Where to Start with Modern Classics

oh hello my name is Mara and welcome to books like whoa okay guys so recently I have noticed that my where to start with classics video has been really blowing up for some reason after nine months so I've seen a lot of comments there I've seen a lot of people finding the channel through it which is great if that is how you found me hey there welcome but one of the things that has resulted from that is people reminding me that in that original where to start with classics video I promised a follow up which would be where to start with modern classics and not just sort of like classic classics and I definitely wanted to go ahead and make that because yeah I kind of had forgotten that I'd promised that I would do that so nine months later here we go a couple of caveats here that I feel like I need to give even more so than in the original where to start with classics video is that this is really gonna be coming from obviously my perspective like this is all my subjective opinion and based on what I have read but I think even more so than in kind of classics in the english-speaking world modern classics vary quite a bit by country so I think if you were to ask a British booktuber for instance what they consider to be modern classics or an Australian booktube or a Canadian booktuber New Zealand whatever throughout the english-speaking world I think different countries are kind of evolving their own set of a modern classic Canon in a way that I'm sure has overlap but is not one-to-one by any means whereas authors like the Bronte's Austen Dickens I think are slightly more Universal throughout the english-speaking world so I do want to just caveat by saying this is gonna be a very American point of view on this list and like I said of course it's also gonna be nuanced by what I have or have not read so what I would like to do is I'm going to give you guys a list of where to start with modern classics based on genre preferences so if you like this jawn rehearse a modern classic that i think could work well for you then we're going to talk about books that I think have entered the modern classic Canon that are not necessarily my personal favorites but I think could be good places to go just based on how much I think consensus is building around them and then I'm going to prognosticate I'm going to make some predictions about some books that are a little more recent so I don't feel like we fully know what their trajectory is but if I were a betting woman some of the people who have published within the last 15 years or so that I think will end up making kind of the modern classics Canon here shortly so with that we'll do where I would start we'll do some other typical recommendations for modern classics that may not be my favorite but just other places to go and then some guesses about what might end up entering the modern classic canon ok so first we're gonna start with if you like historical fiction - modern classics I would recommend now I will tell you one of these is my third all-time favorite book and it is the number one recommendation I would give to somebody looking to get into modern classics I think that this is just such a wonderful story very humanely told a very compelling main character beautiful prose and I think really represents the best of what modern classics have to offer and that is the remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro and this is the story of a butler writing a diary in the 1950s or 60s reflecting on his time as the butler of this big English house of an important political figure in the lead-up to World War two and sort of how he now reflects on that time and like what that means about what his life is meant think that this is such a wonderful blend of amazing thematic content I remember writing one of my AP English essays on this on the test like it is Denson and worthy of study but it is also just such an engaging story full of beautifully rendered moments and just such a compelling character who is doing the narrative which is mr. Stevens so there's also a great movie based on this book so this is my number one recommendation if you are wanting to start with a modern classic I think this is great also issue Goro is a immigrant from Japan to Britain so I think he also brings a very interesting perspective on British life in a lot of ways it's a psycho so that's my number one choice and then number two if you somehow escaped reading things fall apart in high school or at university I would pick this as another historical fiction pick so I was assigned this I think three different times and my schooling but I think the reason it gets assigned so much as a again it's not very long neither of these two are very long B I think that again thematically there's a ton for people to unpack in here and see it is just a really moving story about the impact of colonialism on different generations of Nigerians who are processing the and of incursion from the European world into traditional Nigerian society in different ways I think that this shows how complicated of a process that is and how disorienting it is to the people who are being colonized you know this idea of essentially setting father against son brother against brother it's also beautifully written you'll learn a lot about yams and just overall I mean there's a reason why this so quickly I think has entered the Canon and is something so widely recommended to schools I think both of these could be really if you like historical fiction in particular but just generally those are my probably my two top picks maybe in general but specifically for historical fiction and speaking of cuzo issue guru well next do if you like different versions of sci-fi a couple of pics of where to start modern classics wise with that so another issue guru pick has never let me go this is one I don't want to say a lot about because I think you should just encounter it on groan but basically this is a literary take on a dystopia and I think this is maybe one of the newest books on everything I'm gonna recommend but it quickly I think kind of has gained consensus as like one of the great dystopian novels so for dystopia I would go with this one and then for kind of a space adventure modern classic I would go with the sparrow by Mary Doria Russell this is basically the tagline a lot of people use on this as Jesuits and space and it is about here on earth we hear a signal from a different planet and the Jesuits are sending a missionary out to try to reach that intelligent life and it is