Debut Novels from Bygone Days Worth Reading Again

In 1990, years before he won the Pulitzer Prize for The Hours, Michael Cunningham graced us with this stunningly beautiful debut novel, later made into a major motion picture starring Colin Farrell. The characters and their emotional depth is awe-inspiring. Incidentally the third chapter “White Angel” was originally published as a short story in The New Yorker. It is flawless in every way.

Published in 1989 this dazzling story collection thrust Minot in the literary spotlight. Few writers can convey so much with such sparse prose. In her signature minimalist style, she has captured the human condition and how very vulnerable we all are when faced with love, loss, disappointment and hope.

I read this book for the first time in 1986 when it was published and set the literary world on fire. Mona Simpson’s debut novel is poetic and deeply moving. The mother, Adele August, is one of the remarkably-real characters I’ve ever encountered in a work of fiction. We all know someone just like her. This book has the ability to make you laugh and cry on the same page.

When this book hit the shelves in the early 90s it sent a current of electricity through the publishing industry. Tartt’s debut expertly combined the elements of a literary novel with those of a page-turning thriller. Even then she knew how to hook a reader on the very first page. It’s one of those books that I return to time and time again for inspiration.

This debut earned McInerney the praise bestowed upon only the rarest of literary superstars. Told in the second person voice, the cocaine-infused 1980s are vividly portrayed in this comedic novel. McInerney packed more into these 182 pages than lesser authors can do in a 500-page doorstop.