Frequently compared to Charles Dickens, critically acclaimed writer John Irving makes use of the bildungsroman genre in his sixth novel The Cider House Rules (1985). The novel follows the development of orphan Homer Wells, from his childhood during the early… Read More ›
Ann Beattie once said of her characters, “They are suffering. They are suffering” (Rothstein, 2). Chilly Scenes of Winter examines the particular suffering of 27-year-old Charles while he attempts to cope with his mother’s mental illness, works at a government… Read More ›
The Cheer Leader was Jill McCorkle’s first novel, and it was published simultaneously with her second, July 7th, in 1985. Like most first novels, The Cheer Leader contains autobiographical elements. McCorkle, like her protagonist, grew up in North Carolina, where… Read More ›
Peter Bacho was born in Seattle in 1950, the son of immigrants from Cebu, the Philippines. His first novel, Cebu, won the 1992 American Book Award. Cebu is a quintessentially Filipino-American novel that explores culture clash, family history, identity, and… Read More ›
American literary Postmodernism flourished in the period after World War II, though most critics place its inception in the late fifties and early sixties. It was a reaction to the times: the end of World War II, Hiroshima and the… Read More ›