46 Books Like Fox

As if to prove he could write about just about everything, here, in The Complete Henry Bech, John Updike tells the story of a Jewish American novelist whose work has generated the same level of fame—and in some cases surpassing it—of mid-20th century giants like Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, etc.

The Complete Henry Bech consists of three novels—Bech: A Book, Bech is Back, and Bech at Bay—many chapters originating as stories in The New Yorker.

Updike’s reputation may be in decline at the moment, but the satiric wit and ability to inhabit the heart and soul of a frustrated, womanizing and—eventually—Nobel Prize winner, is uncanny.

Maybe not everyone wants to read about the history of German U-boats during the Second World War, but if the subject is of interest, Wolfpack is a great place to start.

Roger Moorhouse is a historian of note, and writes crisp, compelling prose. He’s generous with details on this complex topic—for example, U-boat submariners suffered a shocking 75 percent death rate during the global conflagration—but not so many details you ever feel bogged down.

In my “Best Books of 2023,” I highlighted a book about Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, having read it during a transoceanic cruise. By contrast, I read Wolfpack on dry land and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Another fact: The dire realities of life aboard a U-boat would be far too claustrophobic for me.

Blonde is a fictional biography of Marilyn Monroe. I tend not to read thick books – and this is over 600 pages – and I only had a passing interest in Monroe before beginning it, but the book was highly recommended so I gave it a go. I’m glad that I did. 

This is a colossus of a book – in size, in scope, in adaptation, in emotion. The mood is tragedy – tragedy on so many levels it hurts to think about them. Oates pitches the 'Monroe' character perfectly. And for me, the book's strength comes from the fact that I'm content with this as a piece of fiction. I don't need to know the 'truth' (however, so much truth can ever be known).

It's also a book that makes me angry. A book that pitches hope against fate, all men against one woman, fame against success. We want… show more.

The book is both a profound window into a world where protocols must be adhered, and scandals must be avoided at all costs. The intimate love between Anna and her lover lead to isolation and despair. It gips the heart with emotional turmoil at a time of political changes occuring in Russia at the time.

As the best introduction to the American Gothic chosen by one of the most prolific modern masters of the genre, this anthology spans two centuries. It offers insightful context and an engaging historical road map to the current site of the genre, the weird and wounded world of the suburbs.

Joyce Carol Oates, who has written some of the most chilling contemporary examples of American Gothic fiction, dissects the shadowy heritage of our national preoccupation with the macabre themes that haunt the American Dream. From Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville through James and Wharton to Anne Rice, Raymond Carver, Stephen King, and several lesser-known writers, Oates provides readers with a provocative selection that probes beneath superficial normality to reach the dangerous psychological abnormalities of our national identity.

I loved the way Jeffrey Eugenides wrote this because he wrote it like he was being completely honest with someone he completely trusted.

The thoughts we had when we were teenagers aren't always thoughts we're comfortable sharing, and the older we get, the harder it is to admit those thoughts and feelings, even to ourselves. But nothing shapes us quite the way our teenage years shape us, and, in order to be honest about who we are, we must be honest about who we were. This is an honest novel.

The possibility of evil. Not only is this the title of the first selection in this collection of classic and newly printed stories by the queen of suburban gothic – it is the essence of her uncanny literary witchcraft, where subtle twists and sudden turns force readers to confront a creeping unease in post-WWII America. No hideous monsters or grotesque horrors here. Instead, sinister insinuation and irrational fears invade the “safe” suburban spaces. A man believes someone is stalking him on his way home from work.  Anonymous poison pen letters threaten a community. A runaway teenager reappears several years later … and seems to be someone else.

The deconstruction of so-called normality is what makes these stories so unsettling. Who knows what evil lurks behind the white picket fences? Shirley Jackson does.

Flannery O’Connor’s saturnine stories of the American South are jewels of American literature.

They are laced with humor and violence but are at the same time deeply spiritual. In fact, the Catholic Church banned her work until it was discovered that her stories were written to show Grace in the lives of her parochial characters.

In Everything That Rises Must Converge, a story from A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories published in 1955, O'Connor writes about Julian, a young college-educated writer who lives with his mother in a decadent neighborhood that lost its prominence as the Old South faded.

His mother who believes she must uphold the dignity of her family's antebellum name insists on "keeping up appearances." For instance, she likes to tell folks that Jason's first job as a writer "selling typewriters" was a good sign because "Rome wasn't built in a day."

She… show more.

I don’t think I like Ghost World, but it belongs on this list. When I think of Clowes’ work I think of caricature, but the environments in Ghost World pull most of the storytelling weight. You can hear the hum of the fluorescents in the grocery store and the wind between buildings on an empty street.

Before becoming a published writer, I was a lawyer litigating primarily large, multi-district environmental insurance coverage cases. I became familiar with the many ways by which we damage our precious natural resources, be it groundwater or soil or the air we breathe. Beginning with Rachel Carson, we have rich literature that speaks to the degradation of the planet, including the devastating changes wrought by global warming. The stories in this anthology speak to the physical and emotional topography of our current climate crisis, from a Sami woman who studies fish populations to a Wisconsin man contemplating the animals who make his trailer a portal to a world unsullied by humans. Fish & Water is a smart collection on a topic we ignore at our peril.