“Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson. The most exquisite rendering of a parent’s love for a child.
“Dreams of My Russian Summers” by Andreï Makine. A novel about what it takes to live in a brutal world.
“Cold Mountain” by Charles Frazier. For showing me what could be accomplished in historical fiction.
“Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” by Annie Dillard, which taught me to look harder at the natural world.
“The Norton Anthology of Poetry.” Indispensable.
A classic that, on rereading, was disappointing: “Little Women,” not because it isn’t wonderful. But reading it after learning about the rich and radical mind of Louisa May Alcott made me yearn for the novel she might have written without the fetters of convention.
The book you wanted to share with your child: Several summers ago, my son and I would sit in the swing on the back porch every morning reading “The Lord of the Rings” aloud. I wanted him to create his own vision before the movie came out. As we got deeper into the book, the sessions would get longer and longer and I’d realize half my day was shot. But it was worth it.
title: “A Life In Books” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-20” author: “Juan Forshee”
“The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Religious hypocrisy in America—it’s all there, and amazingly relevant.
“Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. Dagny Taggert is a woman of gigantic ego, purpose and arrogance. She’s Hillary Clinton.
“Mixed Company” by Irwin Shaw. He’s a romantic—I am, too—and I wanted to write nonfiction in the spirit of his short stories.
“Underworld” by Don DeLillo. He writes astonishing scenes. Seagulls hovering over a garbage dump—you can see the seagulls, smell the garbage. The pieces of shoes: poetry. T. S. Eliot couldn’t do it better.
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the writer who most influenced my life. “Gatsby” instilled in me a mistrust of the rich—especially in Long Island.
A classic that, on rereading, was disappointing: “Ideal Marriage” by Dr. Th. H. Van De Velde. A marriage manual. I stole it from my mother’s shelf. It was a turn-on when I was 14. It’s not a turn-on at 74.
The book you care most about having your children read: My own memoir, “A Writer’s Life”—because I want them to know me as I see myself.
