My seventeen-year-old daughter was assigned to read The Great Gatsby. “How do you like it?” I asked. “Hate it,” she said. I nodded. I remembered hating it in high school, too.
But when she asked me to look at the paper she’d written on this hateful book, she included the following passage describing a party at Gatsby’s house:
“The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher. Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word.”
“Wow,” I said, as she looked over my shoulder. “That’s some pretty fantastic writing.”
“Yeah, it is,” she said. “But I still hated the book.”
I had to laugh, because it reminded me of reading The Catcher in The Rye in high school. It’s about a teenager, after all—we were expected to relate, even though it had been written several decades before, and the lingo sounded like a joke. I hated it. I thought Holden Caulfield was whiny!
A couple of years ago, I read The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them. At least five of these great authors listed The Catcher in The Rye.
“Okay,” I thought. “It’s short, it’s sitting on my living room bookshelf, let me take another crack at it.”
I was blown away. I was crying at the end. I wanted to take Holden home and give him a good lunch and the compassion he so desperately needed.
So here’s my question: Why are we ruining perfectly good books—classics, no less—by requiring teenagers to read them, analyze them to shreds and stay up late writing papers on them? Isn’t that the perfect way to make someone hate something—by forcing it down their throats and making them cough up an assignment they’ll forget as soon as they hand it in?
Here’s an idea—let’s make them read current books. I’m not talking about bodice-rippers or whodunits. There’s great stuff out there written in ways that teens can connect with, possibly relate to and maybe even … like.
Here are some ideas, just off the top of my head:
The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls
Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kid
Outliers, The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
These are all interesting, well-written books with a strong young character or two. Teenagers would have a lot to say about these books, and plenty to ponder beyond the inevitable paper they’d have to write. They can read the classics later, when they’re a little more classic-friendly. Maybe in college, or even when they’re “classics” themselves.
If you had to choose a book that was written in the last ten years to assign to a high school English class, what would it be?
I keep hearing great things about both The Help and The Book Thief, and many people have suggested those as good contemporary reads for high schoolers. I’m hoping to read them both this summer. Thanks for your thoughts!
The best book I have ever read (and taught) for young adults is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Not one student complained about it, and I fell in love with it.
Hi Juliette- This is precisely what turned me off of reading. However, my senior English teacher gave me a list of “must reads” before I went off to college, and in fact, The Great Gatsby sparked a love of reading.
At my son’s school, their senior year advanced English class is such a class where they read contemporary fiction! He is a voracious reader and I look forward to the day when we can discuss some of the novels I have read (like yours). Just picked up your new novel and looking forward to reading it…loved Shelter Me! Still waiting to hear from my agent back in New York about my manuscript…
My picks: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, as it explores race relations and the tension of wanting to make things different. The Pact, by Jodi Picoult, partly because I work with the bereaved by suicide and know that suicide is the third cause of death in males 18-24 and partly because I love her writing style. Finally, Crooked Little Heart, by Anne Lammott, as it deals with adolescence, addiction, self-acceptance, and all the angst that comes with the teen years. I love any book that causes me to look at myself.
Those are my picks!
Hope you check out my blog sometime and pay me a visit! sip-n-sharewithSusan.blogspot.com
Cheers,
Susan Salluce