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{"id":17241,"date":"2015-09-30T10:50:33","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T15:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/?p=17241"},"modified":"2015-09-30T10:50:33","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T15:50:33","slug":"adult-american-novels-with-happy-endings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/2015\/09\/30\/adult-american-novels-with-happy-endings\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult American novels with happy endings?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"book-863418_1280\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

My suggestions:<\/p>\n

Flannery O\u2019Connor. \u00a0Okay, no happy endings, sometimes tragic, but not depressing, anyway! We got a little bit into how the bull in \u201cGreenleaf\u201d is Jesus \u2014 well, not Jesus, exactly, but \u2014 well, you know how Zeus was\u00a0always . . . well, you know? (Little kids in the room.) And, see, this old woman put up all these hedges, and she never . . .well . . . (but there were too many little kids in the room). See, it\u2019s not an allegory, or an exact code, but how themes in literature work is . . . what are they teaching you in English, anyway? Go to bed, I\u2019m tired.<\/p>\n

Walter M. Miller. I urged Canticle for Leibowitz<\/em>,<\/a> but as I sketched out the plot, her glower got heavier and heavier. I was like, \u201cSee, history is cyclical, and at least this time around, they have a plan! They survive! You\u2019ll love it, because the Catholics save the day! Well, kind of . . . \u201d<\/p>\n

His short stories are tremendous, though, and\u00a0should be better known. \u201cCruxifixus Etiam\u201d is\u00a0amazing. (collected in The View from the Stars<\/a>)<\/p>\n

James Thurber. Probably actually way way darker than anyone else on this list, if you read closely.<\/p>\n

Edith Wharton? She\u2019s great, but yeesh.<\/p>\n

I guess there\u2019s Mark Twain. Do you know I\u2019ve never read Tom Sawyer.<\/em>\u00a0Should I? I loved Huckleberry Finn<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler? Well, they make me<\/em> happy.<\/p>\n

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn<\/em><\/a> is pretty good, and comes pretty close to having a happy ending, but the rest of Betty Smith\u2019s books are barely readable. She really shot the wad with the semi-autobiography.<\/p>\n

Faulkner? She\u2019s too young, and he doesn\u2019t exactly tend to tie up his endings with a happy bow anyway.
\nHemingway? Big fat meh, sorry.
\nMelville she would hate.
\nI think she likes Edgar Allen Poe, but they already read a lot of him in class.
\nStephen King? Apparently a nice fellow, but why does this man have a literary career?
\nHenry James doesn\u2019t get to be American.
\nRobert Penn Warren is another one-hit wonder with All the King\u2019s Men,<\/em> which I was obsessed with for a while, but now I can\u2019t think why.\u00a0I read a few other of his novels and couldn\u2019t believe how trashy they were. His novels read like bad poetry, and his poems read like outlines for novels. Feh.<\/p>\n

I could make a case for Walker Percy, maybe<\/em>, but she\u2019s a bit young. Anyway we\u2019re living Love In the Ruins<\/em><\/a> right now, so who needs to read about it?<\/p>\n

Who am I forgetting? Help us out! Remember: American, moderately happy ending, some literary merit!<\/p>\n

***
\nphoto credit: Light at the end of the tunnel<\/a> via photopin<\/a> (license)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"