Author Topic: "Coming of age" books and films (Read 9552 times)

citoyen · « **on:** 02 July, 2010, 11:37:49 am »

Y'know, those books and films you need to read and watch before you become an adult. The ones that teach you more about growing up than any textbook ever could. And the age you think they're best caught at.

Got onto thinking about this when discussing The Graduate with a colleague and he asked if my son has seen it yet. I think at 12 he's a bit young for it yet.

He read the Adrian Mole books earlier this year (Secret Diary & Growing Pains) and absolutely loved them. I was about the same age when I read them. They're an essential part of growing up and 11-13 is the perfect age for them.

The Catcher In The Rye is another obvious one. And film-wise, Stand By Me.

I also thought about The Rachel Papers and Portnoy's Complaint, but I think maybe best wait until he's a bit older for those. I think I was 16 when I read The Rachel Papers and I reckon that's the perfect age for it.

Rebel Without A Cause might be slightly too mature for a 12yo but maybe not - kids are so sophisticated these days...

d.

mattc · « **Reply #1 on:** 02 July, 2010, 11:41:27 am »

To Kill a Mockingbird - preferably the book
(read it before it's ruined for you in English GCSE !)

Woofage · « **Reply #2 on:** 02 July, 2010, 11:41:42 am »

To Kill a Mockingbird.

edit: mattc beat me to it. I was "lucky" enough to study this for O level but didn't actually see the fillum until earlier this year.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #3 on:** 02 July, 2010, 11:43:16 am »

To Kill a Mockingbird, at any age.

'Junk' at 14/15

'One flew over the cuckoos nest' at 15.

Exit Stage Left · « **Reply #4 on:** 02 July, 2010, 11:47:11 am »

Breaking Away - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
YouRememberThat.Com - Taking You Back In Time... - Breaking Away - 1979 Movie Trailer

Exit Stage Left · « **Reply #5 on:** 02 July, 2010, 11:55:15 am »

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/W6Jo1gH89VM&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/W6Jo1gH89VM&rel=1</a>

citoyen · « **Reply #6 on:** 02 July, 2010, 12:10:57 pm »

Quote from: mrcharly on 02 July, 2010, 11:43:16 am

To Kill a Mockingbird, at any age.

Quite. I considered To Kill A Mockingbird but I don't think of it as being specifically about growing up so I'm not sure it really fits. But it's essential reading anyway.

Breaking Away would be a good one if I want to try to get him into cycling.

d.

LittleWheelsandBig · « **Reply #7 on:** 02 July, 2010, 12:14:00 pm »

+1 to ESL's suggestions.

Zipperhead · « **Reply #8 on:** 02 July, 2010, 02:26:08 pm »

Blazing Saddles

CAMRAMan · « **Reply #9 on:** 02 July, 2010, 02:32:30 pm »

I don't even know if you can get it these days in English, but there is a book called 1914 by an author called Eyvind Johnson (Nobel Prize winner 1974). It's a semi-autobiographical work about a 14-year-old boy who leaves his foster home to go & work in Northern Sweden in the fateful year, 1914. It is a painful read, because he has all the angsts and feelings that I had at that age. It's part of a tetraology, but the first book is definitely the one. I did read it in English before I studied Swedish, so I know it was available, but worth a look...

clarion · « **Reply #10 on:** 02 July, 2010, 02:47:41 pm »

Round about then, and of value to me, I read:

Miss Julie - Strindberg
Ghosts - Ibsen
Crime & Punishment - Dostoevsky
Notes From Underground
White Nights
The Gambler
Resurrection - Tolstoy
Death of Ivan Illyich
Master & Man
The Cossacks
Watt - Beckett
The Trial - Kafka
Hunger - Hamsun
Nausea - Sartre
The Outsider - Camus

Jacomus · « **Reply #11 on:** 02 July, 2010, 02:52:29 pm »

Biggles and The Hardy Boys were considered essential reading by my young self

They instilled in me all manner of important lessons such as sticking up for what I believe in and slipping such words as 'dekko' into conversation.

clarion · « **Reply #12 on:** 02 July, 2010, 02:55:11 pm »

Cinematically, with a lad of 19 and one of 14, I have made sure that they have seen:

The Blues Brothers
The Italian Job
West Side Story
Harvey

Rocky Horror for the older lad, to much bemusement.

