American Novels You Should Read

10 Modern American Novels You Should Read

Modern American literature is extremely diverse: there are excellent genre books, and truly outstanding novels, and an analysis of the family, and a reflection of many current world problems. We asked Daria Goryanina, translator and editor of Storytel, to tell us about 10 iconic works of American literature of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

"Americana", Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A large-scale study of the phenomenon of immigration in an incredibly fascinating shell. The main character, Nigerian Ifemelu, goes to study in America. Her relatives, friends, school love, smart and reasonable Obinze, who himself subsequently leaves for the UK, are left behind. Will they find their happiness and meet again?

A person torn away from his native land has to painstakingly build his identity from scratch. Who am I in a world where no one knows me? What significance do I have outside the usual context? The heroes are faced with the agonizing need to win their place in the sun again and again in a society that deliberately denies them the right to vote. However, "Americana" goes beyond the study of the problems of racism - it is an intelligent and subtle story about growing up and finding oneself, about the birth and death of friendship, about love, which, contrary to loud words, can not overcome everything, but sometimes surprisingly revives from the ashes.

"You'll also find that it's easier to be friends with other foreigners—Koreans, Indians, Brazilians, whatever—than Americans, white or black. Many foreigners have experienced the pain of obtaining an American visa, and this is a glorious beginning for friendship."

Idaho, Emily Raskovich

A meditative and melancholic novel about the fact that the burden of the past is sometimes so heavy that it is impossible to endure it, even if you share it with your loved ones. Despite the fact that Idaho was the debut work of Emily Raskovich, critics have repeatedly noted the power and beauty of style that is striking for a novice writer.

One summer, the most ordinary family - Wade, Jenny and their daughters - goes to the forest to collect firewood. At first, everything goes well, the girls catch dragonflies and sing songs while their parents are doing business, but then a tragedy occurs that splits the fate of all participants and their family itself. We learn the story bit by bit: years later, it is told to us by Wade, who is rapidly losing her memory, Jenny and Anne, Wade's new wife, who is serving a life sentence. While reconstructing that long-standing nightmare that forever changed the lives of many people, Anne simultaneously saves her own family, who survive in the harsh conditions of Northern Idaho.

"Outside, the howl of coyotes digs holes in the frozen silence. Crows in the trees are waiting for spring, ready in advance to push the chicks, which are weaker, from the nest, this act has long lived in their souls. Snakes lurked deep underground. Bodies are cold, motionless; Thoughts are hot, creeping. How many secret motives, curled up in a ball, how many beating hearts, and all, unwinding, knock together in the clap of silence, in which this very moment is contained - at home, by the window, this beautiful oblivion by love."

"The House at the End of the World", Michael Cunningham

In this novel, Michael Cunningham dissects the very concept of family, removing it from the context of familiar stereotypes. How does this concept function outside the traditional "social unit"? What unites people who are connected by nothing but love?

Bobby and Jonathan were close at school, but then their paths diverged. In the 80s, an adult Bobby comes to New York and begins to live with Jonathan and his eccentric neighbor Claire. The three of them run the household and try to understand what they want from life and how they can become happy - whom, what they need to cling to for this. This is a novel about how awkward, painful, and difficult to endure can be relationships even with the closest people — lovers, friends, parents, children. And about how difficult it can be to understand the other, even if you sincerely wish each other happiness. By the way, despite the author's detached and ironic intonation, it is the description of happiness that he succeeds incomparably.

"Bobby had a slow, half-asleep reaction to the surprises of fate. Claire and I even agreed that in the event of a fire, one of us would help him choose which window to jump into." 

"Gone Girl", Gillian Flynn

It is easy to look down on popular genre literature, but it is much more interesting and useful to look closely at it so as not to miss a masterpiece like Gone Girl. In addition to the fact that this is really an incredibly fascinating detective story with amazing plot twists (the delight of those who have not yet read this book is worth not revealing the main intrigue), it is also an incredibly accurate and rather painful dissection of the very concept of marriage.

The plot is based on the disappearance of the wife - in which the husband is suspected, since all the evidence indicates this. Understanding what happened, we see the story alternately through the eyes of both spouses, and these, as we can assume, turn out to be two completely different stories. The reason will become clear later, but in a sense it is not so important who is right, what is important is that uncomfortable and completely fair feeling that will inevitably come to readers who wonder if they know their loved ones. We can't know another person completely, Flynn argues, no matter how close they are to us, and that's good to remember.

"In the cellars of my soul there are hundreds of bottles of rage, despair, fear, but you would never guess it by looking at me." 

"Dutch House", Anne Patchett

At the end of World War II, Cyril Conroy was lucky - he successfully invested money, became rich and bought a luxurious mansion, the Dutch House, which, according to his idea, was supposed to become a real family nest. However, his wife left him, and his new wife, who turned into an evil stepmother for his children, kicks Danny and Maeve out of this house after Cyril's death. Having survived such an expulsion from Eden, the brother and sister then spend their lives trying to return to their lost happiness and understand what happened to their family. They are doomed to start from scratch, and in their battle with the world, they rely only on each other and on their love. Anne Patchett is a subtle psychologist, and her characters inevitably evoke the strongest feelings: compassion, tenderness, hatred. One of these characters in this novel is the Dutch House itself, a lost paradise and a symbol of life as such.

