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Reading changes lives. I’d go one step further and say that reading fiction can even save your life. We don’t need to debate the value of either, though. Assuming you don’t disagree with me — and, frankly, I can’t imagine you do if you’re reading 5AM StoryTalk — I want to ask about the novels that did either in one way or another for you. Specifically:
What novel made you a better person (and why)?
Tell me about the experience, how it laid you out, how it challenged you, how it forced you to evolve, how it inspired you to become a teacher or volunteer or commit yourself to social change or whatever else you think qualifies as better than you were before you finished the novel, clapped its cover shut (or shut down your digital device), and muttered, “My god, nothing will ever be the same for me, will it?”
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‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ It taught me a lot about compassion and judgement. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.”
The King Must Die by Mary Renault, which I discovered at the age of fourteen in the school library. I’m not sure it made me a better person (well, probably. It lead me to a very challenging concept of what a leader was and what responsibility was.) More than that, it turned me into a DIFFERENT person, realizing that there were entire psychic universes that were completely different from the one around me, that functioned equally well, and possibly better.
A novel that has always stayed with me is "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love" by Oscar Hijuelos. I read it after seeing the movie in the early nineties and the book was so much more than I would have imagined. I've known a lot of musicians over the years and I think this novel perfectly captures what it means to be a real musician, which in my view is someone who creates music whether someone is listening or not, and the life of musicians and their families that never become stars outside of their own hometowns. There is a lot of heartbreak and reality in this story. It's a beautiful piece of writing.
"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. The guy spent most of his long life fighting against capitalism and trying to make life better for the oppressed, and that's what this novel is all about. In the sad fate of Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus we discover how capitalism uses and abuses workers capriciously, and, despite gains in the other direction, still does. I read this as an impressionable young student in high school and it has made me want to be kinder to all people in bad circumstances ever since.
You reminded me of John Dos Passos’ USA Trilogy. The Jungle and The Grapes of Wrath are better known (and deserve all the love they receive), and Dos Passos’ work is equal to these. He immerses the reader in lives they might not otherwise know. I don’t know how someone could not be affected by his books.
Fun story, I read The Jungle for history class and Grapes of Wrath for English class at the same time in high school, resulting in an early Aughts form of teenage doomerism where I felt I was being shown that both urban industrial and rural agricultural ways of life would leave me sick, impoverished, and alone.
'The Mists of Avalon' was a divine read for me. There's some part of my mind where I sit by a glorious fire in my tapestry-laden castle, spinning wool, while my mind runs through the forest on the wild hunt. And 'The Name of the Rose' taught me there are many layers to life, and I won't understand them all (this book holds a special place not least because I wrote my finest ever uni assignment on it, right before we travelled to Europe and there be a certain magic in that...)
I first read it in 1983 in German in Germany and again in ‘87 in English here in Australia.. more times since then. It makes me believe in magic, the power and mental strength of women, which men always underestimate. Men only ever conquered through their physical strength.
Not sure it qualifies as making me a better person, but I'll detail two novels that changed me when I was a teenager. One was "The Egyptian" by Waltari. The negative impact of religion on some characters in the book made me realize I'm atheist. Another book that changed me was "Persian boy" by Mary Renault. The book is about Alexander the great, but the impact it had on me was the portrayal of gay love. Since that book, I understand that love between two men can be as strong as between a man and a woman. It opened my eyes to be more accepting of other forms of love.
I remember “The Egyptian.’ I was twenty years old, dropped out of uni, grudgingly subsidized at secretarial school by my parents, who just wished I would stop costing them money. Living in a two-room suite, where I’d come home from practicing (and failing at) typing, and duck into the 2nd hand bookstore across the street, and pick up some printed painkiller. The story in The Egyptian flagged in the middle, but still I knew this was WRITING. the next time I saw Waltari’s name on a spine, I picked it up. It was ‘The Stranger Came To The Farm.’ It metaphorically slammed me into the ground. It set me up for Simenon’s romans durs, the early non-Maigret, bleakly realist novels. Never could believe in happily-ever-after romance again. Stopped looking for Mr. Right and hitch-hiked to Mexico with a draft dodger (1970).
This is an interesting question, and I had to stay with it for a few minutes to tap into books that changed the way I think. Many books make an impression, but few change your identity.
When I was a freshman in college, my stepdad gave me his copy of Richard Hofstadter's "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life." I'd been raised in a rural area in northeast Texas. Few students from my graduating class in high school even applied to college. I was bookish, so felt like an outsider. My stepdad, I think, saw some of himself in me. He'd grown up in an even smaller town, skipped several grades, and went to college at 15.
