Great literary fiction for guys 3
Discover top literary fiction picks for men with our curated list of must-read books. Explore gripping narratives, profound themes, and masterful storytelling tailored for guys.
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Amateur Barbarians
by Robert Cohen
Acclaimed, award-winning novelist Robert Cohen delivers a bold, provocative exploration of the panic of midlife, follow- ing two men plateaued on either side of their forties and the unexpected consequences of changing course. Teddy Hastings is a New England middle school principal desperate for transcendence. Unmoored by his brother’s death and a health scare of his own, he tries to broaden his ordinary life and winds up unemployed and on the wrong side of the law. Meanwhile, Oren Pierce, a per- petual grad student from New York, abandons, somewhat to his own surprise, his search for the extraordinary and begins settling into the humble existence that Teddy seeks to escape. What comforts Oren alarms Teddy, and their paths overlap as Teddy’s quest for the unknown and unfamiliar experience takes him on a rash trip to Africa, leaving Oren to assume the trappings of his life, including Teddy’s wife Gail. Amateur Barbarians showcases a writer at the peak of his powers, tracing domestic ambivalence, the comic perils of introspection and desire, and the terror of an unlived life with Cohen’s signature wit and uncanny perception, proving yet again why he was touted by The New York Times Book Review as the “heir to Saul Bellow and Philip Roth.”
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Then We Came to the End
by Joshua Ferris
This wickedly funny, big-hearted novel about life in the office signals the arrival of a gloriously talented new writer. The characters in Then We Came to the End cope with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, secret romance, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. By day they compete for the best office furniture left behind and try to make sense of the mysterious pro-bono ad campaign that is their only remaining "work."
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This is where I Leave You
by Jonathan Tropper
Judd Foxman is thrown together with his dysfunctional family when his father dies, while at the same time coping with his wife's infidelity and the end of his marriage.
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The Abstinence Teacher
by Tom Perrotta
“Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart….Those who haven’t curled up on the couch with this writer’s books are missing a very great pleasure.”—Seattle Times Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: it’s got good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. Parents in the town are involved in their children’s lives, and often in other children’s lives, too—coaching sports, driving carpool, focusing on enriching experiences. Ruth Ramsey is the high school human sexuality teacher whose openness is not appreciated by all her students—or their parents. Her daughter’s soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim’s introduction of Christianity on the playing field horrifies Ruth, while his evangelical church sees a useful target in the loose-lipped sex ed teacher. But when these two adversaries in a small-town culture war actually talk to each other, a surprising friendship begins to develop. “Nobody renders the world of soccer moms and sprinklers and SUVs like Perrotta. He’s the Steinbeck of suburbia.”—Time “Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America.”—The New York Times Book Review (in a front-page review) The Abstinence Teacher illuminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern American family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Perrotta’s trademark.
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How to Talk to a Widower
by Jonathan Tropper
“A resigned yet hopeful examination of grief with a side of human absurdity . . . warm and modestly knowing, with a wisecracking slacker hero.”—Kirkus Reviews Doug Parker is a widower at age twenty-nine, and in his quiet town, that makes him the object of sympathy, curiosity, and in some cases even unbridled desire. But Doug has more urgent things on his mind, such as his sixteen-year-old stepson, Russ, a once-sweet kid who is now getting into increasingly serious trouble. As Doug starts dipping his toes into the shark-infested waters of the second-time-around dating scene, it isn’t long before his new life is spinning hopelessly out of control, cutting a harrowing and often humorous swath of sexual missteps and escalating chaos across a suburban landscape. How to Talk to a Widower is a stunning novel of love, lust, and loss that USA Today hails as “hilarious but emotion-packed.” Praise for How to Talk to a Widower “[A] winning tale about a man raising his stepson after his wife dies.”—People “Part of Widower’s charm is that there’s no happily ever after, no Cinderella-catches-the-fella ending.” —USA Today “A mixture of mourning and mockery . . . surprisingly moving.”—Entertainment Weekly
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Goodnight Steve McQueen
by Louise Wener
From the author of The Perfect Play comes a charmingly romantic–yet very edgy-novel set in the music industry about friendship, love, growing up, and always following your dreams. Danny McQueen has dreamed of being a pop star since he was thirteen-years-old. Now he's twenty-nine and still dreaming. But he faces a dilemma. His girlfriend Alison wants him to sort his life out. She's given him an ultimatum: Find a record deal by the end of the year or it's find a new girlfriend. When is it time to give up on your childhood ambitions? When is it time to stop watching Columbo in your underpants and get a proper job? Is six months long enough for one last assault on the big time? Is friendship ever more important than love? Is it just your imagination or can your girlfriend always tell when you've been looking at Internet porn? With the help of his boss Kostas, his two best friends, and an eighty-year-old Kung Fu enthusiast called Sheila, Danny McQueen is about to find out.
