This week’s theme: Choose a political or social issue that matters to you. Find several books addressing that issue; they don’t have to be books you’ve read, just books you might like to read. Using images (of the book covers or whatever you feel illustrates your topic) present these books in your blog.

The lion’s share of the novels that I’ve read throughout my life have dealt in large part with one or both of these subjects, and I’m hard-pressed to think of a theme that is used as often as conformity or alienation.  The reason authors focus on how it feels to be on the outside (or scrabbling to stay on the inside) so often is because it is sometimes the major focus of our lives, especially when we are young.  How many of us, both male and female, have secretly wept because we were picked last in gym class?  How many of us were devastated because some neanderthal bully told us we were ugly or fat or stupid or geeky or one of a myriad number of other silly put-downs that shouldn’t have mattered a damn but somehow meant more than anything in the world to us?

Everyone wants to be admired, or at least accepted.  Even as adults, we can be crushed by an unkind word (yeah, Care, quit it already!) or an obvious snubbing by our families, friends or coworkers.  Some people want so desperately to belong to the “in-crowd” that they will sacrifice their morality and integrity and practically everything in between just to fit in.

Here are a few of my favorite novels, some of them science fiction, that deal with either conformity or alienation or both because they often go hand-in-hand.

Conformity

 The Chocolate War

I mentioned this in my post about favorite kids books.  This really had an impact on me, and it is the “conformiest” novel I can think of.  The mob mentality totally rules here, and anyone who refuses to conform is ripped to shreds.

The Chrysalids

I’ve been waiting to mention John Wyndham because I want to devote an entire post to him, but The Chrysalids absolutely has to be part of this list.  The novel is set in a post-holocaust future.  There are mutations due to radiation, and anyone who deviates from the norm is cast out into “The Fringes,” a wasteland where one’s prospects of survival are almost non-existent.

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

One of the best novels ever written about human cloning.  Kate Wilhelm’s thoughtful portrait of clones wanting to become their own individual selves is a classic, and I need to read it again.

The Handmaid’s Tale

This novel about “breeders” totally creeped me out, but it was an excellent read.

Never Let Me Go

The kids in this novel blindly accept their fate without question.  I’m currently listening to this on cd and loving it.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The novel is much better than the movies (but then, I adore Jack Finney).  You learn more about the aliens and their motivations in the novel, plus Finney is a suberb writer.

Alienation

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

One of the saddest novels I’ve ever read, and also one of the very best.  Mr. Singer — God how I miss Mr. Singer!

Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon

This novel is heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful, thank goodness!

In This Sign

Can there be anything more isolating than deafness?  This is a beautifully plotted and thoughtful examination of a deaf couple and their hearing daughter.

Geek Love

This novel belongs in a class by itself.  The only thing that may be more isolating than deafness is to be a carnival freak, although these freaks were raised to appreciate themselves and each other.  Great, great story.

The Ha-Ha

Read my review here.  I’m anxiously awaiting Dave King’s next novel.  Where are you, Mr. King?  I miss you!

The Catcher in the Rye

Of course, of course, of course.

That’s it, at least for now.  I’ll think of a dozen others that I’ll wish I included before I go to bed tonight.  I’ll probably have nightmares about the poor neglected novels I didn’t mention.  I’ll be chased in tonight’s dreams by Camus and Dostoyevsky wielding copies of The Stranger and Crime and Punishment and screeching in their respective tongues that they’ve been robbed, closely followed by Victor Hugo bemoaning the fact that all of his novels are about alieniation.  How can I snub him so?  I will then be enveloped by The Hunchback of Notre Dame in my one of my dreams.  He will wrap me in his arms, weeping and sniveling, and I’ll wake up drenched in tears and saliva with my ears ringing stentoriously.

Maybe I’ll just take some no-doz and stay awake all night long.  

This week’s theme is going to be really fun because the children’s books I once enjoyed are numerous.   Of course, I won’t be able to recall even half of them — just the most influential or the ones that have a memorable story behind them.  Here goes:

Preschool & Early Elementary
     1. 1st book – Green Eggs & Ham.  How I loved that Sam I Am!  I was about 3 or so and would sit on my potty chair yelling it out so that my poor beleagured mother could hear and exclaim about my oratory and readatory talent.
     2. Favorite Dr. Seuss ”I Can Read” book – Go Dog Go!  I loved the greenish-bluish and pinkish colors in the illustrations.  I also liked the picture of dogs playing in one of the bluish trees.

     3. Favorite Poetry Book – When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne.  I read it over and over again until I knew all the poems by heart.

     4. Millions of Cats – I was into cats big time.  This one had great illustrations.

     5. Edith, the Lonely Doll books– I still like to read these now.

     6. Madeline series – Made me want to be a French schoolgirl.

     Grades 3 & 4
     1. The Boxcar Children – I think I read every one of these several times.

     2. The Wizard of Oz Series – They were given to me by my aunt, and I have them stashed away in a special place.
     3. Roald Dahl – I probably read all of them.  My favorites were Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches.
     4. Winnie the Pooh – My favorite kid’s books of all time, and my favorite characters of all time.  I’m a major Piglet fan, and Eeyore’s really cool too!

     5. Harriet the Spy – This needs no explanation.

     6. Walkabout – A really cool book about some English kids going “walkabout” with an aborigine kid.  It has always stuck in my mind.

     7.  Don Robertson’s Morris Bird books — My Dad found them in a used bookstore.  They moved me so much that they got me started on my 5th & 6th grade “sad book” phase.  It looks like The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread has been reissued.  Woot!  The other two in the trilogy are:  The Sum and Total of Now and The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened. 

Grades 5 & 6
     1. The Lord Of the Rings – I read these over and over again until I knew several passages by heart.  I remain absolutely certain that I’ve got Elvish blood in me!
     2. Robert Heinlein – I read so many of his books that I can’t even remember them all.  My favorite is Citizen of the Galaxy.

     3. John Christopher’s “Tripods Trilogy,” The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead and The Pool of Fire.  I reread these several years ago and was still quite impressed.  

     4. Lord of the Flies – I read this in the 5th grade and was enthralled.  This led me into my coming-of-age phase where I read I Am the Cheese, The Chocolate War, A Separate Peace, The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and, of course, The Catcher in the Rye.  I haven’t outgrown this phase yet!