Post 9/11 Books
While driving from Tucson to Quartzsite today, I listened to a conversation/intervew with Jeff Melnik, the author of 9-11 CULTURE, a book published earlier this year. He takes a look at a broad catalogue of artefacts from film, music, photography, literary fiction, and other popular arts and how 9/11 exerted a shaping force on wide range of practices. The conversation ended with Jonathan Safran Foer reading a heart-wrenching excerpt from his post-9/11 book, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
I thought it might be an interesting exercise to take a look at the “post 9/11″ books we’ve reviewed at Mostly Fiction…. that is books that seemed to hit at the cultural changes within our country, post 9/11.
So here’s what I have for my first pass — please add your comments on the ones you can think of:
- A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
- The Last Good Day by Peter Blauner
- Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff (also see author interview)
- Harbor by Lorraine Adams
- The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud
- The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
- Shalimar the Clown by Salmon Rushdie
- Flight by Ginger Strand
- The Terrorist by John Updike
- America’s Report Card by John McNally
- Cranberry Queen by Kathleen DeMarco
- Bannerman’s Ghost by John Maxim
- A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
Books that speak directly to the day:
- In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman
- The Garden of  Last Days by Andre Dubois III
- What We’ve Lost by Graydon Carter
- 9-11 Commission Report
And just to think about pre-9/11:
- Trudy Hopedale by Jeffrey Frank
September 10, 2009
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One Response
Very nice post! I believe Dave Eggers’ ZEITOUN meets these qualifications beautifully. It wonderfully describes the negative effects of our country’s war on terror set into motion after Sept. 11.
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