The 10 Best Coming-of-Age Books
Who’s tryna bildungs some romans? Me. These bildungsroman coming of age masterpieces are staples of the genre. Because some puberties are more important than other puberties! These are the most important puberties of all time.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Is it Bushwick rooftop weed? No! It’s the unkillable Tree of Heaven as a metaphor for perseverance! A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith is the tale of Francie Nolan, a young girl growing up in Williamsburg in the early 20th century. There are no yuppies at coffeeshops sucking down six dollar cold brews here. It’s all working class people, down on their luck and dreaming of better lives. Francie’s family is one of them. Her mom works like a dog, while her dad drinks like a fish. And all she wants is an education to make her way in the world.
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin’s Go Tell It On The Mountain centers around the 14 year old John Grimes, who is growing up in Harlem in the early 1930’s. John’s family is deeply religious, which is at odds with their son’s burgeoning gay identity. Go Tell It On The Mountain is a story about the rocky road to self discovery and acceptance, shouting your newfound identity from the mountaintops in glory, for all the world to see. Fans of James Baldwin will feel the complex memories the author’s childhood seeping through the pages. Sometimes fiction helps us better understand fact.
The Bell Jar
The 1950’s were not a good time to be a woman struggling with mental illness. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is case and point. The semi-autobiographical novel follows Esther Greenwood and her descent into mental health struggles, as well as her less than stellar experiences with the psychiatric systems in place at the time. Esther is a woman beneath a bell jar, trapped by society she was born into, and slowly suffocating inside it.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a work of poetry from the title to ending period. The fragmentary novel takes the form of letters written by Vietnamese immigrant nicknamed Little Dog to his mother Hong, who ekes out a living working in a nail salon. The letters tell the harrowing story of Little Dog’s grandmother, who escaped an arranged marriage in Vietnam and supported herself during the war by selling her body, as well as Little Dog’s newfound gay identity and relationship with a lover. Gorgeous is a story about generational trauma, the cost of war, and finding one’s place in the world in spite of it all.
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is a landmark coming of age novel about a young Black man growing up during the beginning of the 20th century. Although he becomes swept up in civil rights movements of the time, he feels invisible in a society that refuses to pay attention. This novel is not a tale of triumph. The unnamed narrator is eventually pushed into living a subterranean existence. It’s rather a tale about what it means when we ignore each other’s humanity, and the toxicity that results from such an act.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Talk about a title. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is a spiritual odyssey about a young Black woman attempting to find her place in the world during the early 20th century. Despite Janie and her family’s hardships, she believes that she is being watched over by a higher power. This belief keeps her going through prejudice, poverty, and three separate marriages. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story about the pursuit of meaning in a society that denies it from those they deem lesser.
It
While Stephen King is most often hailed as the King of Horror, he is also a master of the coming of age story. If you don’t wanna read a thousand pages of It to see that it’s true, just his short story The Body that inspired the film Stand By Me and you’ll see what I mean. But if you’re down for the ride, It is his best novel. Set in the run down Maine town of Derry, a group of children realizes that they are being hunted by an inter-dimensional shape shifter that takes the form of their greatest fears. They must conquer what they fear most in order to defeat the dark intelligence, and then come back 27 years later as adult and do it all again.
Middlesex
Middlesex is the coming of age story of Cal Stephanides, an intersex man whose feminine genetic traits caused the adults in his life to socialize him as a woman. Spanning Cal’s childhood to adult years, Middlesex tells the story of the things that made Cal: his upbringing, his Greek heritage, and the medical condition that has caused his struggle for identity. And for all you Booktok types, you’ll be pleased to know there is no dearth of romance and sex scenes. Yowza.
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is many things, and none of them are pleasant. It is horror novel, historical fiction, and coming of age tale rolled into one. The story begins in the 19th century in the American West, where a nameless young boy known as The Kid runs away from home to join up with an infamous group of (historically accurate) scalp hunters known as The Glanton Gang. One of the members of the gang is a seven foot tall albino man known as Judge Holden, whose seemingly supernatural talents and penchant for moral depravity make him perhaps the personification of human evil incarnate. Blood Meridian is a novel about the inescapable nature of evil, and how it permeates the human condition.
The Perks of Being A Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being A Wallflower is an epistolary novel centering around the teenage Charlie who is attempting to navigate the rigors of high school. A self identified wallflower, Charlie has identified that being an introvert can have its benefits. Charlie’s laid back demeanor allows him to observe and listen more deeply to his classmates, and he is able to find the value in solitude. Despite his lone wolf nature, Charlie is eventually able to find acceptance among his classmates. The weird kids love him, and we all know that the weird kids are the kids that you wanna be friends with, after all.
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