After reading the book, I understood that my experiences weren't special to me. I quit thinking of myself as an outlier, which boosted my confidence, and I started thinking more strategically about the world I inhabited. I'm sure Hofstadter had no intention to write a self-help book, but it helped me fundamentally reconsider my identity.
Maybe not better, but more interested in a myriad of things was Jurassic Park. Got computer science, genetic engineering, and problem of privatization of science all in one book
I've absolutely developed most of my moral compass through reading and cinema. My compassion for anyone not in my family is probably wholly located in these art forms, as I certainly didn't learn it from those in my family and church who were meant to teach it to me. Without either mediums, I'd probably still be pretending to be a Christian, too.
I'm with you on this one. Reading deeply itself helps develop skills of attention and analysis, in some cases compassion and others alertness to malevolence, but the content of the novels I've read have never necessarily driven me to a moralized decision.
A ‘better person’ and making ‘ a moralized decision’ aren’t necessarily the same thing. Recall C.S. Lewis: “those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
‘Where The Red Fern Grows changed me as a young person. Not only did it teach me the benefit of hard work and sacrifice, but about loyalty, friendship, and commitment. As a reader, it was also when I realized I wanted to write stories that could affect people as deeply as that novel hit me right in my boy’s heart.
Hi, this is such an interesting and hard thinking question, particularly as I find my moral challenge comes from non-fiction at the moment. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - I've carried the story with me, and I think embedded in me the idea of everyone having a voice, that women have agency to speak truth to power and make decisions, of class consciousness. (Though obviously Rochester's first hidden-away wife doesn't have that same voice or agency, so better, fairer treatment for everyone all round).
"The Death of Vishnu" by Manil Suri caught me by surprise at the tender age of thirty, in those halcyon days just before 9-11. Living alone in a garret apartment in Seattle, the lyricism and beauty of the story wrapped me in a blanket of care and made clear to me the purpose of life was to pay attention to every single salient detail and share those treasures with the world. Suri's particular brand of magical realism highlighted caste and class without brutalizing my imagination but imparted an urgency and dedication to beauty I retain to this day.
I think 2 books changed me when I was a lot younger, a teen in highschool. 1. Sophie's world by Jostein Gaarder, because I loved philosophy and reading in general and 2. Weaveworld by Clive Barker which I read shortly after (stealing it from my olders sister library) and it amazed me on how scary and excilirating a book can be! Those 2 books made me a better reader and person as a Greek teenager.
“The Cat That Walked a Week” by Meindert DeJong – i don’t remember much of it, except the title
i was in year six when i read it – at the time i was not much interested in reading – having struggled in previous years, i had become convinced that it wasn’t my thing
so during our Library class each week, i borrowed picture books like those in the original “Thomas the Tank Engine” series with their small, gravure colour plates pasted in by hand onto the letterpress pages (i’m guessing they would be quite the collectable today)
seeing this, the Librarian took me aside one week and suggested i try “The Cat ...”, explaining it was by a Dutch author – i guess she thought the supposed cultural link (my parents were Dutch) would encourage me to give it try – and maybe it did – or maybe i was just doing as i was told ...
anyway, i ripped through “The Cat ...” and was soon reading children’s versions of the classic adventures like “Treasure Island”, “The Three Musketeers”, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” etc – before moving onto other genres – i became “addicted” to reading – it opened me up to people, worlds and ideas that would have otherwise been inaccessible to a kid living in conservative, religious household in little city near the bottom of the world map
so, while it was all the novels that followed, which did the heavy lifting when it came to making me a better person (including some of those listed below in the comments) – it was “The Cat ...” that began the process
It's so wonderful you can remember this foundational book in your life. I have a vague memory of the first book-book I ever read, that set me in motion, but I can't remember its name anymore....
How to narrow it down to just one? I think of the time I was home sick from school and read Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and came away thinking/hoping that magic actually existed in our world, not just in some distant Narnia. I also think of the existential unmooring I experienced reading my first Philip K Dick book, Flow My Years The Policeman Said. That changed how I saw reality itself. Did either of this make me a better person? Maybe the first made me more open to a less materialistic view of the world, and the latter more forgiving of those who just don't want to contemplate the tumult of shifting realities, which can drive people (like PKD) nuts.
I’d been attracted to the image of the toad on the cover and the unique name/word in the title of John Irving’s The World According To Garp for years on book spinners but I wasn’t prepared for the moving, funny, human story it told when I read it as an arrogant 19 year old. I fell in love with all the complicated, flawed, beautiful characters. Experiencing this novel made me a more tolerant person and, therefore, a better person. Everyone should read it, I need to re-read it.
I've had this book sitting on my shelf for a while, but I always manage to get distracted from starting it over others. I think I need to hurry up now. Have you read its sequel?
‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ It taught me a lot about compassion and judgement. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.”
One of the most influential books on my identity, too.
