Coming of Age

Scott and I are running up against a deadline: the publicity machine (I say this tongue-in-cheek) at FPCB needs its blurb for this year's Literary Night. For those who've never gone, we talk books and plays and poetry and sometimes movies, all around a theme.

This year it'll be Coming of Age, and let me just say, I love Coming of Age books. Far more than last year's Heroes. I mean, has anyone in the last thousand years wept over Beowulf? (Not counting weeping over the mediocrity and gore of the recent movie.) But weeping over Coming of Age books goes with the territory. Just to throw out one spoiler on Lit Night, think about how C of A books/movies always involve the moment in which the child loses the mentor/parent, because an essential part of growing up is Going It Alone. Doing It Yourself. Just try and keep that hankie dry when this happens, even if you know it's coming. Those of you stunned by the end of HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE would benefit from Literary Night attendance, although I still cried buckets. B-u-c-k-e-t-s.

We'll be looking at HUCKLEBERRY FINN, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, and JANE EYRE, at the very least (full list still TBD at the Dudley dinner table), but really the options are endless. Some of my past C of A favorites include TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS, THE FLAME TREES OF THIKA, PEACE LIKE A RIVER, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, DAVID COPPERFIELD, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, and, of course, the whole HARRY POTTER series.

Would love to hear some of yours in blog comments or in person at Lit Night on lucky Friday, November 13.