I've yet to buy The Commitments

mattc · « **Reply #13 on:** 02 July, 2010, 03:10:21 pm »

Quote from: citizen smudge on 02 July, 2010, 12:10:57 pm

Quote from: mrcharly on 02 July, 2010, 11:43:16 am
To Kill a Mockingbird, at any age.

Quite. I considered To Kill A Mockingbird but I don't think of it as being specifically about growing up so I'm not sure it really fits. But it's essential reading anyway.

It's about a child learning about the adult world - how crap it can be, how crap people can be to each other, and standing up for things when it would be easier to just keep your head down. important stuff.

clarion · « **Reply #14 on:** 02 July, 2010, 03:17:26 pm »

To Kill A Mockingbird is truly excellent, but I didn't read it till I was about 25, after working on a passable theatre version.

clarion · « **Reply #15 on:** 02 July, 2010, 03:18:56 pm »

Not something I'd experienced at that age, but Our Kid was utterly struck by the power of Inherit The Wind. It helped him to understand the different ways of viewing the world.

cyclone · « **Reply #16 on:** 02 July, 2010, 03:28:07 pm »

Quote from: A Warwickshire Lad on 02 July, 2010, 02:32:30 pm

It's part of a tetraology, but the first book is definitely the one. I did read it in English before I studied Swedish, so I know it was available, but worth a look...

If anyone wants to try and read it in Swedish I have it, also another 2 by the same author (didnt manage to get all four, when I also studied the language

) Many Swedish authors of the same period had similar themes...

For an English one - Laurie Lees "As I walked out one Summer Morning"

And the Autobiography of a super tramp - can't remember who by...

Jacomus · « **Reply #17 on:** 02 July, 2010, 03:31:44 pm »

I remember "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "A Farewell to Arms" making big impressions on me.

Ken Follett "The Pillars of the Earth" is another book that had a huge impact on me. Tracking several generations of a family of stonemasons throughout the building of Winchester Cathedral. A brilliant and moving book, though probably a little old for a 12yo. I read it at 14

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #18 on:** 02 July, 2010, 03:33:58 pm »

Quote from: clarion on 02 July, 2010, 03:17:26 pm

To Kill A Mockingbird is truly excellent, but I didn't read it till I was about 25, after working on a passable theatre version.

It is the fiftieth anniversary of its publication this week, and there is a new edition to celebrate. Mariella Frostrup's R4 prog yesterday was entirely devoted to it.

clarion · « **Reply #19 on:** 02 July, 2010, 03:44:30 pm »

Quote from: cyclone on 02 July, 2010, 03:28:07 pm

For an English one - Laurie Lees "As I walked out one Summer Morning"

Definitely. Better than Cider With Rosie

Quote

And the Autobiography of a super tramp - can't remember who by...

I think it was WH Davies, but I may be wrong.

Rhys W · « **Reply #20 on:** 02 July, 2010, 04:28:49 pm »

I did To Kill A Mockingbird and Brave New World for English O-level, studied as opposed to just read, which helped me appreciate them.

Kerouac's Maggie Cassidy is a fantastic evocation of small town first love, probably one of my favourite books ever.

Surely every disaffected youth would devour Catcher In The Rye?

mattc · « **Reply #21 on:** 02 July, 2010, 04:35:15 pm »

Quote from: Rhys W on 02 July, 2010, 04:28:49 pm

Surely every disaffected youth would devour Catcher In The Rye?

yeah, but you have to question whether they'd learn anything from it!

(it's a good book, but not in this way ... )

clarion · « **Reply #22 on:** 02 July, 2010, 04:44:39 pm »

I did read a bunch of American literature around then:

Catch-22 (which I didn't really get till about ten years later)
Slaughterhouse Five (which deeply affected me)
One flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
On The Road
Catcher In The Rye is one to read at 14, 28 & 42 (& probably 56 & 70 too) and it's a different book each time, though I did think that Holden was a whingy spoiled brat.

David Martin · « **Reply #23 on:** 02 July, 2010, 05:05:46 pm »

Jude the Obscure
Tess of the d'Urbevilles.
Lord of the flies (if it hasn't been massacred by school)

Most of the ones people are recommending I haven't read, though I did find it amusing that when there was the '100 greatest books' thing a while back, bot my wife and I (science graduates)had read more of them than her english lit graduate sister.

..d

clarion · « **Reply #24 on:** 02 July, 2010, 05:07:58 pm »

Lord Of The Flies, like To Kill A Mockingbird, can be cruelly slaughtered by English teaching for GCSE. But they are both great books.