No question, for me it’s The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin. It did a lot to open my mind on various things, especially regarding gender.
Ssh, you’ll get it banned. It’s still ahead of its time. Should have got the Nobel.
This book was so important to me, too.
The King Must Die by Mary Renault, which I discovered at the age of fourteen in the school library. I’m not sure it made me a better person (well, probably. It lead me to a very challenging concept of what a leader was and what responsibility was.) More than that, it turned me into a DIFFERENT person, realizing that there were entire psychic universes that were completely different from the one around me, that functioned equally well, and possibly better.
A novel that has always stayed with me is "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love" by Oscar Hijuelos. I read it after seeing the movie in the early nineties and the book was so much more than I would have imagined. I've known a lot of musicians over the years and I think this novel perfectly captures what it means to be a real musician, which in my view is someone who creates music whether someone is listening or not, and the life of musicians and their families that never become stars outside of their own hometowns. There is a lot of heartbreak and reality in this story. It's a beautiful piece of writing.
"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. The guy spent most of his long life fighting against capitalism and trying to make life better for the oppressed, and that's what this novel is all about. In the sad fate of Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus we discover how capitalism uses and abuses workers capriciously, and, despite gains in the other direction, still does. I read this as an impressionable young student in high school and it has made me want to be kinder to all people in bad circumstances ever since.
You reminded me of John Dos Passos’ USA Trilogy. The Jungle and The Grapes of Wrath are better known (and deserve all the love they receive), and Dos Passos’ work is equal to these. He immerses the reader in lives they might not otherwise know. I don’t know how someone could not be affected by his books.
Fun story, I read The Jungle for history class and Grapes of Wrath for English class at the same time in high school, resulting in an early Aughts form of teenage doomerism where I felt I was being shown that both urban industrial and rural agricultural ways of life would leave me sick, impoverished, and alone.
Aughts not August I have been having the worst time with autocorrect lately
All of them.
Good answer.
"Giovanni's Room" by James Baldwin
'The Mists of Avalon' was a divine read for me. There's some part of my mind where I sit by a glorious fire in my tapestry-laden castle, spinning wool, while my mind runs through the forest on the wild hunt. And 'The Name of the Rose' taught me there are many layers to life, and I won't understand them all (this book holds a special place not least because I wrote my finest ever uni assignment on it, right before we travelled to Europe and there be a certain magic in that...)
I first read it in 1983 in German in Germany and again in ‘87 in English here in Australia.. more times since then. It makes me believe in magic, the power and mental strength of women, which men always underestimate. Men only ever conquered through their physical strength.
such a magical book x
Not sure it qualifies as making me a better person, but I'll detail two novels that changed me when I was a teenager. One was "The Egyptian" by Waltari. The negative impact of religion on some characters in the book made me realize I'm atheist. Another book that changed me was "Persian boy" by Mary Renault. The book is about Alexander the great, but the impact it had on me was the portrayal of gay love. Since that book, I understand that love between two men can be as strong as between a man and a woman. It opened my eyes to be more accepting of other forms of love.
Yeah, I mentioned above how books made me realize I was an atheist, too. My life changed at that point.
I remember “The Egyptian.’ I was twenty years old, dropped out of uni, grudgingly subsidized at secretarial school by my parents, who just wished I would stop costing them money. Living in a two-room suite, where I’d come home from practicing (and failing at) typing, and duck into the 2nd hand bookstore across the street, and pick up some printed painkiller. The story in The Egyptian flagged in the middle, but still I knew this was WRITING. the next time I saw Waltari’s name on a spine, I picked it up. It was ‘The Stranger Came To The Farm.’ It metaphorically slammed me into the ground. It set me up for Simenon’s romans durs, the early non-Maigret, bleakly realist novels. Never could believe in happily-ever-after romance again. Stopped looking for Mr. Right and hitch-hiked to Mexico with a draft dodger (1970).
This is an interesting question, and I had to stay with it for a few minutes to tap into books that changed the way I think. Many books make an impression, but few change your identity.
When I was a freshman in college, my stepdad gave me his copy of Richard Hofstadter's "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life." I'd been raised in a rural area in northeast Texas. Few students from my graduating class in high school even applied to college. I was bookish, so felt like an outsider. My stepdad, I think, saw some of himself in me. He'd grown up in an even smaller town, skipped several grades, and went to college at 15.
After reading the book, I understood that my experiences weren't special to me. I quit thinking of myself as an outlier, which boosted my confidence, and I started thinking more strategically about the world I inhabited. I'm sure Hofstadter had no intention to write a self-help book, but it helped me fundamentally reconsider my identity.
Fascinating choice, and one that's prompted me to add it to my reading list - thanks!
