THE 10 COMING-OF-AGE NOVELS YOU’D WANT TO READ
Wasn’t it amusing reading about To Kill A Mockingbird’s Scout growing into a young girl or the Charlie in The Perks of Being A Wallflower outfox introversion?
Coming-of-age is a genre focusing on the growth of a protagonist from youth to adulthood, as per Wikipedia. Just like we grow up, we see the characters develop before ourselves — learning their monologue along. From being a young annoying child to turning into an uncontrollable teen, and then to a mature adult, coming-of-age novels easily plummet into our brains, mind and body. They are something which we can relate to pretty well.
- NEVER LET ME GO BY KAZUO ISHIGURO
This novel by Ishiguro is bound to move you like never before. Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, like every other teenager, are as safe as a moth in a cocoon while they are in Hailsham, which looks like a pleasant English boarding school to them. The harsh and rebarbative reality is revealed when they leave the grounds of Hailsham and step foot into the real world. This 2005 dystopian-coming-of-age novel has marked its patrimony in English literature by earning many accolades and, of course, the hearts of millions of readers. From the nominations for Booker Prize and Arthur C. Clarke Award to being Time magazine’s favourite, this one will take place for itself in your heart as well.
2. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME BY ANDRÉ ACIMAN
Elio, 17 and Oliver, 24─ two young men who spent the summer of 1983 together at the Italian Riviera. Aciman has captured the essentials of the human soul adroitly and put them together under this book. Oliver is a handsome American doctoral intern who works under Elio’s father. The narrative is an intensely emotional reminiscence of Oliver’s time in Italy. The novel focuses on Elio’s obsessive analysis of the details of Oliver’s words and behaviours. With Oliver’s fellowship nearing an end in Italy, both of them take a romantic vacation in Rome. After a year, Oliver marries a lady and becomes a father of two. Elio reminisces in his relationship with Oliver. The author’s genius is the juxtaposition of Elio’s sensitive and emotional behaviour, and Oliver’s cooler and more detached personality.
3. ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT BY JEANETTE WINTERSON
“Pillars hold things up, and salt keeps things clean, but it’s a poor exchange for losing yourself. People do go back, but they don’t survive, because two realities are claiming them at the same time,” Jeanette Winterson, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit.
The genius of this book is hard to define but can be quite justified with the fact that it earned Winterson worldwide acclaim. Revolving around the life of Jeanette, a lesbian girl who grows up in an English Pentecostal community, the novel has been awarded the Whitbread Award. She believes she is destined to become a missionary. The book depicts religious enthusiasm as an exploration of the power of love. As an adolescent, Jeanette finds herself attracted to another girl, and her mother’s group of religious friends subject her and her partner to exorcisms. Powerful. Convincing. Compelling.
4. BLACK SWAN GREEN BY DAVID MITCHELL
Black Swan Green is a semi-autobiographical bildungsroman novel published in 2006. The author foretells us the book in the pattern of 13 chapters — each chapter representing one month in the life of a 13-year old Jason Taylor. Setup against the Herculean England of the 1980s, the book surges from Jason’s boyhood to adulthood. In 2007 the book received recognition as a Best Book for Young Adults (Alex Awards) from the American Library Association. It was shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Book Awards, longlisted for the 2006 Booker Prize and was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist.
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5. MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN BY SALMAN RUSHDIE
Owing to the august, pride and esteem of this masterpiece with Booker of Bookers Prize, The Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Rushdie has perfectly outpoured India’s transition from British colonialism to independence and the partition of India. It is possible that you’d have become a Rushdie-fan after reading this loose allegorical work of his, dedicated to his country. The protagonist and narrator of the story are Saleem Sinai, born at the exact moment when India became an independent country. He was born with telepathic powers, as well as an enormous and constantly dripping nose with an extremely sensitive sense of smell. The novel is divided into three books. It is considered an example of postcolonial, postmodern, and magical realist literature.
6. TIPPING THE VELVET BY SARAH WATERS
“Being in love, you know… it’s not like having a canary, in a cage. When you lose one sweetheart, you can’t just go out and get another to replace her,” Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet.
Humour. Adventure. Sexuality. Explicitness. Eroticism.
Tipping The Velvet is one of Sarah’s finest works having pervasive lesbian themes, concentrating on eroticism and self-discovery. Set in England during the 1890s, it tells a coming of age story about a young woman named Nan who falls in love with a male impersonator, follows her to London, and finds various ways to support herself as she journeys through the city. Tipping the Velvet was highly acclaimed and was chosen by The New York Times and The Library Journal as one of the best books of 1998.
7. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER BY STEPHEN CHBOSKY
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a young adult coming-of-age epistolary novel following the life of Charlie, an introverted teenager. The book develops through his freshman year of high school in a Pittsburgh suburb. The novel addresses themes permeating adolescence, including introversion, sexuality, drug use, rape, and mental health. It deals with details of Charlie’s unconventional style of thinking as he navigates between the worlds of adolescence and adulthood, and attempts to deal with poignant questions spurred by his interactions with both his friends and family. The book was a New York Times Bestseller.
8. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE BY J.D. SALINGER
Holden Morrisey Caulfield. Seems familiar? Sure he is. The sturdy icon for teenage rebellion, angst and alienation, and also the protagonist of this world-wide bestseller The Catcher in The Rye. The novel also deals with complex issues of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, connection, sex, and depression. The novel was included on Time’s 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
9. LESS THAN ZERO BY BRET EASTON ELLIS
Ellis published Less Than Zero when he was 21. It is regarded as one of his bestselling controversial contributions to American Literature. The novel follows the coming-of-age of Clay, a rich, 18-years old college student. He is a student at Camden College in New Hampshire and comes home to Los Angeles for Christmas and meets his old friends. Clay describes his progressive alienation from the culture around him, loss of faith in his friends, and his meditations on events in his recent past.
10. THE ROTTER’S CLUB BY JONATHAN COE
The Rotters’ Club is a 2001 novel by British author Jonathan Coe. His work has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. Set in Birmingham during the 1970s, and inspired by the author’s experiences at King Edward’s School, Birmingham. Three teenage friends growing up in 1970s Britain watching their lives change as their world evolves with time. Ben, Philip and Doug make up the Rotter’s Club.
We all grow up, and then watch movies about it and read books on it — and it is, fascinating — like your whole life flashing before yourself like your whole life summarized in a screenplay of 3 hours or summed up in a 400-page novel.
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