The Five Best Coming of Age Books
Words: Violet
The coming of age novel or ‘bildungsroman’ is ever popular amongst readers today. For most people the bildungsroman starts and ends with Catcher in the Rye, but as these five books should illustrate, there are many others to read.
5. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
Using a second person narrative, McInerney acerbically describes life in New York City from the perspective of an outsider who has just moved there to make his fortune. It’s very much a novel about someone coming to realise that they were not meant for the glitz and glamour of the city.
4. Dave Cameron’s Schooldays by Bill Coles
Who said that coming-of-age novels have to be serious? This comic bildungsroman by journalist Bill Coles (who was a contemporary of Cameron’s at Eton) is terrific fun and a must read for lovers of political satire.
3. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Forster’s classic Edwardian novel is focused upon the changing social mores at the turn of the century. The heroine Lucy is courted by the pompous and elitist Cecil whilst holidaying in Italy but his arrogance and domineering personality undermine her latent passions.
2. The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
Like Jay McInerney, Easton Ellis was of part of the 1980’s literary ‘brat-pack’, a group of young, hip novelists living in New York at that time. The Rules of Attraction features several different narrators, all of whom attend an elite liberal arts college. The novel is perhaps the only example of a multiple bildungsroman.
1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Tartt is currently basking in the success of The Goldfinch, published last year to rave reviews. The Secret History is a detective/college novel, again set in an elite liberal arts college. The narrator is poor compared to his peers and although much of the text is concerned with mysticism and allusion to Grecian culture, the novel is penultimately about the caprice of wealthy people.
By Guy de Vito
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