Maybe not better, but more interested in a myriad of things was Jurassic Park. Got computer science, genetic engineering, and problem of privatization of science all in one book
Unpopular opinion: no novel ever made anyone a better person. Better educated, more aware, more intelligent ‐- sure. Morally better? No.
I've absolutely developed most of my moral compass through reading and cinema. My compassion for anyone not in my family is probably wholly located in these art forms, as I certainly didn't learn it from those in my family and church who were meant to teach it to me. Without either mediums, I'd probably still be pretending to be a Christian, too.
I'm with you on this one. Reading deeply itself helps develop skills of attention and analysis, in some cases compassion and others alertness to malevolence, but the content of the novels I've read have never necessarily driven me to a moralized decision.
A ‘better person’ and making ‘ a moralized decision’ aren’t necessarily the same thing. Recall C.S. Lewis: “those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
‘Where The Red Fern Grows changed me as a young person. Not only did it teach me the benefit of hard work and sacrifice, but about loyalty, friendship, and commitment. As a reader, it was also when I realized I wanted to write stories that could affect people as deeply as that novel hit me right in my boy’s heart.
Hi, this is such an interesting and hard thinking question, particularly as I find my moral challenge comes from non-fiction at the moment. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - I've carried the story with me, and I think embedded in me the idea of everyone having a voice, that women have agency to speak truth to power and make decisions, of class consciousness. (Though obviously Rochester's first hidden-away wife doesn't have that same voice or agency, so better, fairer treatment for everyone all round).
"The Death of Vishnu" by Manil Suri caught me by surprise at the tender age of thirty, in those halcyon days just before 9-11. Living alone in a garret apartment in Seattle, the lyricism and beauty of the story wrapped me in a blanket of care and made clear to me the purpose of life was to pay attention to every single salient detail and share those treasures with the world. Suri's particular brand of magical realism highlighted caste and class without brutalizing my imagination but imparted an urgency and dedication to beauty I retain to this day.
I think 2 books changed me when I was a lot younger, a teen in highschool. 1. Sophie's world by Jostein Gaarder, because I loved philosophy and reading in general and 2. Weaveworld by Clive Barker which I read shortly after (stealing it from my olders sister library) and it amazed me on how scary and excilirating a book can be! Those 2 books made me a better reader and person as a Greek teenager.
That Clive Barker showed up on this thread is both surprising and delightful.
The Penguin Modern Classics opened up a whole world for me after leaving school at 15 and a half. They were my university.
“The Cat That Walked a Week” by Meindert DeJong – i don’t remember much of it, except the title
i was in year six when i read it – at the time i was not much interested in reading – having struggled in previous years, i had become convinced that it wasn’t my thing
so during our Library class each week, i borrowed picture books like those in the original “Thomas the Tank Engine” series with their small, gravure colour plates pasted in by hand onto the letterpress pages (i’m guessing they would be quite the collectable today)
seeing this, the Librarian took me aside one week and suggested i try “The Cat ...”, explaining it was by a Dutch author – i guess she thought the supposed cultural link (my parents were Dutch) would encourage me to give it try – and maybe it did – or maybe i was just doing as i was told ...
anyway, i ripped through “The Cat ...” and was soon reading children’s versions of the classic adventures like “Treasure Island”, “The Three Musketeers”, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” etc – before moving onto other genres – i became “addicted” to reading – it opened me up to people, worlds and ideas that would have otherwise been inaccessible to a kid living in conservative, religious household in little city near the bottom of the world map
so, while it was all the novels that followed, which did the heavy lifting when it came to making me a better person (including some of those listed below in the comments) – it was “The Cat ...” that began the process
It's so wonderful you can remember this foundational book in your life. I have a vague memory of the first book-book I ever read, that set me in motion, but I can't remember its name anymore....
How to narrow it down to just one? I think of the time I was home sick from school and read Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and came away thinking/hoping that magic actually existed in our world, not just in some distant Narnia. I also think of the existential unmooring I experienced reading my first Philip K Dick book, Flow My Years The Policeman Said. That changed how I saw reality itself. Did either of this make me a better person? Maybe the first made me more open to a less materialistic view of the world, and the latter more forgiving of those who just don't want to contemplate the tumult of shifting realities, which can drive people (like PKD) nuts.
I’d been attracted to the image of the toad on the cover and the unique name/word in the title of John Irving’s The World According To Garp for years on book spinners but I wasn’t prepared for the moving, funny, human story it told when I read it as an arrogant 19 year old. I fell in love with all the complicated, flawed, beautiful characters. Experiencing this novel made me a more tolerant person and, therefore, a better person. Everyone should read it, I need to re-read it.
I've had this book sitting on my shelf for a while, but I always manage to get distracted from starting it over others. I think I need to hurry up now. Have you read its sequel?