European Literature

European Literature: Some of my favorites in no particular order.

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino: magical. There is no other word for a novel that is like no other ever written. Ostensibly, it is about Marco Polo and the stories he tells to Kublai Khan about the cities (55 in all) he sees on his journeys. Some speculate that all the cities are actually Venice (with good reason—I re-read it while in Venice and so much rang true), others suggest that Calvino is pointing the way to a new theory of urban development. Whatever the meaning, this book is lovely.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert: a tragic novel that highlights the hypocrisy of middle class life in France in the mid-1800s and the sexism that dooms the unforgettable Emma Bovary. Fascinating and compelling. I avoided this novel for so long and regretted every moment that I stayed away from it.
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell: the contemporary novel that tells the semi-autobiographical coming of age story of a boy facing the divorce of his parents—a beautifully written story of lost innocence. Mitchell is most famous for Cloud Atlas, the philosophical novel that most closely resembles a Russian nesting doll.
The Other City by Michal Ajvaz: a surreal novel about the other city, which shares the same time and space with a large Eastern European city—probably Prague—and the man determined to find the truth of this alternate area, despite the dangers faced. Ultimately, a work about what we have had to sacrifice in order to create this modern era.
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada: the story of a husband and wife who resist the Nazi rule in Berlin and price they pay. A stunning portrait of people desperately trying to retain their humanity during inhuman times. This is not a happy story but Fallada does not engage in manipulative pathos.
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust: Ok, it’s 1.5 million words and seven volumes. It is wordy. Endless. But the second half of the first volume (Swan’s Way) is one of the most powerful portrayals of love ever put to paper. Odette’s seduction of Swan is raw and gorgeous, heart-breaking and haunting. If you can’t find your way through the first part of the novel, jump to the second and got lost in Swan’s seduction. And then keep reading because despite the crazy wordiness, these seven volumes are marked by profound insight into human nature and subtle humor about the pettiness of our pretensions.
Dubliners by James Joyce: This short story collection is connected by a single theme, the psychological and spiritual paralysis of the modern era. All the stories are powerful but “The Dead” is exceptionally lovely, a story of life not truly lived. From this work, please move on to The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and then the masterpiece Ulysses.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka: Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find that he is a man-sized bug. What happens when a man decides to be martyr and yet no one wants or needs that martyrdom? Read The Trial and The Castle and…just read Kafka.
The Plague by Albert Camus: Bubonic plague strikes the Algerian port city of Oran. After the city’s quarantine, the residents find themselves on their own, trying to treat the ill and comfort the dying. Sounds depressing, right? Yet, this is one of the most inspirational books that I have ever read—a book that has stayed with me all these decades. Camus is profoundly moral, providing his readers with a vision of humanity at its best when times are the worst.
Medea by Euripides: There is always something incredibly dark about Euripides, and this play is no exception. Euripides focuses on the rawness of human experience, in this case, a woman who is betrayed by the man she loves. Euripides is brilliant in his understanding of human nature and shows how that nature ultimately changes very little with the passing of time.
The poetry of John Keats: these poems are joyous, luxurious and luminous. I doubt there was ever anyone more intoxicated by language and its possibility than John Keats.
The stories and plays of Anton Chekhov: I love Chekhov. Maybe more than any other author. Chekhov understands human beings—their hopes, dreams, pettiness, arrogance, and vulnerabilities. Reading Chekhov is entering fully into what it is to be human—he commented that literature “should prepare one for tenderness.” I cannot recommend him highly enough. “The Duel,” “Gooseberries,” “The Princess,” “The Lady with the Pet Dog,” and the amazing--near transcendent--“About Love” are just a few of his unforgettable short stories.
The Quiet American by Graham Greene: Do you want to know what Europeans think about Americans? Here it is. The cynical Brit meets the idealistic American and chaos ensues. A short, tense book that highlights American naiveté in a spellbinding fashion.
My Life in CIA by Harry Matthews: While this is an American author, he wrote in European style after moving to Europe, specifically the Oulipo tradition. Matthews writes an odd, funny and ultimately scary book about an American—possibly Matthews himself—who is mistaken for a spy and who decides to play along, and the consequences that come from this (possible) misidentification. If you like this style, try Georges Perec, a man who wrote a novel without ever using the letter e (A Void).
The Laurels of Lake Constance by Marie Chaix: This author is the daughter of Frenchmen who became a leader of the Nazis in France during World War Two. Chaix writes a memoir of her father and how his fear of one type of tyranny—Communism--leads him to embrace an even greater evil, Nazism. This spare, eloquent book shows how an ostensibly good man can be seduced by darkness and the cost to those he loves.
