douchebag literature

a reading list

Excuse my brief disappearance! I needed a couple of weeks to regroup, read slower and meet deadlines!

I’ve just gotten back from a trip with friends and once again have stuff to say. Namely, remarking upon the all too familiar sight of girls flying through books on vacation in a way that men just don’t. I have my own theories about why that is, though I’d like to focus on what would get these men to read more, namely a good list of books.

I have on a few occasions recommended book to boys/guys/men and over time it has become something of a list I pass on. Now, don’t come for this shameful instance of gender essentialism as the reason why I feel up to crafting such a preposterous list is because I have been known to have douchebag lit taste in books. I call it douchebag lit, well because this is HFB, and I guess the books I will be listing out produce a feeling of sympathy or closeness with characters that don’t deserve it, and personally make me feel silly for feeling touched in the first place.

Without even realising it, it turns out that I essentially only read books written by men until my early twenties, and while I’ve considerably branched out since, it has shaped my formative taste in literature and these boyish books are the ones I read for comfort. While I have very little patience for it in real life, it seems, I really have a knack for the male sensibility represented in literature. Is that what they call karma?

(Let me add a quick note for the opposite school of thought that I am also heavily invested in, that is it-girl lit and I could make an equally absurd list for it; think Colette, Eve Babitz, or Ottessa Moshfegh, from Lolita to Sula. But there are plenty of these on the internet already. I feel like I am digging myself into a hole but I think that attachment to a male character may be rooted in the opposite of what loving a female protagonist consists in! (Tbd for they/them!) Because even if a female protagonist is unlikable I still feel justified in liking her? idk!!!).

My personal preference for douchebag lit is the kind written in high modernism, the mid 20th century, but it is a tradition can be traced across centuries (think Lord Byron or Tristam Shandy!). The effects produced is feeling pulled by your heart strings, attachment to a character against all odds! Characters with an attitude of irreverence, sentimentality, passivity or rebellion. Though it ought to be noted that this list, existing at the crossroads of masterpiece and comfort-read, includes classics as well as titles that not only expand on and subvert trad-douchebag lit, it also takes the reader on a journey across genres, styles, and era for maximum enlightenment and education. The end goal being to emerge a better read individual, however a balance between mental/ emotional/ stylistic expansion and comfort must be struck in order to have a better chance at the reader actually getting through the list and deriving something from it.

So here is the list. Somewhat explained, completely based on my own taste, my arbitrary conception and shaky scholarship of douchebagery, but I also because I got good feedback on it and it got the intended readers in my life back into reading. Which is all that matters!

Bright Lights Big City by Jay McInery. Here’s where I would start. It’s short and fun! A New York novel about working at a literary magazine. Men love the 80s, don’t they?

Stoner by John Williams. This one’s a classic. A passive protagonist, but still douchey. Might hold up a mirror to some. Might not be everyone’s cup of tea but better to be well read then not.

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Ackner. I love love love Taffy and think she is the coolest (She writes all the best celebrity profiles and quite simply turns them into art). This book is one to bring on vacation and for the divorced men. Plot driven, with a great ending which I would argue subverts the douchebag novel and elevates it! After reading it, you can also watch the TV show, which is perhaps as good as the book.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. This is one of my favorite books. There’s little I love more than a campus novel and this one is both smart and soapy. I was shocked to find out that my friend didn’t swoon over the main character as much as I did so maybe it isn’t as universally appealing as I thought it was. Do let me know so we can settle this.

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, the author probably most responsible for making a douchebag out of readers, me included. This one is short and life changing, cerebral, and of course, set in New York.

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Including this because I’m feeling called to reread it. Fitzgerald’s first novel, youthful, idealistic, and full of entitlement just the way I like it :’).

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis. Brats from LA on drugs told from the only person who ever could! His first breakout novel, Less Than Zero is also a good (and shorter) contender but I preferred The Shards. You do have to stick with it, though.

The Topeka School by Ben Lerner. All about how to raise boys! Very dense but so rewarding and also one that makes the douchebag novel better. You can also read its prequel of sorts, Leaving the Atocha Station.

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico. Doesn’t completely fit in with the rest of the lot but this is still one I would recommend to read, as it is expansive. It’s also an easy sell in an intimidating Fitzcarraldo edition: the story of phony millennials and their conditioned aesthetic choices.

Appropriate by Branden Jenkins Jacobs. This is a play and I think it is hard to get people to read plays but that’s because they haven’t read Branden Jenkins Jacobs yet, who must the most incredible and accomplished playwright at the moment. You can also read it in a sitting. There are plenty of awful characters in this and manages to be extremely funny while being so emotionally complicated and such an original work. Don’t read the synopsis, just go for it.

There are many more, some are left off because I cannot stomach them, others because I am ignorant! Let me know still, dear reader.