Domestic Violets (31 page)

The following is a list of books that have influenced me over the years— some because they’re just straight-up brilliant, and others because they came along at just the right time in my life. Either way, I’d be a different person without them . . . for better or worse.

Straight Man—Richard Russo

I didn’t know that serious fiction could be funny—I mean,
really
funny—until I read this book. I reread it every couple of years when I need to be reminded, and I think about it every time I see a goose.

Mary and O’Neil—Justin Cronin

The writing in this family drama is dazzlingly good, but the author isn’t afraid to be quiet, too. I recommended this book to my now-wife as a trick to get her to give me her e-mail address about six years ago.

The Road—Cormac McCarthy

I think this is a perfect novel, and it’s an example of how powerful fiction can be when the author’s voice and natural esthetic blend so perfectly into the landscape and subject matter.

Brightness Falls—Jay McInerney

The page-by-page scandalousness of this morality tale makes it compulsively readable as Jay McInerney characterizes an entire era by showing us its effect on one flawed but highly sympathetic couple in New York.

The Human Stain—Philip Roth

This book is a study in relentlessness. Philip Roth heaps so much hardship onto his characters that at times you want to turn away. But you can’t because he makes you care so much that you have to know how it ends.

The Stories of John Cheever— John Cheever

There isn’t a single throwaway sentence in this entire mammoth collection. It should be required reading for anyone trying to write about relationships of any kind. If you only read one story, though, read “The Swimmer.”

Motherless Brooklyn— Jonathan Lethem

A writer named Benjamin Alsup called this book “a pure pleasure machine” in an
Esquire
article a few years back. He’s right. It’s smart, funny, tense . . . and just plain fun to read.

The Catcher in the Rye—J. D. Salinger

For some reason, I was never assigned this book, so I had to get around to discovering it on my own. Fortunately, I did so right when I needed to be taught a lesson in how cool and subversive books can be.

High Fidelity—Nick Hornby

God bless the unfiltered male inner monologue. For all of his quirks, obsessions, and personality flaws, Rob Fleming is a look behind the curtain of an entire generation of guys.

Credits

Cover design by Robin Bilardello

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DOMESTIC VIOLETS.
Copyright © 2011 by Matthew Norman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 978-0-06-206511-7

EPub Edition © JULY 2011 ISBN: 9780062065124

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