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Drive Like Hell
by Dallas Hudgens
Luke Fulmer belongs behind the wheel of a car. Taught to drive at the age of ten by his father, Luke can do more damage with a stick and a clutch than most men can do with a bottle of whiskey and a lousy mood. He counts down the days to his sixteenth birthday when he can finally get his license. Unfortunately, the first thing he does with it is "borrow" his neighbor's car. When Luke is pulled over and found in possession of an air pistol, a ski mask, a stolen TV, and a bag of pot, the unforgiving local magistrate takes scissors to his license and vows to lock him up if he ever stands in front of her again. As Luke's mother explores bad relationships and the lure of vodka, Luke moves in with his older brother, Nick, an easygoing ex-con who wants to steer Luke onto the straight and narrow. In the gnarled, muggy summer that follows, Luke contends with a lovely kleptomaniac girlfriend, a duffel bag full of cocaine, and the realization that he must save his family from themselves even as he plots to beat a path out of town. Dubbed the "Great American Redneck Novel" by Big Fish author Daniel Wallace, Drive Like Hell is a hilarious one-of-a-kind tale set in late '70s Georgia, complete with stock car racing, honky-tonk dancing, pro wrestling, drug dealing, and syndicated television. Dallas Hudgens brilliantly evokes Southern culture in this unforgettable debut that is raucous and wrenching, funny and wise.
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The Perfect Play
by Louise Wener
Playing the cards she's been dealt has left Audrey Unger feeling out of control. Her professional poker-playing father walked out of her life when she was eleven. Now in her early thirties -- on the verge of her own midlife crisis -- she's prepared to risk everything to find him. In an attempt to discover what made him gamble and what drove him to give her up, Audrey must immerse herself in her father's world: a world of high-stakes gambling and ego-driven men who never want to lose. Audrey is about to play the biggest game of her life. Who says a woman can't bluff? Those sitting across the table from her are about to realize that Audrey has the spirit of adventure in her blood.
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How to Be a Man: Scenes from a Protracted Boyhood
by Thomas Beller
From strip clubs to the Academy Awards to the basketball court, this title is a ride through the landscape of guyhood. Through stints as a bike messenger, a drummer, a boyfriend and--possibly, potentially, finally--a husband, Beller writes about the life-changing effects of love and marriage, 256 pp.
