Jeffrey Eugenides's Reading List

"Right now I’m shuttling between “The Map and the Territory,” by the French novelist Michel Houellebecq, and the Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St. Aubyn, which everyone I know seems to be reading."

"Right now I’m shuttling between “The Map and the Territory,” by the French novelist Michel Houellebecq, and the Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St. Aubyn, which everyone I know seems to be reading."

"“The Love of a Good Woman,” by Alice Munro. There’s not one story in there that isn’t perfect. Each time I finished one, I just wanted to lie down on the floor and die. My life was complete."

"“The Portrait of a Lady,” by Henry James. Unlike the comedies of Austen, where the heroines all get married at the end, this book presents an anti-marriage plot."

"I think of the last pages of “Lolita,” where Humbert Humbert hears children’s voices and recognizes the harm he’s brought Dolores Haze... To see a writer describe the world with such specificity, and to learn that this formulation of words went beyond words — that it taught you about pity and shame…"

"And Christopher Hitchens’s memoir “Hitch-22.” There’s a line in there that goes something like, “By that time, my looks had declined to such a degree that only women would go to bed with me.”"

"It’s “useful” (you like that word) to provide models of the form: Chekhov, Joyce’s “Dubliners,” etc."

"The story I assign every year that gets my students most enthralled with the idea of writing fiction is “Jon,” by George Saunders."

"How about a long story? Claire Keegan’s “Foster.” It’s told from the point of view of an Irish girl whose parents, lacking the money to care for her, send her to live with childless relatives, whom she ends up preferring. The ending is absolutely heartbreaking, every single word in the right place and pregnant with double meanings."

"The King James Bible. “Anna Karenina.” And a how-to book on raft-building."

"The King James Bible. “Anna Karenina.” And a how-to book on raft-building."