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All of the works in this series explore
the dynamics of families under pressure. Such a formula for fiction risks
descending to mere melodrama. The writers, however, recount family crises
in order to demonstrate the essential nature of these families, or of family
itself. Faced with crisis, families reveal what they are; they may unravel,
or they may discover a new strength. The family of Monkeys confront
the death of the mother, while the Eberhardts of Family Pictures struggle
to include an autistic child. These problems are sometimes unusual, but
they also partake of forces that many families must confront; poverty (The
Beans of Egypt, Maine); cultural change (Tell Me a Riddle, O, Pioneers).
Proud
Shoes is a true family chronicle by a women ahead of her time and simultaneously
an account of the family that shaped one of our most versatile black activists.
Series A
Sue Miller, Family Pictures
Jayne Anne Phillips, Machine Dreams
Willa Cather, O, Pioneers
Susan Minot, Monkeys
Series B
Carolyn Chute, The Beans of Egypt, Maine
Rosellen Brown, Before and After
Gish Jen, Typical American
Tillie Olsen, Tell Me a Riddle
This reading list was developed through the Book Discussion Programs,
a collaborative project of the New Hampshire
Humanities Council and the New
Hampshire State Library. |
