need is a strong word but i've been searching for a couple months (about 15) for somewhat modern books set in Boston. i tend to shift towards literary fiction and biographies with themes like coming of age or rediscovery of one's self
yes, i've read The Bell Jar and though i like it, it's not what i'm looking for
for insight, i'd want something like Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake — the city is part of the novel so as to say –, Slouching Towards Bethelem by Joan Didion (it's essays, but the way she talks about L.A. is what i mean), Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna, Sirens and Muses by Antonia Angress, The Hunger of Women by Marosia Castaldi, etc., etc.
so far, i've found The Boston Girl but it's set in the early 1900's
anything i guess will do because i've tried to find novels and biographies and i've come back empty-handed
by anottessacharacter
8 Comments
Writers and Lovers by Lily King!
If you spent any time in Boston as a 20 something in the late 90s or early 2000s, it is so familiar! All the aspiring intellectuals doing service jobs.
The Success by Helen Howe
Wickford Point, Marquand
Early Updike stories
H M Pulham Esquire, Marquand
Sincerely, Willis Wayde, Marquand
Harry Stoner is a Boston PI – lotta books
I know you wanted more modern stuff but I felt like The Bostonians by James had to be mentioned because it hits all your other criteria.
I think that a lot of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow takes place in Boston
Dennis Lehane books are what you’re looking for
“Mercy Street” by Jennifer Haigh (though, full disclosure, I didn’t particularly like the ending. It IS based in Boston, though)
a ton of the interpreter of maladies by jhumpa lahiri takes place in and around boston and has a lot of rly cool complex women characters that i remember years later
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane, Run by Ann Patchett