Your Favorite Coming-Of-Age Novels

World According to Garp.

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is an amazing novel about teens, conformity and questioning authority.

Agreed! The film adaptation is also pretty good, and worth seeing for the Bud Cort "enviroment" scene alone.

It's weird seeing Doug Hutchison so nerdy, though.

Although much of it is set in adulthood, Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth is essential. The childhood scenes run the gamut of every awkward, moving, frustrating aspect of being someone's child, as well as feeling disconnected to your cultural identity (in this case, Jewish).

The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan is a pretty disturbing story about four siblings who decide not to tell anyone when their mother dies (their father having already died a year previous) and raise themselves in their secluded home. Really short too, so it makes a for a quick and powerful gut-punch.

David Mitchell's Black Swan Green is thoroughly fantastic.

Some of my favorite books fall into this category.

Black Swan Green, David Mitchell. Suburban, early 80s, adolescent misery in England. I would like to enthusiastically second Dave's suggestion.

Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides. I think (?) we've talked about this one before - a transsexual child comes of age in Detroit in the 1970s. One of the best books I've ever read.

This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Read this about ten times in high school and college. One of the quintessential coming-of-age stories. Young Amory Blaine and his adventures in Minnesota and at Princeton.

Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maude Montgomery. Go ahead and laugh. I'm most definitely not kidding. This is one of my absolute favorite books of all time. Anne, an orphan who has been tossed from home to home, moves in with the Cuthberts, a brother and sister, who, despite their initial objections, decide to raise her. Funny and touching and largely unread by the male half of the species.

Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger. Franny has a nervous breakdown that seems to have something to do with God, Zooey verbally abuses her back to health in the living room of their childhood home. Salinger's prose sings. Please see screen name for more information.

The Book of Daniel, E.L. Doctorow. A young man whose parents were executed in the 1950s upon suspicion of being Communist spies is caught up in the political turmoil of the 1960s.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce. Again, one of the essential coming-of-age novels. The childhood and youth of Stephen Daedalus, one of the main characters of Ulysses.

The Chelsea Whistle, Michelle Tea. I just re-read this one not too long ago. Tea's trashy, blue collar, Catholic childhood in Massachusetts. Author of the equally great Valencia.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson. In this fictionalized account of her own childhood, Winterson writes about being the gay and rather strange adopted child of religious fundamentalists in England.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. - Gregory Maguire. Yes, I know - the musical. And I know it sounds silly, but really. Trust me. It's excellent.

Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers. Frankie, a young girl, falls in love with her brother and his bride-to-be. It's southern, sweaty, and very, very slight. Blew me away when I read it at 15. I spent months afterward reading everything by McCullers that I could get my hands on.

Little Women Louisa May Alcott. Again. Really. Trust the professional bookworm here.

My Antonina, Willa Cather. A joint coming-of-age story - Jim and Antonina - on the plains of Nebraska.

Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe.

Is The Sorrows of Young Werther worth a read or is it too dated?

I'm partial to A Separate Peace.

It's a few years since I read The Power Of One by Bryce Courtney but to me it's pretty damn special and is my favourite novel about, not so much coming of age, but the entire epic journey of growing up. If you saw the undercooked and underwhelming film adaptation with Stephen Dorff and Morgan Freeman it's even more reason to get a hold of the book and its sequel Tandia, the only book that's ever had me in tears.

Not even one mention of Judy Blume???

Good suggestions. I'd like to add 'Fortress of Solitude' by Jonathan Lethem. And if it can be read as such (and I'd argue it can): 'Invisible Man' by Ralph Ellison.

It and To Kill A Mockingbird have some pretty great coming-of-age stuff too. The Chocolate War's a good pick, though it depressed the fuck out of me.

Ham on Rye by Bukowski, about the early days of Henry Chinaski, growing up in Depression-era Los Angeles. Quintisential angry young man...

...except for Catcher in the Rye. Another coming of age, if strange. Seconded for the Franny and Zooey, as well.

A more recent one, that was talked to death on this board about a year ago, is The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Geeky, but so relatable.

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Alborn, while not strictly a coming of age story, is definitely worth checking out.

Seconded.

Tuesdays with Morrie, Jan? Really?

Also, I'm surprised that there are people out there who like Separate Peace.

My personal choice/recommendations would be Great Santini and The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy. I fully acknowledge that I have read better books, but Lords of Discipline, about a miltary school in the 60s, is probably my favorite book evar. I wind up reading it at least once a year.

The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks.

Is this sarcasm?

Hey, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Super Fudge are classics. Recognize. (Although now that I've called you out, I fully expect to be smacked down. And I get the original point. )

Me? What? I'm confused - I like Judy Blume. Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself was one of my favorites growing up. I just kind of assumed that most here have read her and that she skews quite a bit younger than what Jake was looking for.

