Reading path
Fathers and Sons (and Mothers and Daughters)
The oldest wound in literature. The bonds that shape us before we have any say in the matter: inheritance, expectation, betrayal, the long road toward forgiveness or the refusal of it. Every family contains a universe of unspoken debt, and these writers map that territory with brutal precision. This path has a way of making the personal feel universal and the universal feel painfully personal.
In the app a path keeps your place, marks what you have read, and hands you the next work when you are ready for it.
The first button needs the app on this device; the second gets it there.
The route
- 1. Oedipus RexSophocles, 429 BCE
- 2. King LearWilliam Shakespeare, 1606
- 3. HamletWilliam Shakespeare, 1601
- 4. The Brothers KaramazovFyodor Dostoevsky, 1880
- 5. Fathers and SonsIvan Turgenev, 1862
- 6. As I Lay DyingWilliam Faulkner, 1930
- 7. Long Day's Journey into NightEugene O'Neill, 1956
- 8. Death of a SalesmanArthur Miller, 1949
- 9. The Sound and the FuryWilliam Faulkner, 1929
- 10. Go Tell It on the MountainJames Baldwin, 1953
- 11. A Raisin in the SunLorraine Hansberry, 1959
- 12. Absalom, Absalom!William Faulkner, 1936
- 13. East of EdenJohn Steinbeck, 1952
- 14. American PastoralPhilip Roth, 1997
- 15. Midnight's ChildrenSalman Rushdie, 1981
- 16. The Cairo TrilogyNaguib Mahfouz, 1957
- 17. Father GoriotHonoré de Balzac, 1835
- 18. The GodfatherMario Puzo, 1969
- 19. Cry, the Beloved CountryAlan Paton, 1948
- 20. The Man Who Loved ChildrenChristina Stead, 1940
- 21. The CorrectionsJonathan Franzen, 2001
- 22. Bastard Out of CarolinaDorothy Allison, 1992
- 23. HistoryElsa Morante, 1974
- 24. A Death in the FamilyJames Agee, 1957
- 25. Sons and LoversD.H. Lawrence, 1913
- 26. Oedipus at ColonusSophocles, 401 BCE
- 27. Portnoy's ComplaintPhilip Roth, 1969
- 28. White TeethZadie Smith, 2000
- 29. The Good EarthPearl S. Buck, 1931
- 30. The CounterfeitersAndré Gide, 1925
- 31. Please Look After MomShin Kyung-sook, 2008
- 32. LandPak Kyongni, 1969
- 33. The Radetzky MarchJoseph Roth, 1932
- 34. True History of the Kelly GangPeter Carey, 2000
- 35. Way of All FleshSamuel Butler, 1903
- 36. This Boy's LifeTobias Wolff, 1989
- 37. No NameWilkie Collins, 1862
- 38. Pierre et JeanGuy de Maupassant, 1888
- 39. Washington SquareHenry James, 1880
- 40. TangiWiti Ihimaera, 1973