Literature > Family Drama
Absalom, Absalom!
by William Faulkner
It tells the story of Thomas Sutpen and his ruthless, single-minded attempt to forge a dynasty in Jefferson, Mississippi, in 1830. Although his grand design is ultimately destroyed by his own sons, a century later the figure of Sutpen continues to haunt young Quentin Compson, who is obsessed with his family legacy and that of the Old South.
Year: 1936
Genre: Family Drama, Southern Gothic
As I Lay Dying
by William Faulkner
At the heart of this 1930 novel is the Bundren family's bizarre journey to Jefferson to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Faulkner lets each family member -- including Addie -- and others along the way tell their private responses to Addie's life.
Year: 1930
Genre: 1920s, Family Drama, Southern Gothic
Bright, Precious Days
by Jay McInerney
This unforgettable New York story of glamour, sex, ambition, and heartbreak begins in the heady days before the financial crash. But beneath the glossy surfaces, things are simmering. The third book in McInerney's celebrated Calloway trilogy, Bright, Precious Days is an aching, extraordinary portrait of a marriage during a period of dizzying change.
Year: 2016
Genre: Domestic Suspense, Family Drama
Brightness Falls
by Jay McInerney
As he maps the fault lines spreading through the marriage of Russell and Corrine Calloway and chronicles Russell's wildly ambitious scheme to seize control of the publishing house at which he works, Jay McInerney creates an elegy for New York in the 1980s. From the literary chimeras and corporate raiders to those dispossessed by the pandemonium of money and power, Brightness Falls captures a rash era at its moment of reckoning and gives reality back to a time that now seems decidedly unreal.
Year: 1992
Genre: 1980s, Domestic Suspense, Family Drama
Collected Stories
by William Faulkner
This magisterial collection of short works by Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner reminds readers of his ability to compress his epic vision into narratives as hard and wounding as bullets. Among the 42 selections in this book are such classics as "A Bear Hunt, " "A Rose for Emily, " Two Soldiers, " and "The Brooch."
Year: 1930
Genre: Family Drama, Southern Gothic
Death of a Salesman
by Arthur Miller
Willy Loman has spent his life following the American way, living out his belief in salesmanship as a way to reinvent himself. But somehow the riches and respect he covets have eluded him. He searches for the moment his life took a wrong turn, the moment of betrayal that undermined his relationship with his wife and destroyed his relationship with Biff, the son in whom he invested his faith.
Year: 1949
Genre: Family Drama
Light in August
by William Faulkner
Lena Grove's resolute search for the father of her unborn child begets a rich, poignant, and ultimately hopeful story of perseverance in the face of mortality. It also acquaints us with several of Faulkner's most unforgettable characters, including the Reverend Gail Hightower, plagued by visions of Confederate horsemen, and Joe Christmas, a ragged, itinerant soul obsessed with his mixed-race ancestry.
Year: 1932
Genre: Family Drama, Southern Gothic
The Fortunate Pilgrim
by Mario Puzo
Puzo's classic story about the loves, crimes and struggles confronted by one family of New York City immigrants living in Hell's Kitchen. Fresh from the farms in Italy, Lucia Santa struggles to hold her family together in a strange land. At turns poignant, comic and violent, The Fortunate Pilgrim is Italian-American fiction at its very best.
Year: 1965
Genre: Family Drama
The Good Life
by Jay McInerney
Clinging to a semiprecarious existence in TriBeCa, Corrine and Russell Calloway have survived a separation and are wonderstruck by young twins. Several miles uptown, Luke McGavock has postponed his accumulation of wealth in an attempt to recover the sense of purpose now lacking in a life that often gives him pause. But on a September morning, brightness falls horribly from the sky, and people worlds apart suddenly find themselves working side by side at the devastated site.
Year: 2006
Genre: Domestic Suspense, Family Drama
The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character's voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner's masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
Year: 1929
Genre: 1920s, Family Drama, Southern Gothic