June 2002
The classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel about "post-war disillusionment" (according to the jacket blurb). I believe Gatsby represented the danger of excess, the fruitless pursuit of an unattainable illusion, and how neither will get you were you want to be.

June 2002
Alan Duff's true fiction about the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand and their societal plagues (alcoholism, drug abuse, spousal abuse, low education, etc.). Very similar to the problems of Canada's native peoples on reservations in the north. An enlightening book that makes you count your blessings a thousand times over.

May 2002
Tom Wolfe - best known for Bonfire of the Vanities - writes this sprawling, 800-page novel emblematic of the nineties. Enthrallingingly multi-threaded yet intertwined, the novel works with a few different themes, primarily that of making your own destiny in the face of adversity. The story is complex, but not the syntax.

May 2002
I think I am a Dave Eggers groupie. McSweeney's is the Eggers-founded quarterly literary pub containing short works of fiction from approximately 10 different authors. The cover shown is from issue 4 since that's all I could find online. The best story in issue 7 was "The World Record Holder Settles Down". Read it to be cool. I do.

If you're looking for a photo of Dave Eggers, try here.

May 2002
This Chris Bohjalian novel is a fictional account of the plight of a pre- then post-op M2F transsexual and her schoolteacher girlfriend in a Vermont village. It's told through the alternating perspectives of the four main characers: Dana, Will, Allison and Carly in a spoken word syntax that kept me riveted. I read it in two nights.