The only book in this thread that will inspire frantic, repeat showering.

I'd say that Invisible Man absolutely counts, cheftournal.

Boys Life By Robert R McCammon

Another John Irving recommendation: New Hampshire Hotel.

To me, no one gets confusion, anger, and awe better than him when it comes to growing up. His non-judgemental tone from just reading NHH and World According to Garp has informed my open mind to this day. I don't know if they count because they go beyond the age and account for whole lifetimes, but reading both of these novels have felt like I've grown up along with the characters. Isn't that the main goal of a "coming of age" story?

The next recommendations I'm kind of unsure about due to you may have already read them, but "Apt Pupil" and "The Body" from Stephen King's Different Seasons most definitely apply. "Apt Pupil", I recommend just for the fact that it's a coming of age tale told from a different aspect: the makings of a human monster. Very terrifying stuff, and without a doubt King's most disturbing story free of any supernatural trappings. In fact, King's greatest strength comes from examining the banalities of evil, and "Apt Pupil" has that in spades.

"The Body" is a different beast altogther because it's a more conventional "coming of age" story despite some of King's trademark morbid curiosities. However, I can understand not racing to read this one if you've seen Stand By Me countless times.

It's not what I think of when I think of coming of age, but it certainly is one of the greatest novels ever written, so for what it's worth, I throw in a third recommendation.

Her short story Paul's Case is a capital G great coming of age story.

Would I suffer slings and arrows if I suggest that the Harry Potter novels are also great coming-of-age stories?

kingfan beat me with Boy's Life by McCammon. And I am happy to see My Antonia already listed. That is one of my favorite books.

IN THE LIGHT OF YOU by Nathan Singer — Jesus. I used to think AMERICAN HISTORY X was hardcore, that it pushed the envelope and was a really brave story about what hatred can do to you.

Then I read Singer’s masterpiece. Now AMERICAN HISTORY X is like a Disney flick to me.

Mikal Fanon is a 17-year-old kid in a nameless Ohio city. He has no identity and a very scary home life with distant and abusive parents. He craves an identity, the comfort of people like him. Now, most teenagers put on different identities like a snake sheds skin, but Mikal makes the very unfortunate decision to be friendly with the local skinhead, a charismatic young man named Richard Lovecraft (if the novel has one weakness, it’s the fact that the names Mikal and Lovecraft were distracting names).

Lovecraft is the leader of an up-and-coming skinhead gang called The Fifth Reich, and Singer doesn’t shy away from this subculture. Now, I have to go back to AMERICAN HISTORY X, because that’s what this story will most likely be compared to once it gets the attention it deserves. In that movie, they show us what the modern skinhead looks like, but we never live with them, feel their filth or understand why you would join them. Singer uses first-person narration in his novel so we’re with Mikal every step of the way. We understand why he joins: He wants badly just to be able to disappear and blend in. Too young and scared to join the Army, he chooses this army with its unique uniform and look, with Lovecraft as his seductive general.

Now, the biggest myth is that the leaders of modern neo-Nazi organizations are stupid. Wrong and ignorant and very often evil, but not stupid. We have people in American government to this day who have strong ties to these groups. To build their numbers, of course they have to be smart and charismatic. They have to sell their dream of racial pride and segregation (one of Lovecraft’s most repeated things is that he doesn’t want black people killed, just separated from the whites. In one very interesting scene, he calls a black preacher an intelligent man because he preaches about living away from white society). And sell Mikal Lovecraft does. He finds out the kid is interested in the environment and talks a very good game that Hitler was very concerned with preserving nature and that Earth’s health was very important to him. In a scene that’s so intimate that it approaches erotic, Lovecraft shaves Mikal’s head and gives him his uniform, promising that he’ll get tattoos that signify that he belongs to his new family.

I love that it takes place in the mid-’90s right around the time of the Rodney King riots, the Rampart scandals and O.J.’s trial that every American followed like it was the world’s longest Super Bowl. Now, X had some harsh scenes like the famous curb scene and when a group of skinheads trash a convenience store run by an immigrant, but in Singer’s coming-of-age epic, you are with Mikal every step of the way when he joins his army to beat up other people that offend their very evil morals, like a black man being intimate with a white woman. Can’t have that, so here comes the harsh beatings: him for stealing one of their women, and the woman for being a race traitor.

