The survey of the Famous Fifty has now yielded its (my) must-read list. In addition to meeting the usual criteria (set in California, written after 1890 and before 1960, authored by someone who remembered the period of which he or she wrote), the entries are strongly connected to the history or literature of the state. No painful reads have made the list. The books both engage the reader and provide an entree into California fiction. Or so I hope. Here's the list, arranged chronologically:
• McTeague (1899) by Frank Norris
• The Game (1905) by Jack London
• The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) by James M. Cain
• The Day of the Locust (1939) by Nathanael West
• The Big Sleep (1939) by Raymond Chandler
• The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck
• What Makes Sammy Run? (1941) by Budd Schulberg
• Storm (1941) by George R Stewart
• The Human Comedy (1943) by William Saroyan
• If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) by Chester Himes
• The Subterraneans (1958) by Jack Kerouac
Deciding which famous books to avoid is important too. Here are my suggestions:
• After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (1939) by Aldous Huxley
• The Last Tycoon (1941) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• East of Eden (1952) by John Steinbeck
• The Long Goodbye (1954) by Raymond Chandler
• The Deer Park (1955) by Norman Mailer
Choosing what (if anything) to read from the rest of the Famous Fifty is mostly a matter of taste. If you’re a Steinbeck aficionado, for example, you have almost his entire California oeuvre to choose from. If you like mysteries, you’ll find The Maltese Falcon and several more of Chandler’s novels on the list. If you’re a fan of short stories, you can choose from eleven collections by six different authors.
Just because you can choose from the list doesn’t mean you should. Hundreds of books have been set in California. Any number of them might be closer to what you like to read. If you’re a fan of Jim Thompson or Margaret Millar, for example, you’ll need to go outside the list. If you’re interested in stories of politics or family life, the list won’t help either. If you’re seeking strong female characters, Mildred Pierce is only a jumping-off point. And so on. California fiction includes a wide variety of terrific books. Because most of them aren’t famous doesn’t mean they aren’t worth reading.