Possible novels for the end of semester

Last class we briefly discussed the possibility of switching out some of the scheduled readings for a longer piece. I really like the idea, but I want to know what you think.

I've posted five possible novels after the break. If you would, please take a quick look and vote on your preference (you can do this in the comments of the post, or you can email me instead). Since everyone will have to buy the book, I've made sure that each novel costs less than $10. In most cases, you can get used copies for about $5.

I'll post a pic of the cover, the number of pages, a two-sentence summary, and the link to Amazon for each book. Please cast your vote no later than Thursday. (By the way, you can always vote to stick with the reading schedule and not read a novel.) We'll come to a decision as a class on Friday.

Title: Crying of Lot 49
Author: Thomas Pynchon

Summary: The names alone in Pynchon’s 60s faux-psychedelic potboiler will take your mind off our world’s madness—Oedipa and Mucho Maas, Pierce Inverarity, Dr. Hilarious. But just as our heroine Oedipa’s quest for the origins of a Jacobean play keeps leading back to her own America, so will Pynchon’s novel spit us back out to ours. If, after surveying the surface of chaos and Orwellian chatter that covers our country, you sense that there might be some nameless, malevolent grand mover at work behind it, you’ll find company in The Crying of Lot 49. Just don’t expect answers. As Mike Fallopian says, “You never get to any of the underlying truth.” That doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Length: 152 pages
Density: Medium to medium-dense in places

Title: Tracks
Author: Louise Erdrich 

Summary: Set in North Dakota, Tracks is one of a three-book series that explores the lives of four families living on Anishinaabe reservation. The narratives weaves in and out of questions about contradictions, lies, and Tricksterism. It both serves as a meditation on the theme of the past, and how the past haunts us in ways that sometimes seem beyond language.

Length: 226 pages

Density: Medium--the prose itself is quick; the plot is complex, which may require revisiting certain sections

Title: White Noise
Author: Don DeLillo

Summary:Like many of DeLillo's books, the vague threat of an apocalypse of our own making hangs over White Noise--though to call this book "dark" would be to utterly miss the absurdist, wry humor on nearly every page. Set in a Midwestern college town, the book follows Jack Gladney (a respected professor in the field of Hitler Studies) and his family when a large "Airborne Toxic Event" threatens the small community. White Noise is a meditation on how the idea of death has changed in a postmodern society, as well as how our relationship to reality has changed with it.

Length: 326 pages
Density: Medium-light -- DeLillo is known for his quick-paced prose, as well as his meditative sections interspersed with hilarious dialogue.

Title: Coming Through the Slaughter
Author: Michael Ondaatje

Summary:  Loosely based on the life of jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden, Slaughter is set in early 20th century New Orleans. Told in an elliptical, fragmentary style, the novel follows Bolden's undoing even as he helps to create America's first original art form. 

Length: 156 pages
Density: Medium to high density -- Though short in length and told in brief fragments, the novel makes high demands of its reader.

Title: Song of Solomon
Author: Toni Morrison

Summary: A son of a wealthy landlord in the Midwest, Macon "Milkman" Dead (much like The Crying of Lot 49, this novel is worth the read just for its names) goes on a quest to uncover his family's mysterious past after his lover, Hagar, attempts to kill him a couple of times. Milkman's journey is the reverse of the Great Migration--he returns to the South and in the process discovers a past and family that his father intentionally left behind. He also confronts his best friend, Guitar, in a dramatic and lyrical ending.

Length: 335 pages
Density: Medium to medium-light -- Morrison's prose is crisp and fast, but the narrator often leaves blank spots in the narrative, forcing the reader to pay close attention to what it said ... and what isn't.