The most surprising thing is how funny it is. Mikal is like every other sarcastic teenager out there, angry and confused as he is. He’s an engaging protagonist and every time he goes deeper into this hell, you desperately want him to see the light and save himself. But the humor also makes the violence worse. How could such a funny kid take part in so many ugly things just because his leader says it’s the right thing to do? No studio would be brave enough to make this movie. I’m being very vague on what actually happens in the book, but you need to go in without knowing anything, like I did. This should be required reading for teenagers, but only if they can talk with their parents about it. It’d be educational for both sides. What a fantastic novel.

I don't know if it's a true bildungsroman, but I thought HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE nicely captured that space inbetween childhood, puberty, and real-world threats. I love the sincerity with which Rowling deals with crushes, dances, and then in crashes the truly dangerous threat of Voldemort. One of my favorite books about that puberty age evar. (I must admit that I've not read books 5 -7.)

Joyce Carol Oates' I'LL TAKE YOU THERE is easily the best book I've ever read about college. I was not an obsessive compulsive white girl who lost her virginity to a black man during the 1960s, but surely Oates accurately describes how it feels to be a kid finding a whole wide world of thought out there. Also, the last line of the novel is the best final line I've ever read. In fact, I believe nothing will top it ever, though you do have to read the 200+ page book to feel the last line's impact fully.

Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes". Besides being a nicely horrific little story, it's a meditation on what it is to grow up and grow old. From the prologue, "But one strange wild dark long year, Halloween came early... And that was the October week when they grew up overnight, and were never so young anymore ..."

Great stuff already mentioned.

I'll add Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks

These:

I'd also add Stephen King's It, Carson McCullers's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Dan Simmons's Summer of Night, and Bradbury's October Country. Also, Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard, since it hasn't been mentioned yet, and Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata.

If we're going the King route, I prefer The Talisman for coming-of-age over IT.

Some of my favourites...

The Runner by Cynthia Voigt. Best of the Tillerman novels, which is saying something. The greatest character in YA fiction? Tall order, but perhaps.

Also, recently read Before I Die by Jenny Downham. A 16 year-old girl is dying of cancer, and #1 on her bucket list? To lose her virginity....preferably to a boy she loves. Of course, going through her final cycle of remission will complicate things. Shattering book. Highly recommended.

One from back in the day, thankfully not OOP, The Hero of New York by Glen T Coughlin. The awkward son of a highly decorated NYPD detective struggles to deal with his own shit while his father deals with the charge of beating orthodox Jews during a neighbourhood riot in the late '80s. Great book, shades of Richard Price.

Speaking of Richard Price, Mark Kriegel, the Fox sportswriter, wrote a great novel back in the mid-90s, Bless Me Father. Nicky, the happy-go-lucky son of a low-ranked Brooklyn wiseguy, just wants to "lose his virginity and listen to sweet soul music." His father, who had his own dreams 20 years earlier, wants to make a name for himself on the streets and for his son to become the next golden gloves champ. The two goals may be related, unfortunately for Nicky. Kriegel's written a couple of fair sports books, but his love for his central characters is better served in his novels than his biographies.

Despite all the Gossip Girl/vampire crap on the shelves, there is a tremendous amount of worthy YA fiction on the shelves these days. The successful mass market authors who have decided to dip their toe in the YA pool have little to do with it.

Gee whiz.

Just let me catch the end of the FNL run and I'll die happily.

Wait, and the end of Jason Aaron's Scalped.

Edisto
The Risk Pool

Great call! And I just re-read it in time for the Halloween season, but it didn't occur to me immediately as a Bildungsroman, rather a great meditation on youth and old age... but you could indeed look upon it as a coming-of-age of some sorts.
And not to mention: a terrific adventure romp. Also, Bradbury must write the most beautiful obtuse language in the whole scifi canon. There were whole passages (balloon witch!) that made me feel what was going on, rather than describe it to me.
Off-topic rant over, I just had to vent the love for a moment.

cheftournel, completely agree and share your love for Bradbury.

I also felt this thread needs Huckleberry Finn by the great Mark Twain.

Arnett Mead gets a shout out on Gossip GIrl, the TV show, meaning it and FNL exist in the same universe. Oh noes what is Subotai going to do?

(For the record, I enjoy GG the show, but have not read any of the books. I could tell you all why, but nobody wants to read that crap.)

Based on the mention in this thread and the fact that I haven't read it despite loving Ms. Didion, I got Play it as it Lays tonight. Looking forward to it.

And as for good YA novels, The Graveyard Book is the best thing Neil Gaiman's written since Sandman.

I have no idea if it would connect with non-Norwegians, but let's give it a go: Beatles by Lars Saabye Christensen is fantastic, and was recently translated into English for the first time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatles_%28book%29

Nice one!

Tim Sandlin's Grovant trilogy is great. Its about the lives of two kids, starting in the early 60's. Its like The Wonder Years with sex and swearing. And I'm not talking senior in High School teens, young teens.