told in different timelines but it's a weeper I mean you've got to be ready to cry if you're gonna read this book it's I think recently I picked it as like the number one book to make you cry it is really really hard to get through at some points but it is beautifully written just think I'm gonna say a lot in this video and I think tackles a lot of the typical kind of questions that this genre does in an interesting way anything that came out at 95 ish in the last 25 years this is quickly kind of gained consensus as a modern classic with a sci-fi twist then if you like a heavy romantic element in your fiction and also probably this is another recommendation for people who like historical fiction I would say possession by AS Byatt there are two different love stories happening one and present time one through letters of this fictitious literary couple and again this is another one I don't want to say a lot about I think you should just sort of go into it and let it overcome you I want to be clear that this is not a genre romance but romance is a very heavy component of this one there's a lot of interesting sort of gender sexuality stuff in this and this also has a lot of elements of like fairy tale and a lot of meta elements about storytelling so yeah this is my pick if you were looking for a modern classic with a lot of kind of romantic elements driving the plot okay next let's talk about if you like coming-of-age stories my first choice would be the prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark and I will tell you in general I think Muriel Spark is a great author if you like the prime of Miss Jean Brodie I would definitely encourage you to continue on with her I've read the girls of slender means in the driver's seat I need to read the only problem but in general she is an author whose work I very much enjoyed the prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a take on a boarding-school kind of story which I know is catnip for a lot of people it is for me that's one of my favorite forms of sort of literary fiction is coming-of-age at a boarding school or like an exclusive school kind of setting and this is a really well executed version of that not super plot heavy more just sort of character study Miss Jean Brodie being this sort of charismatic almost like cult-like figure at this school who is a teacher who kind of has this group of girls swirling around her and how all their lives intertwined there is also a movie version of this which I've never seen but star is the inimitable Maggie Smith so I have to assume it's wonderful so if you're looking for a school version of coming-of-age that is my pick and then I do want to put to kill a mockingbirds on here by Harper Lee now I do think that this book at least in the American context has been overly assigned as the book you read about race in America and I think that's like this and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I think that that's a problem and I think since I was in school they are getting better about this on curriculums of having more own voices books that talk about race on syllabuses syllabi which i think is a great move i do think if you choose to look at this as a book written right at the beginning or in the midst of the civil rights period with a coming-of-age component and an attempt at sort of a progressive view on race I think with that kind of perspective it is still a bluff that is really worth reading it is very readable so I think this is one of the most approachable books on this list because it really is told from the perspective of a child so the language is very straightforward the thematic content in here is I think rich but pretty on the page so you don't have to like struggle to kind of pick up what she's putting down and there's a reason why this has become like one of the great classics of American literature here in the last little bit I do think it's kind of legacy is beginning to be complicated in a way that I think benefits it but I still do think that this is a good example of kind of coming-of-age modern classic oh and did I even say this is basically a young girl whose dad is tasked with defending a black man who's been wrongfully accused of something in 1940's Alabama and it's sort of like a almost like a courtroom drama in the back half of it it's about her growing up and learning about the society around her that is filled with prejudice and hate towards the black people in her community even while it can be very supportive towards her and her family in other ways so I think the character learning and having a complicated view of her town and what it is like for different people in her community and then next if you like retellings I've got two for you both of these have a very feminist twist to them and one of them also has I think a really interesting take on colonialism and race in it as well and that is white Sargasso Sea by Jean Reese this is a retelling of Jane Eyre as told through the perspective of one of the side characters I highly highly recommend that you read Jane Eyre before you read this or I guess I should say if you have any intention of ever reading Jane Eyre please read that before you read this because this book will foil that book but I think that this is a really critical text in evaluating some of the parts of Jane Eyre that are very of its time in a way that you know today's readers would want to come okay I think that this opened up that dialogue really nicely and it's also just a beautiful novel of its own it's also very short so it's easy to get through and has really lush descriptions of Caribbean in the 1800s so retelling number one is a full novel retelling number two is the bloody chamber by Angela Carter and these are feminist AF retellings of classic fairy tales they are really violent and brutal I mean the bloody chamber is the titular story and there's a lot of very interesting takes and different types of violence and these fairy tales because if you go back and read source material for fairy tales they are often quite violent this is violent in a different way and like I said it brings a very specifically feminist point of view to a lot of those stories if you like fairy tales I think this is well worth pursuing and also if you just like short stories all right people you probably might favorite short story collection ever these are my picks of if you are looking for a retelling modern classic then if you are looking for something kind of mystery horror modern classic wise first I would say the haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson because honestly this is the book that is probably one of the most influential books on modern horror as it exists today people like Stephen King cite this book is highly influential not gonna be one for everyone but I absolutely love this book Shirley Jackson in general if you've never read her short stories are really also worth pursuing if you're just looking for like kind of horror short stories in general like the lottery etc she does that extremely well in short form but the hunting of Hill House I think really gets at what it means to have modern horror because it is a book that is highly ambiguous about how real are not real different haunted house elements are in this book and overall I absolutely love this so this is very influential and also I think very accessible as a modern classic the other kind of mystery horror type pic I had was secret history by Donna Tartt which is another one that is more of a contemporary pick it's been you know I think within the last 20 years maybe like early 2000s kind of thing it is a murder mystery set within this elite society of people who are studying ancient Greek at this very know who done it from the beginning but it is showing you how done it and why done it it is a very strong flavor so it is not gonna be for everyone but I personally really enjoy it and I really love it's a very evocative book like it has a very specific mood to it and I think if you're into that mood you you will end up liking the book a read alike title I often see for this and I have not read this other book so I can't tell you is if we were villains by somebody or other Ryo so if you liked that book I have heard it often people like the one they read first better so if you've already read that book maybe you wouldn't like the secret history as much I don't know but anyway apparently very similar vibes there and then five pics that are just sort of general literary fiction that I think if you just tend to like literary fiction pretty well these would definitely be worth your while stoner by John Williams is one of the most perfect novels that I've ever read in terms of just like perfectly realizing what it is trying to do it is a character study of a professor I think at the University of Missouri in the early part of the 20th century and literally just following him basically from cradle to grave a very quiet character study beautifully written like I said I think just executed perfectly so if you like just sort of you know character driven literary fiction this you will enjoy I think gilead by Marilyn Robinson is set again I think in kind of the early part of the 20th century dealing a lot with topics of race racial justice and forgiveness across generations from the perspective of a white pastor who is getting on in life but married very late in life to a younger woman and so therefore has a young son and this is him writing in his diary reflecting on basically what he wants his son to know because he likely will not be there to teach him everything but documenting what happens when sort of a prodigal son comes back into their community and again just the writing and this is beautiful not plot driven though it does I mean it has a plot but it's it's much more of a character study and about you know kind of beautiful prose and dwelling on themes and why not so Marilyn Robinson is is a really beautiful stylist so if you like this she's got a lot of essays and stuff too that you probably also would enjoy caveat here Flannery O'Connor I would say a good man is hard to find his probably in contention for me for my favorite collection of short stories with the bloody chamber it's one of those two and I absolutely love these short stories they are very much documents of their time they were written in the 50s Georgia like the south and they do deal a lot with themes of race I think O'Connor and saw herself as somewhat of an outsider in the South because she was Catholic and if you don't know in America the South is highly dominated culturally by Enid alkyl Protestantism so I think she sees herself as a commenter and critique ER of that kind of religious tradition and it's hypocrisy Xand I think one of those hypocrisy she wants to comment upon is the racism of the south of that era but that means she does present characters who are racist like that's just kind of the bottom line so I know that that is something that is not for everyone especially in terms of the kinds of language and slurs she does use in portraying those characters so I want to caveat that I think that she is always looking on those themes with a critical lens and therefore to me her stories still are incredibly relevant incredibly impactful she has a style that is often referred to as Southern gothic these are very violent stories and very shocking stories especially in their time period maybe less now I think it's harder to shock us sometimes now but in their day they were considered like very right whoa you went there so anyway I just think that these still really have very interesting things to say about like I said kind of like hypocrisy what does it she uses basically she's trying to use their grotesque or like very extreme versions of characters or ideas to comment on more mainstream characters or ideas that people kind of take as normal or for granted love this I understand that this won't be a pick for everyone so I do just want to give some of those warnings are that kind of context for that recommendation a reader like for Jane Austen but in the 20th century for me is Barbara PEM I've read a few of her novels and have really enjoyed them they are very much novels of manners and to me the best one is excellent women I also think that I've seen kind of back and forth on this I think a lot of people see a lot of queer elements to these stories are potential readings of queer elements in these stories which I would tend to agree with but I know people go back and forth on that but excellent women is is an excellent book and it's very quiet but it's just sort of about the life and times of this woman in 1950s Britain kind of what role she plays in society and how that may or may not be constraining so like I said I think a lot of times you see Barbara PIM compared very favorably to Jane Austen I don't think she's like as readable and and her books are not romances in the same way that Jane Austen's often are but in terms of just sort of observing domestic life she she's very much of that same ilk and then finally if bill Street could talk by James Baldwin