THE TOP 5 COMING OF AGE NOVELS YOU SHOULD READ BEFORE YOU’RE 25

Though each attains its own style and tone, the coming of age novel generally has a common form. Each concentrates on the emerging identity of the protagonist(s), and traces the transition from innocence to experience (childhood to early maturity) as the result of a series of personal and social challenges. The following 5 novels challenge both the protagonist and the reader, raising issues and questions which encourage us to assess our own values and beliefs, each providing an experience to be assumed in everyone’s education.

1. David Copperfield- Charles Dickens

Dickens’ own “favourite child”, and the closest in detail to his own career, David Copperfield has a perennial charm. Depicting a child’s development into young adulthood, the perils of social class, sexuality, and the search for identity are addressed through an intricately woven, and at times almost dramatic or cinematic narrative. David’s ability to capture details and idiosyncrasies of the numerous (memorable) characters endows the book with a vibrant reality, each interaction or experience adding something new to our impression of David’s self-consciously subjective development. This is a novel immensely rich in character and action, and yet, there is not a thread left unraveled. By the end, every strand is accounted for and interwoven with intricate precision. The final product is a vast and life-crowded canvas of the world through David’s eyes which will remain imprinted in your memory as well as his.

2. The Catcher In the Rye- J.D. Salinger

An account of two unruly days in New York City, serial school dropout and rebellious teenager Holden Caulfield is desperately clinging to the memories and freedom’s of childhood. Free from the control of his parents and teachers, drinking, partying, sexual encounters are on the agenda. Ironically however, Holden finds such freedom falls considerably short of his expectations. As feelings of loneliness and alienation creep in, so too does the sense of a lack never fully defined, but which continues troubling him. Holden is stuck in a life which is fixed and unchanging, but consumed by a fear of growing up, he is balancing precariously on the brink of what he considers the negative world of adulthood. A brilliant example of adolescence and the universal feeling of awkwardness and uncertainty, it is not suprising Holden has become an icon for teenage rebellion and defiance.


3. To Kill a Mockingbird- Lee Harper

To kill a mockingbird is to do an injustice to a harmless creature, a metaphor for the trial and unjust conviction of Black man Tim Robinson in the fictional American town of Maycomb in the 1960’s. A narrative told through an intricate play of perspectives-the narrative voice of a child (Scout) combined with the reflective voice of a grown woman (Lee)-the novel addresses the issues of race, class, gender, and the loss of innocence in a manner which is both serious and ironic. Through a thematic focus on racial injustice, Lee makes a mockery of authority, the justice system and religious establishment which allows such persecution whilst appearing to uphold a moral code. Her talent for storytelling, and the ability to address and ability to address serious issues with wit and cynicism makes this a memorable book ‘every adult should read before they die’.


4. The Lord of the Flies- William Golding

A plane crash, a conch shell, the corpse of a parachuter, and a group of English school boys stranded on a dessert Island offers ripe terrain for Golding’s portrayal of the inherent savagery of human nature. Miles from civilization, the boys elect a leader in a keen endeavor to govern themselves, but as rift’s develop within the group, so too do antagonisms between the desire for order and civilisation, and the desire for individual power. As the children regress to a primitive state, the initially edenic landscape becomes a savage wilderness in which the drive for self preservation becomes paramount. Taking the concept of Survivor to a whole new level, the book offers thought provoking insight into the depravity human nature, and a challenge to contrary views that had lauded the inevitable ascendancy of a higher form of human nature when placed under pressure.


5. The Diary of Anne Frank- Anne Frank

This posthumous publication of a small diary, written between 1942 and 1944, documents the experiences of a young Jewish girl forced into hiding with her family during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War Two. Tucked away in a secret annex of her father’s office block, Anne candidly records details of her relationship with family members, her ambition to become a journalist, her belief in God and definition of human nature before the group is betrayed and transported to various German Concentration camps. Since its publication, Anne has become a symbol of the holocaust, a representative of persecution and the destruction of youth during the war. Being a journal, it offers an intimacy of account which brings her story to life- her experiences, aspirations and suffering are related as though we too are a member of her family. The Story of Anne Frank is one you will carry with you for life.