I’m feeling nostalgic and wanting to read something great that’s set in a setting similar to my own childhood:
Small-town America, mid-century or later (but pre-cell phone), maybe some Protestant church. Domestic white-people family concerns, like keeping up with the joneses, parenting. Maybe kids riding bikes, having crushes. Coming of age. Can be from the perspective of the kids or parents, ideally both.
But it has to be really well-written for it to hold my interest. I like writers with some creative, even poetic, prose, and really sharp, accurate rendering of the way people actually think and feel.
Books that sorta did this that I can think of:
Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Beartown by Fredrik Backman (if it were set in the U.S. and pre-cell phone)
A River Runs Through It by Norm McLean
Mink River by Brian Doyle
by bonsaitreehugger
4 Comments
Try Wendell Berry’s novels and short stories. They’re set in and around the fictional Kentucky farming community of Port William throughout the 20th century. They’re all interconnected so there’s no set starting point but I can specifically recommend Hannah Coulter.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
*The Brothers K* by David James Duncan is the story of a family in Camas, WA that takes place from the 1950s-70s. Definitely checks quite a few of the topics in your post.
*The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter* by Carson McCullers. 1930s small community Georgia.
*The Prince of Tides* by Pat Conroy. Caveat, this novel shares the plot location between very small coastal town South Carolina where the characters grow up and NYC where some of them move to. Takes place 1950s-80s. Incredible story to consider reading at some point, even if you’re not interested in the “big city” setting within.
*Boys Life* by Robert McCammon. Early 1960s rural Alabama story of small group of friends growing up, dealing with local evils.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
I found it to have the prose and emotional honesty you are looking for.
Publisher’s summary: “A high school history teacher in a small Colorado town, Guthrie is raising his two young sons alone. Thoughtful and honest, he is guiding them through a world that is not always kind. Victoria, one of his students, is pregnant, homeless, and vulnerable to the scorn of the town. When Guthrie helps two elderly ranchers take the young woman into their home, an unlikely extended family is born.”