became an epitaph because he never fought back. What those people failed to understand was that Uncle Tom was a Christ figure—a radical portrayal of a black man in 1852—who is willing to give up his life for the freedom, spiritual and political, of others.

Enjoy!