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Keeper and Kid
by Edward Hardy
"A fine, fetching novel with a good heart . . . a tribute to the author's endless comic inventiveness." --Stewart O'Nan, author of Songs for the Missing Three years after his divorce, James Keeper is enjoying his new job selling antiques at a quirky shop. His new love, Leah, is intriguing and passionate. Business is steady and Keeper's friends always turn up for Card Night. But one phone call from his former mother-in-law changes it all. Days later, Keeper comes away with a son he never knew he had. Immediately, life takes on a new meaning. As he and Leo adjust to the shock of each other and their suddenly altered lives, Keeper begins to let in the people in his life--by turns strange and heartwarming; funny and painful. A coming of age story for the guy who thought he had already grown up, this novel is a sharp and witty account of what we do for love. "One of the most enchantingly realistic tots in recent fiction. We don't know whether to keep turning the pages or dive into them and offer to help babysit." --The Boston Globe "Keeper and Kid is a marvel. I dare you. Open this book and try to put it down." --Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle "At once immensely engaging and about the things that matter most: how we love, how we move on, how the past moves with us. Lovely, wise, and surprising." --Elizabeth Graver, author of The Honey Thief "It isn't merely 'amusing,' it is downright funny . . .[Hardy] creates characters so eccentric and endearing you'll be sorry to see the last of them." --Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon)
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Bridge of Sighs
by Richard Russo
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls comes "a magnificent, bighearted” novel (The Boston Globe) about small-town America that follows Louis Charles Lynch (“Lucy”) and his wife of forty years as they prepare to embark on a vacation to Italy. Lucy is sixty years old and has spent his entire life in Thomaston, New York. Like his late, beloved father, Lucy is an optimist, though he’s had plenty of reasons not to be—chief among them his mother, still indomitably alive. Yet it was her shrewdness, combined with that Lynch optimism, that had propelled them years ago to the right side of the tracks and created an “empire” of convenience stores about to be passed on to the next generation. Lucy's oldest friend, once a rival for his wife's affection, leads a life in Venice far removed from Thomaston. In fact, the exact nature of their friendship is one of the many mysteries Lucy hopes to untangle in the “history” he’s writing of his hometown and family. And with his story interspersed with that of Noonan, the native son who’d fled so long ago, the destinies building up around both of them (and Sarah, too) are relentless, constantly surprising, and utterly revealing. Look for Richard Russo's new book, Somebody's Fool, coming soon.
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The Dart League King
by Keith Morris
Hours before a tense championship dart match in a small Idaho town, five locals must reassess their lives and make fateful decisions. With the sure hand of a master, Morris reveals quiet truths about rural America life.
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Juliet, Naked
by Nick Hornby
What happens when a washed-up musician looks for anther chance? And a childless woman looks for a change? "Juliet, Naked" is a powerfully engrossing, humorous novel about music, love, loneliness, and the struggle to live up to one's promise.
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How I Became a Famous Novelist
by Steve Hely
"This is the story of [Pete] Tarslaw's effort to write the best-sellingest best seller of all time, and what its success costs him in the end."--Back cover.
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Ground Up
by Michael Idov
Light streams through the windows as the espresso machine roars; a gorgeous, rich scent fills the air; and witty conversation unspools over the porcelain cups. That's the café dream. Mark and Nina are about to experience the reality. Determined to re-create the perfect Viennese coffeehouse, they descend on New York's gritty but hip Lower East Side to educate the locals on authentic café culture. Soon Mark and Nina are in a downward spiral that will strip them of money, friends, sex life, status, shelter, and, finally, sanity—and offer salvation through something they have never experienced: disaster. Inspired by the author's own coffeehouse hell, Ground Up is a sharp and funny portrait of a New York constantly reinventing itself, and a surprisingly tender story of falling out of love and back in it again.
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That Old Cape Magic
by Richard Russo
The lives of Jack and Joy Griffin always seem to come back to Cape Cod, where they honeymooned, as they experience the ups and downs of life, including the deaths of Jack's parents, the marriage of their daughter, and Jack and Joy's divorce.
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Based on the Movie
by Billy Taylor
Now in paperback, High Fidelity meets The Player in this hilarious and insightful first novel that takes place behind the scenes of a movie set, where a depressive dolly grip tries to turn his life around, hoping for his own happy Hollywood ending. Informed by his years on the set of dozens of television shows and Hollywood movies, Based on the Movie is Billy Taylor’s satirical debut novel that shows readers what it’s really like behind the cameras. Nine months after Bobby Conlon’s wife, Natalie, dumped him for a hot young director, his life is out of kilter. But it’s time to throw out that year-old Christmas tree decorated with 500 empty Vicodin bottles and fly to Texas to work on a movie starring Ralph the Swimming Pig. Once in Texas, Bobby realizes he has signed on to the most dysfunctional movie ever. The director can’t direct, the pig catches pneumonia, and just when things can’t get any worse, Natalie and her boyfriend are hired to take over the movie. Suddenly, Bobby’s personal and professional lives collide, and no matter which way he turns, fresh disasters await. Still, in spite of everything, Bobby clings to the hope that a happy ending might be possible. This is the movie business, after all. A side-splitting look at what actually happens on a film location, told from the perspective of the hardworking and long-suffering men and women behind the scenes, Based on the Movie is a captivating and entertaining read that brings real life and reel life together to great effect.
