I've posted here before about how I love Nathanael West. Since then I've read They Shoot Horses Don't They which was similarly dark and gritty. Noir fiction might be an option too. I enjoyed The Postman Always Rings Twice quite a bit. Ask The Dust is another sharp depression era read which I adored. Anything like that would be much appreciated I guess it doesn't have to be written during The Great Depression but it would be nice if that were the case. I've read The Grapes of Wrath and enjoyed that one too, but if there are any lesser known works it would be cool to rediscover them. Thank you!
by fisherthomas14
4 Comments
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck.
Loon Lake by E.L. Doctorow
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor is a very moving novel about a black family living on their land in Mississippi during the Great Depression. It’s written for adolescents but enjoyable for adults as well.
*Water for Elephants* by Sara Gruen — it’s a contemporary novel, set during the Great Depression, about a young man who suddenly becomes an orphan with no money, and is forced to wander aimless with hobos on the railroad, until he discovers a traveling circus that accepts him. The circus travels by train from town to town, trying to bring some joy to the poor people across America. It’s a really fantastic novel — full of adventure and intrigue, with some humor and a touch of romance.
Gruen did a lot of research in the period, especially about life on the train and about the circuses during the Great Depression — information which was hard to initially gather as the circus community is pretty insular and not open to foreigners. I think she may have mentioned this in the Author’s Note in the book. The book also has some pictures of real life circuses from this period.
She said that circus community is pretty insular so and they don’t often give outsiders access to their private lives, so it was doubly difficult to find out about the history of circus life during the Great Depression — but she was able make connections and was allowed in.