Extra Credit
Besides what you have to read, are you currently face deep in some fun-reading? Here are some Postmodernist faves of mine.
I'm wrapped up in the "Wheel of Time" series. Thanks, KB! I really need to know how Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World is going to resolve! It's a postmodern blend of fantasy, gritty reality, futuristic dystopia, and folksy love stories. Fabulism is where my postmodern heart is right now...
Last week I finished The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride. This is a mash-up of secret lives, secret wells, and generational joy. I'm still not over the ending. Thank you, Monkey Pants. IYKYK.
Last year I read The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. He's a well-known nonfiction writer, but this book is a Postmodernist paella of temporal distortion, historiographic metafiction, hyperreality, and black humor. This has magic, Harriet Tubman, and some of the most beautiful prose I have read.
Another book I recently read, coincidentally similar in setting, is The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead. This one does with the legends surrounding America's Underground Railroad what Quentin Tarantino does with the Manson murders in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It's part gritty history, part fabulism, lots of wish-fulfillment, and all terrific.
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A book I have somewhat recently read, that I really enjoyed, was The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.
The Glass Castle is based off a true story, where the writer is writing about her own upbringing in a dysfunctional family. Temporal distortion and intertextuality is used throughout the book as the witter tells stories of her childhood, especially about her father. She explains that when he was sober he taught her how to embrace life fearlessly. She explains how her parents had a belief of "hands-off" parenting styles which they thought would help their kids be more successful in the world, building character and resilience to danger and hardship. I highly recommend for anyone to read this book, as it gives you a view into other lifestyles that families hold, that may be different from yours!