#795 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Tuesday November 14)
Good morning,
Now begins a ten-week journey…
GREAT BOOKS THROUGH THE DECADES
The most common request I get from readers is advice on books to read. And while there is no shortage of current literature well worth reading, there are classics from decades past that evoke their time and remain exciting and relevant today.
Nearly two years ago, I decided to compile a list of the greatest books from each decade since the 1940s. The requirement is that they be particularly evocative of the era, in style, subject, mood, or trend. I decided to update these compilations and share them again, one each week for the next ten weeks, beginning with the 1940s (I’m ending with the 1930s because I haven’t completed that list yet!).
Some of the books paint pictures of dystopias that reflect the anxieties of the times, while others are indicative of political and social movements and particular focuses of the time (feminism, sexuality, race, self-help, child rearing, even cooking). The nearly inviolable rule is that I’ve read them all (which means that authors like Proust are not included, and Gravity’s Rainbow is out, because I was neither smart enough nor patient enough to make it through). An exception that is included, however, is Infinite Jest, because two of the people I respect most in the world –Jake and Brad—have told me I must read it some day.
Here, then, are my choices, for the 1940s. It was the time of Nazi genocide and of brutal warfare in Europe and the Pacific. After the victory of the Allies, the world lived in existential dread and fear of a dystopian future. It was a time when humanity and the meaning of life were questioned by philosophers and authors like Sartre and Camus, while people like Viktor Frankl argued for hope.
THE FORTIES
Nineteen Eighty Four, by George Orwell. Positively “Orwellian,” the story of a post-modern world controlled by “big brother,” video screens, “new speak”—wait, maybe this belongs in the list of for the 2020s…
The Stranger, by Albert Camus. Disconnection, indifference, absurdity, and lack of agency. It begins, “Mother died today. Or, maybe it was yesterday: I can’t be sure…” One of the few authors deserving of two places on this list…
For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway. Written when much of the world was at war. Violence in the Spanish Civil War, romance, and the eventual hatred of violence.
Animal Farm, by George Orwell. Some pigs are more equal than others. One of the greatest of the allegorical novels of anthropomorphism (just a little deeper than Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, entertaining in their own right).
All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren. The Pulitzer Prize winner that imagines “Kingfish”—loosely based on Huey Long—and his hold on Depression era Southern politics. A warning for the ages of the dangers of populist leaders.
The Plague, by Albert Camus. To my mind, the greatest book of the war and post-war period, perhaps even of the century. The plague may be simply a plague or a metaphor for the Nazi occupation. The book is filled with powerful moments, exquisitely drawn sentences, and constant meditations on humanity. The Plague arrives, devastating and indiscriminate in its path of destruction. How people deal with it, both together and in isolation, is a story of survival in a world we can’t control.
Native Son, by Richard Wright. It doesn’t get more depressing than this. Hatred and violence laid bare. Yes, the crimes were unforgiveable, but the underlying contributors continue. Not as indiscriminate in violent as Helter Skelter, but no less jarring.
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The story of the alien and the little prince and a cogitation on the world—for children and adults.
Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown. It just feels like it was written in simpler times. I think I’ve read it aloud hundreds of times.
The Lottery and Other Stories, by Shirley Jackson. Hunger Games, Squid Games, The Giver—they all began here. Kantian ethics versus consequentialism. Can innocents be sacrificed for the common good?
The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. Not fiction; but can’t be left out of a picture of the horrors of war, genocide, and a life stolen.
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, by Benjamin Spock. Long before What to Expect When You’re Expecting. I include this because the good doctor’s prescriptions didn’t always resonate with Bill Sonnenberg, who threatened to write his own book: “a pox on Spock.”
Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl. Written by someone who survived the concentration camps with, against all odds, a positive outlook. You want to find meaning, against all odds? Read this.
Have a great day,
Glenn
PS: Coming over the next three Musings this week are thoughts on Gaza, antisemitism, human suffering and academic freedom.