FIVE BOOKS

Oh, to keep this list to just five! I chose to focus on multiples genres in the short form to expose an introductory class to a wide range of voices, styles, and points of view over a given semester. The short form is also so inherently challenging from a craft perspective, that aiming to write just one piece over a semester is as lofty a goal as any I believe. I also just want to mention that of the previous posts, I strongly echo Jian’s selection of Tao Te Ching and Jackie’s reasoning behind How to Breathe Underwater. Super picks!

Onto the list:

1. Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
Through Patchett’s beautiful prose, the reader gains close access to the friendship of two young female writers as they enter the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the mid-80s. Had Patchett, as a fiction writer with a more reserved character, simply written a memoir about her own experiences, the book likely would have been appreciated by any struggling writer, but I don’t believe it would have been nearly as profound. The fact that Patchett observes the vivacious personality and heartbreaking experiences (some chosen, some not) of her best friend, the late poet Lucy Grealy, adds an energy and complexity to this memoir that I think students of any genre would benefit from immensely. The book’s own identity itself is as mixed-genre as the class: a memoir by a fiction writer about a friendship with a poet. (This also presents a great opportunity to loop in some fiction and poetry by each, as well as Grealy’s own memoir, Autobiography of a Face.)

2. Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion
When it comes to the essay (though she does it all from fiction to political writing), Didion’s one of our pillars, I believe. Her ability to observe the crucial details of scene, but not overly describe, gives her writing style a stark efficiency from which writers of any level or genre can learn. These often-personal narratives are examples of fine creative nonfiction and the New Journalism that Didion contributed to and shaped during the 1960s and 1970s. While her point-of-view is unique, the subjects she chooses to observe are far-reaching.

3. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
This is a stunning short story collection, and one that lends itself well to teaching voice, imagery, setting, description, characterization, cross-national and cross-generational themes…Lahiri masterfully commands the whole gamut.

4. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien AND War by Candlelight by Daniel Alarcón
Sorry--I’m sneaking in a sixth here. O’Brien’s novel in stories is a great example of how to link pieces into a longer narrative. The classic story from which the collection draws its name is also a must-read for any intro creative writing class. It links well to exercises related to real and symbolic weight, the burdens we all carry, what we give our characters to carry, etc. I think it would interesting to read it along side War by Candlelight and how Alarcón explores similar or varying themes. Read on its own, I also think this is an apt pick for an undergrad class. Alarcón was born in Peru and grew up both there and in the U.S. during Peru’s civil war, an influence that plays out in his writing. His stories are also relationship-driven, struck with longing, and can distill the ideas and tensions he’s exploring down to a single image. He lives here in Oakland and has been a Distinguished Visiting Writer at Mills.

5. Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
I was assigned this book for a college philosophy class, but it’s a genius example of short fiction and can inspire ripe, like-minded writing exercises. In these short chapters of poetic prose, Lightman imagines places where time stops, moves backwards, bends into a circle, and how those respective physical laws affect the characters and settings of each premised world. Einstein and his motivations figure in the narrative as well. I also find it fascinating that Lightman is a professor of physics and writing at MIT. I would like to study that intersection and discuss with students how diverse life experiences and interests can be utilized in our writing.