"It happens several times in a lifetime: you get off the ground and the past is behind you, and the future you planned to land in has not yet arrived, and for a moment you hang in pure ignorance and do not even recognize yourself." 

"Wedding story", Jeffrey Eugenides

A philological novel in the entourage of an American university in the 80s, the story of growing up as a series of choices that we have to make more and more often and which acquire more and more weight with age. Madeleine, a girl from a good family, studies Victorian literature and is in love with Leonard; Mitchell, in turn, is in love with her, who is looking for himself and hopes to find the meaning of life in travel; and the charming and mysterious Leonard can become a successful scientist, but suffers from manic depression. This is a truly large and multifaceted novel in the best traditions of classical literature: the author dispassionately explores his characters, and more than once we experience a painful feeling of recognition - himself, his awkward passions and hopes. Yes, the heroes of "The Wedding Plot" are imperfect and often make mistakes, but we are also imperfect, and Eugenides seems to be telling us: this is absolutely normal. Everyone has hope for happiness.

"Her feelings could be described by all kinds of words that were out of fashion, bookish words, such as "trembling". But it had its own rules. One rule was to wait for the guy to invite her, not the other way around." 

"Sinlessness", Jonathan Franzen

Sinlessness is the name of the novel's protagonist, Purity, but she hates him, and everyone calls her Pip. The story of Pip, her relationship with her mother, and family secrets is one of several plots in the novel that gradually weave into a bizarre pattern: politics, investigative journalism, a charming antagonist, Bolivia, and the GDR. You have to be a truly great writer to so skillfully weave the current agenda (the novel touches on the problems of nuclear weapons, and scandals with data leaks, and the author's favorite theme of the herd nature of modern society) with the subtle, deeply personal experiences of the characters. Franzen creates a large-scale canvas full of characters with their own unique voices and biographies, and at the end he ties all the storylines together so skillfully that readers can only applaud.

"Andreas was struck by the contrast between love and lust. Love turned out to be something soul-shaking, twisting her stomach, strangely claustrophobic: as if immensity had been thrust into him—immense weight, immeasurable possibilities—leaving her with the only narrow way out, a pale, trembling girl in a bad raincoat. To touch her - he had no such thought. The urge was to throw myself at her feet."

"Rules of the House of Cider", John Irving

Homer is an orphan who grew up in an orphanage. This orphanage is run by Dr. Wilbur - he has taken on a difficult and even great mission: pregnant women in trouble come to him, and he accepts children whom they cannot raise. And Wilbur also conducts illegal operations - the case takes place in the 20s and the legalization of abortion is still very, very far away. One day, Wilbur becomes Homer's adoptive father, and he eventually takes on his burden. However, the call of the big world at some point turns out to be too strong, and Homer leaves the orphanage - of course, it was not without love.

The rules referred to in the title of the novel are written on a piece of paper nailed to the wall of the house for apple pickers - the main character is included in their number for a while. Homer's search for support in life, the development of those very rules and norms is the leitmotif of the whole story. Irving writes about the most difficult ethical choices of his characters without moralizing, and thanks to this, the deep and multi-layered novel becomes so lively and fascinating.

"Unfortunately, there are perverted minds that demand that a woman give birth to a child against her will. In the name of what? Why give birth to useless sufferers?"

Empire Falls, Richard Russo

A big novel about life in a small town — lengthy, textured, ironic and naturalistic — was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and HBO made a series based on it with Ed Harris in the lead role.

Empire Falls is once a thriving town somewhere in the heart of Maine. Now nothing is happening here: factories have closed, and people are leaving. The main character, Miles Roby, who runs a local restaurant, would also like to leave, but he never had the determination to leave or get a divorce. It is held by millions of obligations, the burden of secrets of the past and invisible connections with other residents of this sad city. Together with the author, we plunge into the world of passions seething in the town: as usual, it is here, as if in a drop of water, that all human tragedies, all great passions and catastrophes are reflected.

It is impossible not to get attached to Rousseau's characters, and sympathy is evoked by literally everyone here: the indecisive Miles, his extravagant wife, his sensitive daughter and other residents of Empire Falls, lively, hapless and restless.

"Afterwards he liked to say, not without a sad smile, that in quarrels with his wife he always had the last word, or rather, two words: 'Of course, dear.'" 

"American Dirt", Jenin Cummins

Critics have repeatedly written that "American Dirt" is today's "The Grapes of Wrath": a furious and bitter statement about the fate of migrants in a seemingly modern world and a civilized country. Opponents of the novel argue that Cummins is unforgivably exoticizing Mexico, that her view is that of an American tourist, superficial and erroneous. However, the story of Lydia, who overnight turned from a prosperous, happy woman into a victim of the war of drug lords, a driven refugee, obsessed with the desire to save her son, certainly deserves the attention of readers: the book attracts your attention from the very first scenes.

"It seemed unbelievable that good people — so many good people — existed in a world where someone was shooting entire families on holidays and then standing over the corpses and chewing a chicken."