The Good Life

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The Good Life: Tuck Into a Good Book

David Morrow

With fall approaching, and a warm fireplace and chair at the ready, I want to pass along my reading suggestions, with notes I have collected over the years about the authors. I chose the selections based on a primary criterion: These are books that are assigned in most college literature courses, but unlike some of those heady selections, these are fabulous reads.

If literature is not your thing, don't despair. Pulp has its place, and with that in mind, I've scraped together a few mainstream titles that are good reads.

But first, the "Didn't Read in College" list:

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ernest Hemingway spent some of the 1920s in Paris and chronicled his outings with Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein in his memoir, A Movable Feast. Already a drunk, Fitzgerald shows up smashed at a Paris bistro to meet Hemingway and he tells him that he's just written one of the world's greatest novels. Fitzgerald was correct. The tale of Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan is relentlessly entertaining and a very quick read. Like many writers of his time, Fitzgerald's life was tormented by booze and a bad marriage. He died in Hollywood in the apartment of his mistress on Dec. 21, 1940. He was 44 years old.

2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Hollywood has yet to do this masterpiece justice. Regarded by some critics as the greatest novel ever written, Anna Karenina is the classic tale of a woman who leaves her husband for her lover and, alas, meets with brutal ruin. Don't be intimidated by the novel's length. This book is a beautifully written page-turner that is eloquent from the first word to the last. Too bad none of Tolstoy's biographers say the same of his life. In his early years, Tolstoy lived life with gusto and was treated for venereal disease more than once. In his late life, he decided to be a moral guide to the world and gave away his fortune to wander Russia. He died Nov. 20, 1910, of pneumonia at a remote railway station. He was 82 years old.

Greatness Celebrate the fall with a great book

3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The tale of Catherine and Heathcliff is so intense that it is difficult to put the book away once it's begun. This is an intense novel, but it is so beautifully written that you'll be disappointed when it ends. Perhaps there was no better person to write such a story of doom than Emily Bronte, her own life being such a sob fest. Her mother died when Emily was 3 and most biographers tend to depict Emily as sheltered and lonely. Emily Bronte died of tuberculosis on Dec. 19, 1848, one year after Wuthering Heights was published. She was 30 years old.

4. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

No author had the wit and cattiness of Oscar Wilde, whose plays are both delightful and downright hilarious. You won't find much levity in The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only novel that Wilde wrote. However, it is brilliant, beautifully written and masterfully brief. Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854, Wilde quickly became noted for his wit, which has maintained its timelessness. Of the U.S. he once said: "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." Bedeviled for most of his life by his homosexuality, Wilde was eventually sent to prison for two years on sodomy charges. Wilde died flat broke of cerebral meningitis in Paris on Nov. 30, 1900. He was 46 years old.

5. Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen

The life of Isak Dinesen, aka Karen Blixen, is fairly well known after Meryl Streep portrayed her in the 1985 movie, Out of Africa. Fans of the flick may forget why Hollywood made the movie in the first place. Dinesen, who published Seven Gothic Tales -- her first set of stories -- in 1943 at age 49, introduced a whimsical style of prose that was intense and haunting. Seven Gothic Tales was largely hated in Denmark when first published but Dinesen quickly found an audience in America. Later, Dinesen became well known for her memoirs, which chronicled her adventures and struggles running a 1,500-acre coffee plantation near Nairobi, Kenya, from 1914 to 1931. Twice considered to be a favorite for the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 and 1957, Dinesen lost both times. She died of malnutrition on Sept. 7, 1962, at her family estate in Rungstedlund, Denmark. She was 77 years old.

6. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

Born in Monroeville, Ala. -- a Podunk town between Montgomery and Mobile -- Lee moved to New York in the 1950s and took a job as a reservation clerk with Eastern Airlines. While only in her 20s, Lee began work on the manuscript that was to become To Kill a Mockingbird. The story of Atticus Finch, a lawyer in Maycomb, Ala., and his two children. Scout and Jem, during a heated trial of a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman is one of the most powerful coming-of-age stories written. The character of Dill, a whiny playmate of Scout and Jem's, is based on Truman Capote, one of Lee's childhood friends. To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961. Lee, who never wrote another novel, is now 79 years old and lives in Monroeville.

