Moby-Dick – Herman Melville
The original ‘Great American Novel’, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is a masterful study of obsession.
The Fruit of the Tree – Edith Wharton
Originally published in 1907, this little known novel by the author of The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome was considered controversial for its frank treatment of labor and industrial conditions, drug addiction, mercy killing, divorce, and second marriages. Author Edith Newbold Jones was born into such wealth and privilege that her family inspired the…
In the Beauty of the Lilies – John Updike
Begins in 1910 and traces God’s relation to four generations of American seekers: Clarence Wilmot, a clergyman in Paterson, NJ who loses his faith. Son, Teddy, becomes a mailman who retreats from American exceptionalism into a life of ordinariness. Teddy’s daughter, Esther, becomes a movie star, an All-American goddess. Her son, Clark, is possessed of…
Crossing to Safety – Wallace Stegner
Crossing to Safety is a 1987 semi-autobiographical novel by “The Dean of Western Writers”, Wallace Stegner. It gained broad literary acclaim and commercial popularity.