USA: The Great Lakes, The Great Plains
*Willa Cather My Ántonia . Stunning book set in Nebraska that provides a great sense of the pioneer hardships on the Plains.Louise Erdrich The Beet Queen . Offbeat tale of passion and obsession among poor white North Dakota folk - particularly women - against the backdrop of an economy and culture changing with the introduction of sugar beet as a crop in the 1940s. Erdrich's other novels play through the tensions between tradition and "progress" in Native American communities.
Garrison Keillor Lake Wobegon Days . Wry, witty tales about a mythical Minnesota small town, poking gentle fun at the rural Midwest.
Elmore Leonard Freaky Deaky . One of the funniest of Leonard's many tough, brutal thrillers. Set in Detroit, it follows two former Sixties radicals who turn to crime.
Mari Sandoz Old Jules . Written in 1935, this fictionalized biography gives a wonderful insight into the life of the author's pioneer Swiss father on the Nebraskan plains. Sandoz's other major work, Crazy Horse , contains great historical overviews but is spoiled somewhat by her insistence on narrating it through Sioux eyes.
Richard Wright Native Son . The harrowing story of Bigger Thomas, a black chauffeur who accidentally kills his employer's daughter. The story develops his relationship with his lawyer, the closest he has ever come to being on an equal footing with a white.
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