Orlando by Virginia Woolf: This author has written many important and amazing novels—To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway—but this work is my favorite. Orlando begins life as a young nobleman but transforms into a woman, then back to man and so on. Orlando reincarnates (in a way) into different genders and different social statuses, creating a life rich with amazing and beautiful experiences. Adventurous and charming.
Small Island by Andrea Levy: Gilbert, a Jamaican, fought for Britain during World War II and yet when he and his wife Hortense immigrate to England, they are greeted with disapproval from a racist society. The story also develops the relationship between the very proper Hortense and her laid-back and funny groom, Gilbert. This charming page-turner of story has the audience rooting for the personal and financial success Hortense and Gilbert.
White Teeth by Zadie Smith: Another story of immigrants to Britain, Zadie Smith’s novel uses humor and pathos to tell the stories of Afro-Caribbean and Bangladeshi immigrants to England and pressures they face in this new world. Like Levy’s novel above, this work also was greeted with popular and critical acclaim.
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie: One of my favorite post-modern novels, Rushidie creates a work about profoundly gifted children, all born within minutes of India’s independence, who hold in their hands the promise of a great Indian state, yet are hunted mercilessly by the new government. It is a story common to any nation—the great loss of potential as compromises are deemed necessary. A powerful and unforgettable novel.
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Roberto Calasso: Retelling the great Greek myths, Calasso resurrects the passion, romance, sexiness and humanity inherent in these stories. These versions of Greek myths are far from the bloodless tales that students are used to.
Atonement by Ian McEwan: A young girl tells a lie that ends a couple’s chance for love and sends an innocent man to prison. Rather than learning from her mistake—finding true atonement—she continues to create lies to invent the reality that would forgive her crimes. This novel haunted me long after I had read it.
Immortality by Milan Kundera: a novel that investigates the oddness and complexity of the contemporary world. A wild novel with an unconventional structure—the author has lunch with his own main character—Immortality searches for beauty in a busy, messy world.
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa: This work is a series of short poetic mediations on the nature of life and world of modernist Lisbon. Beautiful and profound, this is a novel that I have been reading in bits and pieces over the last year.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov: This controversial book begins with the devil and his entourage (including a large talking cat) visiting Moscow in the 1930s. Dark, passionate and funny, this book reinterprets Christianity in a way that has inspired readers since the book was first published, including the band the Rolling Stones who wrote their famous song “Sympathy for the Devil” after reading this novel.
The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde: a witty play that mocks the culture and customs of Victorian England.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky—found this description in the Guardian: “Dostoevsky's last and greatest novel, The Karamazov Brothers, is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is murdered; his sons — the atheist intellectual Ivan, the hot-blooded Dmitry, and the saintly novice Alyosha — are all at some level involved. Bound up with this intense family drama is Dostoevsky's exploration of many deeply felt ideas about the existence of God, the question of human freedom, the collective nature of guilt, the disastrous consequences of rationalism.” One of the greatest novels ever written.
Jacques the Fatalist by Denis Diderot: Rollicking and wild, this novel blends seriousness and satire to explore the ideas of destiny and free will. Philosophy is rarely so amusing. Diderot was a contemporary and friend to Voltaire, who AP Lit students will read over the summer.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante: Ferrante tells the story of two girls who are born grow up in a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy in the 1950s. The poverty the girls face is compounded by the sexism so prevalent in their society. While our narrator is the bookish Elena, the star of this novel is the ferocious and brilliant Lila, who seems determined to save everyone in her neighborhood worth saving, no matter the cost. Ferrante details the harsh realities of their lives without resorting to mawkish sentimentality or by creating a dour, unhappy novel. And while it is a "smart" book, she has also written a page-turner that briskly takes the reader through Lila and Elena's adolescence and teen years--the easy, conversational tone and straight-forward structure contrasts with the complex psychology of the characters.
Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga: This slight novel tells of the lives of teen girls at an elite school in mountains of Rwanda, near the suspected source of the Nile. The girls struggle with the heavy expectations placed on them as privileged young woman in a poor country. Two in particular--Veronica and Virginia--must face the hostility that comes with being Tutsi in Hutu Rwanda. This novel is set decades before the horrific genocide of the 1990s but clearly lays out the foundation for the atrocity. The novel captures more than just the horror of allegiance to an idea--Mukasonga brilliantly portrays all the hopes and the difficulties of being young and brilliant and driven and female in Rwanda in the 1960s.

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European Literature

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