Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores the ways in which a range of recent American novelists have handled the genre of the 'coming-of-age' novel. Novels of this genre characteristically dramatise the vicissitudes of growing up and the trials and tribulations of young adulthood.
Trade ReviewThis promises to be an original and comprehensive work in American literary and cultural studies. -- Professor Bert Bender, Arizona State University This promises to be an original and comprehensive work in American literary and cultural studies.
Table of ContentsAmerican Adolescence: The Contemporary Coming-of-Age Novel; Introduction: Contemporary Coming-of-Age: Subject to Change; 1. In the Name of the Father; Brady Udall, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, 2001.; Russell Banks, Rule of the Bone, 1995.; 2. I Change Therefore I Am: Growing up in the Sixties; Gish Jen, Mona in the Promised Land, 1996.; Geoffrey Wolff, The Age of Consent, 1995.; 3. Citation and Resuscitation; Rick Moody, Purple America, 1997.; Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides, 1993, and Middlessex, 2001.; 4. Language Acquisition: Life Sentences; Scott Bradfield, The History of Luminous Motion, 1989.; Mark Richard, Fishboy, 1993.; 5. Lexicon of Love; Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping, 1981.; Josephine Humphries, Rich in Love, 1987.; 6. Memoirs and Memorials; Dorothy Allison, Bastard out of Carolina, 1992.; Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation, 1995.; Conclusion.
