You gotta love the way the Germans put together words.
Take the word bildungsroman.
Bildung is Deutsche with a number of meanings, ranging from formation and creation to education and culture.
The Germans lifted the word “roman”—novel—from the French, I think.
Snap those two babies together and you get bildungsroman, which has come into English as denoting a novel about the psychological, moral, and intellectual development of a young person.
Below are three bildungsroman (Can you tell I like saying this word?) offered here for your reading pleasure.
Take the word bildungsroman.
Bildung is Deutsche with a number of meanings, ranging from formation and creation to education and culture.
The Germans lifted the word “roman”—novel—from the French, I think.
Snap those two babies together and you get bildungsroman, which has come into English as denoting a novel about the psychological, moral, and intellectual development of a young person.
Below are three bildungsroman (Can you tell I like saying this word?) offered here for your reading pleasure.
First, to all my Asheville friends in particular, read Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel. The setting is Asheville, Wolfe grew up in Asheville, you live in Asheville, and you need to read this book. And please don’t tell me Wolfe is wordy. Everyone knows that, especially about Wolfe’s second novel, Of Time And The River. What everyone doesn’t know is that Thomas Wolfe exerted an enormous influence on other American writers, ranging from Ray Bradbury to Pat Conroy, from James Jones to Jack Kerouac.
Reasons to read Wolfe: the language; the characters, particularly those of the Gant family; the descriptions of Asheville and Chapel Hill; and certain scenes, like those of Gant in his drunken, Shakespearean rages or the death scene of Eugene’s favorite brother, Ben. http://amzn.to/2ffAEx6
One female equivalent to Look Homeward, Angel is Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Set in Brooklyn in the early twentieth century, Smith takes us inside an impoverished Irish family—a singing waiter Johnny Nolan, who drinks too much; his wife, Katie, who has a will of iron; their daughter Francie, with whom we share the bumpy ride to adulthood; and their son Neeley. This dramatic story of the family’s struggles and Francie’s drive to educate herself has remained in print since its publication. For some humor, look for the unconventional Aunt Sissy and her “husbands.” http://amzn.to/2ffDQJ7
Like Thomas Wolfe, Robert Ruark grew up in North Carolina, though he lived Down East. Ruark wrote novels that are little read these days, which is too bad as they are fine, vibrant stories. (I enjoyed a couple of these forty years ago). Yet Ruark did leave us two autobiographical classics--The Old Man and the Boy and The Old Man’s Boy Grows Older. In both books—I like the first one better—Ruark tells of the time spent as a boy with his grandfather, who was a farmer, hunter, and fisherman. If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for the sportsman in your life, here’s the book for you. http://amzn.to/2g8WcKx
Below is a sample from the opening chapter of The Old Man and the Boy:
The Old Man knows pretty near close to everything, and mostly he ain't painful with it. What I mean is he went to Africa once when he was a kid, and he shot a tiger or two out in India, or so he says, and he was in a whole lot of wars here and yonder. But he can still tell you why the quail sleep at night in a tight circle or why the turkeys always fly uphill.
Best wishes and happy reading!
If you enjoyed this piece, please like and share. If you decide to order one of the books, or find out more about them, copying or pasting the link at the end of each short review will take you to Amazon.
Reasons to read Wolfe: the language; the characters, particularly those of the Gant family; the descriptions of Asheville and Chapel Hill; and certain scenes, like those of Gant in his drunken, Shakespearean rages or the death scene of Eugene’s favorite brother, Ben. http://amzn.to/2ffAEx6
One female equivalent to Look Homeward, Angel is Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Set in Brooklyn in the early twentieth century, Smith takes us inside an impoverished Irish family—a singing waiter Johnny Nolan, who drinks too much; his wife, Katie, who has a will of iron; their daughter Francie, with whom we share the bumpy ride to adulthood; and their son Neeley. This dramatic story of the family’s struggles and Francie’s drive to educate herself has remained in print since its publication. For some humor, look for the unconventional Aunt Sissy and her “husbands.” http://amzn.to/2ffDQJ7
Like Thomas Wolfe, Robert Ruark grew up in North Carolina, though he lived Down East. Ruark wrote novels that are little read these days, which is too bad as they are fine, vibrant stories. (I enjoyed a couple of these forty years ago). Yet Ruark did leave us two autobiographical classics--The Old Man and the Boy and The Old Man’s Boy Grows Older. In both books—I like the first one better—Ruark tells of the time spent as a boy with his grandfather, who was a farmer, hunter, and fisherman. If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for the sportsman in your life, here’s the book for you. http://amzn.to/2g8WcKx
Below is a sample from the opening chapter of The Old Man and the Boy:
The Old Man knows pretty near close to everything, and mostly he ain't painful with it. What I mean is he went to Africa once when he was a kid, and he shot a tiger or two out in India, or so he says, and he was in a whole lot of wars here and yonder. But he can still tell you why the quail sleep at night in a tight circle or why the turkeys always fly uphill.
Best wishes and happy reading!
If you enjoyed this piece, please like and share. If you decide to order one of the books, or find out more about them, copying or pasting the link at the end of each short review will take you to Amazon.