When you tell people you teach English, it is not extraordinary for either one of two things invariably occurring. The first stems from their own insecurities bred from by some cruel English teacher in their past. They say at once, "I better be careful what I say," meaning how they say things, as if every teacher of English were some persnickety bore. Grammarians are out there who take pleasure in correcting the solecisms of others, but they tend, really, not to be English teachers. I've never seen a colleague correct a solecism, only someone outside the profession acting like one.

The second thing people do is engage you in a conversation about books you've read and liked. This latter is much more desirable. Of course, we all collect lists of favorites--either classics or contemporaries or a healthy blend of both. Some people who read voraciously can change the list seasonally. I can't. I am a slow reader. First, I do a whole lot of re-reading--One reason some of my favorites stay favorites.  Also, I do take time to read; I'm in no hurry. That might seem counterintuitive considering the inordinate amount of reading to be accomplished--hundreds of new books published each year. Nevertheless, my training makes it a habit to read slowly.

Be that as it may, aside from reading Jane Austen or Thomas Hardy, where you're bound to be satisfied with a well-composed piece of narrative, I would recommend a few books off hand. These aren't necessarily favorites, but they are books worthy of attention. I have intentionally focused on fiction--I could have recommend in a few other genres, but conventionally, people are looking to enter a world elsewhere when they pick up a book--For that reason, I begin with Italo Calvino's fabulist collection Invisible Cities. It can read more like poetry (or theory) at times, but it is playful, light, accessible, and refreshingly strange--a good sign in some circles. A completely different sort of book, grounded in realism, is Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety. The facility with which Stegner brings ordinary people's suffering to believable representation is canny. He is patient with his craft, and the reader benefits.

Along the same lines of tightly controlled prose, I submit Cormac McCarthy's border trilogy--All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain. He reinvents the western with an austere lyricism that elegaically evokes the southwestern landscape. Note--None of these books are brand new, nor are they ancient. They are contemporary books that have the promise of aging well. I don't risk much by recommending them, for they all have been celebrated heretofore. Finally, if you pass on these and the Austen and Hardy, pick up something by Gabriel Garcia Marquez--I doubt he'll disappoint. Pick up James Baldwin, for that matter. You won't find a better crafted sentence in English. Pick up something. Just read.

Posted by Matthew Kearney at September 24, 2007 10:00 PM

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