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Academy X
by Andrew Trees
A trenchant parody of the culture of power and privilege at a New York City private school follows the misadventures of English teacher John Spencer, who is struggling through the final weeks of the spring semester, while dealing with his crush on a sexy librarian, a surprise promotion, academic intrigues, pushy parents, sophisticated students, and other ills. Reprint.
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Out of Season
by Robert Bausch
Four characters burdened by the past intersect at a fading resort town when County Sheriff David Caldwell is called in to restore the order destroyed by the town bully, Cecil Edwards-a giant of a man who operates the Ferris wheel. Caldwell must also face the sorrow that has been his daily companion when he reunites with his son, Todd, who has been in prison for the accidental death of his brother. During this reconciliation, Todd meets a mysterious young woman, Lindsey, who is searching forher long-lost brother and finds a love she never knew possible. With the intensity of a Shakespearean tragedy, these four people are drawn into the gravitational pull of family. Robert Bausch draws on the heartbreaking energy of families in distress like no other writer, and Out of Season resonates with the purity of redemption in the face of irretrievable losses.
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Dinner for Two
by Mike Gayle
Dave Harding's got a wonderful wife, a beautiful home, and a job he could do in his sleep... So no one is more surprised than Dave when he hears his own biological clock start ticking. Loudly. Unfortunately, his better half, Izzy, has no nine-month plan for fat ankles or a credit line at Baby Gap. With even worse timing, the music magazine Dave writes for folds. Desperate for work, he's forced to become an advice columnist for a teen magazine. But he's about to get a serious wake-up call. Wading through letter after letter of adolescent angst is the last thing Dave wants to do, especially since he could use some help dealing with his own. But one letter is about to make all his little problems disappear -- and replace them with one big one. The letter is from a teenage girl named Nicola. But she doesn't need advice about boys, or friends, or the latest fads. She's looking for her father, whom she's never met. She's looking for a man to call Dad. She's looking for Dave.
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Upgrading
by Simon Brooke
If you've got it, flaunt it... Young, ambitious, and pretty damn good-looking, Andrew Collins knows that the workaday world is not enough for him. He wants more than a boring job and a mediocre life. Mostly, though, he wants more money. So when he answers an ad for male escorts, Andrew figures he's just found the perfect way to make a buck -- with a "Sugar Mama." But he soon finds that his older paramour, along with her bizarre and somewhat sinister friends, may be taking him for what looks to be a very bumpy ride with no brakes on board. Just try not to lose it. But now that he's finally got the green, Andrew finds himself drawn to the plainest of Janes. She's a no-nonsense, deep-thinking shop assistant who's saddened to see the real Andrew being suffocated under a pile of fancy clothes and flashy frills -- not his type at all. So why can't he stop thinking about her? Maybe because life in the lap of luxury isn't what it seems -- or even what he truly wants? Caught between cold cash and a warm heart, Andrew must figure out what matters most: his love of money, his love of himself, or love, period....
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The Financial Lives of the Poets
by Jess Walter
Matt Prior is losing his job, his wife, and his house, and he's about to lose his mind--until he discovers a way that he might possibly be able to save it all.
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When the White House was Ours
by Porter Shreve
The author of "The Obituary Writer"--a "New York Times" Notable Book--presents a charming story of one family's struggle to run their own alternative school in a time of Democratic idealism.