7. The Winter of Our Discontent, by John Steinbeck

Recognized as one of America's greatest writers, Steinbeck has several works worthy of the list, notably The Grapes of Wrath, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize, and East of Eden. Long an astute chronicler of social issues and moral decay, Steinbeck turned his focus on 1961 contemporary America in The Winter of Our Discontent. The decline of Ethan Hawley, a Harvard grad turned grocery clerk, is at the same time dark and eloquent. Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962. Like many writers of his time and ilk, his life was often troubled. Steinbeck died of a heart attack at age 66 in New York City on Dec. 20, 1968.

Play Time These plays make for good reading

8. A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

You can read a play in less time than you can see one, and with these two Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpieces by Williams, your time will be well spent. A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the love triangle between Brick, his wife Maggie and his best buddy Skipper, is intense and powerful, with the tension frequently broken by Williams' wicked humor. Streetcar has become more famous as a film, thanks to Marlon Brando's portrayal of the handsome thug Stanley, and Vivien Leigh's brilliant performance as Blanche. The play, though, is moving and powerful, with a crescendo building from the time the story begins. Williams, who was big on superstition, predicted in his memoir that he would die an unusual death. On Feb. 25, 1983, Williams choked to death on a bottle cap at his home in New York City. He was 71 years old.

9. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The woes of restless teen-ager Holden Caulfield is a timeless story that still entertains regardless of how many times one reads it. The Catcher in the Rye received mixed reviews when it was first published in 1951, but time has proven the novel to be both brilliant and enchanting. Bump into J.D. Salinger and give him that praise and you might get a slug in the face. Salinger, who is 86 and lives in Cornish, N.H., is a recluse who has been known to snarl at reporters or anyone who shows an interest in him.

10. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Written by McCullers when she was only 23, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a piercing account of Mick Kelly, a young girl who wants to study music, and John Singer, a deaf mute who takes a room with the Kelly family. In all her works, McCullers uses characters that are eccentric and even grotesque, but are portrayed with insight and empathy. Regarded as one of America's most gifted female writers, McCullers did not escape the heartache common to her male counterparts. Her husband, Reeves McCullers, was a tormented gay man who committed suicide in 1953 after the couple had divorced and remarried each other. McCullers herself was sickly most of her life -- having suffered a series of strokes in her early 30s that left her almost crippled. McCullers died at age 50 on Sept. 29, 1967.

11. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

When it comes to a minimalist writing style, Hemingway is perhaps the best there ever was. Certainly, Hemingway -- who was not short on ego -- would have agreed. Critics have chided Hemingway for testosterone poisoning and his penchant for writing he-man tales of bullfights and war. But A Farewell to Arms, published in 1929 and Hemingway's third novel, is an eloquent love story set in World War I and it betrays a tenderness in the young Hemingway that was absent in some of his later works. You can't be a reader of English prose and not have an opinion on Hemingway, and for the record, I'm a big fan. Hemingway, who won a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for literature, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on July 2, 1961. He was 61 years old.

12. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

The book gained notoriety as the centerpiece for The Hours, the book and later a film that starred Nicole Kidman in her Oscar-winning portrayal of Woolf. Published in 1925, Mrs. Dalloway is the story of one day in the life of a woman, intricately interwoven with flashbacks. The book is a quick read, but it is doubtful that Woolf intended it to be so. Troubled with mental illness for most of her adult life, Woolf attempted suicide several times until she finally succeeded March 28, 1941. Not one to do things the easy way, Wolfe loaded her dress up with rocks and drowned herself in a river.

13. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

This novel was banned as pornographic at one time in the U.K. and the U.S. My high school librarian, a devout Pentecostal snake handler, required parental permission before I, or any of my classmates, could check it out. The hubbub was a little overblown. Hardly pornographic, Lady Chatterley's Lover is a riveting story of a married woman who has an affair with a bloke who works on her husband's estate. D.H. Lawrence lived most of his controversy through his novels, although after the First World War, he was harassed by many in England as a German sympathizer. He died young, at age 44, in Vence, France, in 1930.

14. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The story of Hester Prynne, who bears an illegitimate child in 17th century Puritan New England, is a timeless tale of anger, regret and revenge. Hawthorne, a native New Englander, wrote the novel in 1850, and later became recognized as a leader in the Transcendentalist Movement, with fellow authors Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Hawthorne is the best of the lot, although his work is undeservedly omitted from many best-ever lists. Hawthorne died at 59 in Concord, Mass., in 1864.

15. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Few authors had the depth and breadth of Dickens, who reached his peak of brilliance with A Tale of Two Cities. Using the backdrop of the French Revolution, Dickens creates a bounty of characters that move effortlessly through the pages, weaving a story of intrigue and empathy. Dickens wrote this novel in installments from 1857 through 1859, during an unhappy period of his life. He would soon leave his wife, with whom he had 10 children, and dump his publishers. Dickens continued to write until his death, of a stroke, on June 9, 1870. He was 58 years old.

And now, the pulp list:

1. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Forget all about the four-hour movie and the on-screen kisses and hisses of Gable and Leigh; the book is three times better than the movie. Mitchell's novel is elegantly written and filled with vivid detail and Southern history. Most critics do not consider Gone with the Wind a masterpiece, although it has set the standard for the American novel, at least in the pulp genre. Mitchell was applauded for her work, however, winning the Pulitzer Prize for the novel in 1936. Mitchell, though, would meet an untimely end. She was struck by a taxi while crossing a street in Atlanta in 1949, and died five days later. She was 48 years old.

2. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

They don't write trash like they used to, and Susann was one of the all-time greats. When she died in 1974, the pulp world lost a voice that was provocative and searing. Valley of the Dolls is the story of three young career women who run into bad men and hard times in their respective big cities. What are they to do but treat their miseries with narcotics? The book was a sensation when it was released in 1966, eventually becoming one of the world's all-time bestsellers. On one all-time list of bestsellers, "Valley of the Dolls" ranks 10th, behind the perennially top-ranked Bible. You can read this one quickly. They'll be no need to pause and admire the writing, which is mediocre, at best.

3. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow

If you want a paperback that you can't put down, this is it. Not only does Turow write in an enchanting narrative, the story is gripping, with multiple plot twists to the end. Turow is an attorney by profession, who still practices in Chicago. Don't bother picking up anything else that Turow has written. I bought Burden of Proof, the follow-up to Presumed Innocent, and waded through the 400 or so pages, convinced that it would become a better read. It didn't -- dreck from beginning to end.

4. Everything's Eventual by Stephen King

If you are one of the few people on the planet who hasn't read a book by the King of Horror, this is one for you. Even diehard King fans may be surprised by Everything's Eventual, a collection of short stories. King, who has admitted being miffed at not being taken seriously as a writer, is one of the most talented short-story writers alive today. And he proves it in Everything's Eventual. The stories are eloquent and creative and provide a hearty mix of plot and drama, exactly what you want from a great collection of short stories.

5. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

This story of a Japanese-American on trial for killing a white fisherman in the Pacific Northwest is gripping from beginning to end. Guterson, who lives in that area, is an eloquent writer who knows just where to put a period. And his skill has paid off. Snow Falling on Cedars won the PEN/Faulkner Award for the best work of fiction by an American author in 1995.

6. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Since this novel was published in March 2003, it has become one of the most discussed novels of the past 10 years. A historical thriller, The Da Vinci Code attempts to expose the Catholic Church for concealing the alleged marriage of Christ to Mary Magdalene. The book is a page turner -- I read it in a single night -- and it is packed with historical trivia about the Catholic Church that makes for an endearing read. Since its debut, The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 25 million copies in 44 languages. My only quibble: It's a good thing you've paid for the book and read through all its pages until you get to the end, where the once suspenseful plot turns to syrup.