he Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Dover, $3). The first truly and wholly American novel, and still one of the best, Huck Finn is filled with the entire panorama of childhood, from joy to fear to self-awareness. If you haven't read it since 10th grade, take another look. It will astonish you.
Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss (Random House, $18). One of the most exciting and brilliant books about childhood ever written. I have no children, I'm 63 years old, and every time I read this book, I get the feeling that the endless perils of my endless childhood will inevitably lead to a place in the road where I will be victorious.
Canada by Richard Ford (Ecco, $28). Here is childhood in peril. In Ford's new novel, Dell Parsons's loving family breaks apart when his mother and father decide to rob a bank. Dell flees to Canada, learning along the way that some borders can never be uncrossed — like the one that leads away from the innocence of American boyhood.
The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn (Picador, $20). With bitter humor, the Melrose novels depict the aftermath of a single act of violent sexual assault by a father against his son. Humor is the one protection that the narrator has against the horror and repulsion that fill his heart. From moment to moment, St. Aubyn shows us that children, above all, are survivors.
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson (Ecco, $14). Some childhoods are neither paradise nor damnation, they're just plain weird. Wilson's funny and touching debut novel concerns the offspring of demented performance artists and what happens to them when their parents mysteriously vanish. Is the disappearance yet another piece of performance art, or a genuine crime?
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (Back Bay, $15). No one has spun more gold out of the dross of a dubious childhood than Sedaris, and he has done it hilariously. Overweight, gay, odd — he once asked for a vacuum cleaner for Christmas — here Sedaris writes masterfully about the fact that it's okay just to be who you are.
— Robert Goolrick's new novel, Heading Out to Wonderful, has just been published by Algonquin Books.
- WATCH: Australia's army chief demonstrates how you address sex abuse
- The last word: He said he was leaving. She ignored him.
- How typeface influences the way we read and think
- How Muslims in the Middle East see Syria's civil war
- Mad Men recap: 'The Quality of Mercy'
- 32 TV shows to watch in 2013 [Updated]
- The QT: Who Sarah Palin is palling around with, Florida's pest invasions, and more
- How the Supreme Court struck a huge blow to voter registration laws
- What language is your baby speaking?
- What does Edward Snowden want?
- WATCH: Australia's army chief demonstrates how you address sex abuse
- How typeface influences the way we read and think
- The last word: He said he was leaving. She ignored him.
- Why are Japanese teenagers licking each other's eyeballs?
- Sarah Palin's Fox return proves conservative media outlets don't care about conservatism
- The week's best photojournalism
- Where are the honest atheists?
- Scientists discover an entirely new human body part… in the eye
- Girls on Film: Of course we need more female directors!
- Why conservatives can't whitewater Obama
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