I read this last year as a part of a book club because of the movie that was coming out and when I tell you this is a book that could have been written this year depressingly so in terms of its themes it is incredibly relevant for this current moment and I think will be very readable to today's readers basically this is about systemic racial injustice in the American judicial system and how easy it is for a specifically black young men to be railroaded and abused by that system very readable in terms of its prose beautiful simple but you know comprehensible it's not like hard to get through like I said I think incredibly relevant for our current moment also not very long so easy to recommend in terms of it's not like a huge time commitment to get through it either that rounds it out for the first part so secondly I do want to just shout out a few that are not personal favorites of mine but I think could be other good places to go for modern classics so we'll do that now so in terms of ones that I put down as books that personally are not my favorites but I think are clearly modern classics that a lot of people really connect with or love or that I haven't read yet but feel like they get mentioned so much I did want to come out real quick the first is the single like biggest bet I have of somebody who transcends even being just a modern classic and is quickly getting fast track to becoming like a classic of the english-speaking Canon and that is Toni Morrison the only book that I have read from her is beloved I did that as a teen and honestly just didn't really connect with it she is an author I want to again as an adult and as somebody with like more context I think for even understanding her were the one that I would say is kind I think has kind of emerged as her masterpiece I then get cited the most often or read the most often is beloved but I've also heard great things about Song of Solomon in The Bluest Eye those are probably the next ones I'm gonna try from her so if I were gonna put a bet on somebody who's not just gonna be a modern classic but it's going to be like a classic classic it's Toni Morrison so I think she's worth looking at a couple of other ones that I have not well either I haven't read or haven't read in a long time I know Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and her poetry in general love medicine by Louise Erdrich and the things they carried by Tim O'Leary maybe those are all ones I think are pretty firmly established as modern classics also The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood that's one that I personally didn't really connect with the writing or the story even if I like the themes but obviously there's a huge TV series about it that's when a lot of people have looked to especially since 2016 I think is is very relevant but I think it is pretty firmly ensconced as a modern classic and a lot of others the good news about modern classics and I think ones that are sort of making their way towards the kind of english-speaking literary canon is that unlike I think books before 1950 we're going to be seeing a lot more diversity in terms of the kinds of points of views that are represented in terms of gender and race and sexuality and religion like I think that we're seeing a lot more things kind of getting pushed up and and bubbled up as potentials for the four modern classic kind of status and I think that that will eventually translate into having a lot more diversity in general in the classics Canon so I think that will be interesting you know scholars a hundred years from now it will be interesting to see kind of like what I think will be pretty clear as a very big shift in terms of books being talked about or fast-tracked in that way having a lot more voices contributing to that Canon and then finally I thought that I would just sort of makes some guesses of authors or books that I think are coming here at least in the u.s. as being likely contenders of books that are going to be quickly considered to be modern classics books or author so my number one pick is I think that Roxane gay is going to become a modern classic author this is her short story collection ie d which is one of my all-time favorites I absolutely love this but hunger and all the other books that she's been putting forward I think that she's going to become a mainstay on different syllabi for people here in the next 10 years I think Hilary Mantel's trilogy about it said Thomas Cromwell will fall all of those I think that they're just so dominant whenever they come out in terms of people just absolutely loving those I think that's gonna become a modern classic of sort of historical type fiction I think Colson whitehead he writes in a lot of different genres but you know between historical fiction he's got a zombie book he's got a lot of different kind of modes he's written in I think he's emerging I think as somebody who will become modern classic those are my guesses of ones that I think could enter modern classic territory okay and I think that will do it for my recommendations on where to start with modern classics along with some side recommendations and some prognostication modern classics there's so many more that you could pick from than even just sort of like traditional classics because I think the sort of winnowing from the pool into classic dumb is a little bit bigger at the modern classics level so I am sure that there are plenty of other places that one could start with modern classics so feel free if you are a lover more literary fiction of the last 60 50 years to put in a where to start with pick from your reading because like I said I think that there's just a lot a lot more books that one could kind of put the label of modern classic on and therefore even more places that one could start so those are my thoughts let me know your thoughts in the comments below and yeah I hope you guys enjoyed this video so if you did please like subscribe follow me on the social needs if you are so inclined I have all that information listed in the description box below and I think that that will do it I hope you're having an absolutely lovely day today and I will just talk to you soon bye [Music]

Channel: bookslikewhoa

Views: 41,841

Keywords: books, booktube, literature, reading, where to start with classics, where to start with modern classics, modern classics, modern literature, where to start with literature, where to start with modern literature

Id: iY0Cor9kfFg

Length: 24min 26sec (1466 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 24 2020