I don’t read fiction for fun—I try to read novels that express some fundamental part of the human condition or some hard won truth. I hope you’ll enjoy these (though for a fuller list, read my article on the 24 Fiction Books That Can Change Your Life).
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (Amazon) I’m amazed how many young people haven’t read this book. Truly life-changing. This is the classic of my generation; it is the book that defines our age and ultimately, how to find meaning in it. It’s a cautionary tale too—about being too caught up in revolutionary ideas.
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (Amazon) The Moviegoer is exactly the novel that every young kid stuck in their own head needs to read. The main character—who lives in New Orleans just a few blocks from where I lived—is so in love with the artificiality of movies that he has trouble living his actual life. The Moviegoer—it is like a good Catcher in the Rye (Amazon) but for adults. Just a perfect book. An equal cautionary tale: The Sorrows of Young Werther (Amazon) by Goethe.
What Makes Sammy Run? and The Harder They Fall by Budd Schulberg (Amazon) Budd Schulberg’s (who wrote the screenplay for On the Waterfront (Amazon)) whole trilogy is amazing and each captures a different historical era. His first, What Makes Sammy Run? (Amazon) is Ari Gold before Ari Gold existed–purportedly based on Samuel Goldwyn (of MGM) and Darryl Zanuck. His next book, The Harder They Fall is about boxing and loosely based on the Primo Carnera scandal. All you need to know about Schulberg’s writing is captured in this quote from his obituary: “It’s the writer’s responsibility to stand up against that power. The writers are really almost the only ones, except for very honest politicians, who can make any dent on that system. I tried to do that. And that’s affected me my whole life.” Fiction can do that, and sometimes it does it even better than non-fiction.
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (Amazon) What a book. It’s not as good as What Makes Sammy Run(Amazon) but it’s so damn good. “A boy can be two, three, four potential people,” Duddy’s uncle tells him, “but a man is only one. He murders the others.” Which potential person will you be? Which part of you will you allow to rule? The part that betrays your friends, family, principles to achieve success? Or are there other priorities?
Some other novels I like: Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce (Amazon), Company K by William March (Amazon) and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (Amazon).