Ten book recommendations for the AP Literature Exam
The advanced placement exam season is approaching soon and that means only one thing. It’s time to start cramming. AP Literature and Composition is often a class that is taken for the sake of the credit, rather than as an interest in the humanities. While that by itself is regrettable, the point of this article is to recommend novels, plays, and short stories that you can read in preparation for the third part of the free-response portion.
There is already an algorithmic list of the most mentioned works, but this list can be problematic for two reasons. One, the majority of these books are extremely long. If you have a Calculus C exam to study for, reading about Ahab’s 750+ page-long tale of hunting the great white whale is the least of your priorities. Two, the archaic prose slows down your reading pace even further. Good luck trying to skim any of James Joyce’s novels.
With that in mind, my list will have fictional works that are shorter or approximately around 400 pages with plenty of topics that the AP exam likes to frequently bring up. Here is the list with detailed explanations for my choices below.
1. No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai
2. Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3. The Human Stain by Phillip Roth
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
5. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
6. The Trial by Franz Kafka
7. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
8. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
9. The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol
10. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
#1. No Longer Human — Osamu Dazai
Mine has been a life of much shame. I can’t even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.
Themes: Loneliness, social isolation, depression, suicide, Modernism
Osamu Dazai is one of the great Japanese writers during the Modernist period, and No Longer Human embodies the sentiments of that period with disturbingly accurate precision. The novel revolves around diary-esque narrations of Oba Yozo, a man who fails to spiritually assimilate into his society.
Through Oba’s mind, Dazai explores the theme of loneliness in the godless, morally dubious modern world. Oba’s desperate attempts to assimilate into his society result in increasingly severe self-hatred. No Longer Human is at its best when Oba explores what identity truly is. Through a lifelong reliance on facades and masks, Oba realizes that he is unable to identify himself or his desires. Dazai, by illustrating the downfall of this tragic man, forces the reader to consider how vital our self-perception is in driving our lives forward. With no knowledge of ourselves, our desires become unfounded. With no desire, we live a hollow life absent of the drive that is essential to a meaningful existence.
#2. Notes from the Underground — Fyodor Dostoyevsky
To care only for well-being seems to me positively ill-bred. Whether it’s good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things.
Themes: Human nature, utopia, desire, Naturalism
You really don’t need to read the bricks that are Crime and Punishment or Brothers Karamazov to utilize this monumentally influential writer’s genius. Granted that these works definitely have more themes and ideas to explore, Notes from the Underground is a far shorter piece with the fundamental message of Dostoyevsky present within.
Dostoyevsky through the Underground man gives us the most harrowing revelation upon human nature. He forces us to think about whether or not a utopia is accomplishable. With humanity’s endless desire, can people reach a state where there is nothing else they can desire? And even if that condition is met, would humanity remain content and happy in the said world? Dostoyevsky goes as far to say that people will destroy this hypothetical utopia to resume desiring once more. The futile struggle towards the impossible illustrated in this novella is the essence of Naturalism, a school of the literary movement that Dostoyevsky was under for the earlier parts of his career.
#3. The Human Stain — Phillip Roth
We leave a stain, we leave a trail, we leave our imprint. Impurity, cruelty, abuse, error, excrement, semen — there’s no other way to be here.
Themes: Identity, race, sexuality, nationality
Identity narratives have dominated literature for over an eon. The “search for oneself” is as cliche as it can get. Phillip Roth’s Human Stain shocked the world upon its release by completely revolutionizing the concept of identity. In his novel, the agency of establishing the person’s identity is stripped away from them. Instead, their identity is formed by the surrounding people’s perceptions and judgments. Coleman Silk, a pale-skinned black man, is labeled a white supremacist by the community. Such irony continues to haunt the reader as Silk continues to be blamed for crimes he did not commit through the misinterpretations of bystanders.
It is undebatable that James Joyce’s A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man is the pinnacle of the identity narrative. While many writers like James Baldwin and Maxine Kingston attempted to innovate the genre, neither of them has succeeded in the way that Roth did. To fully utilize The Human Stain, carefully track moments where the narrative of Coleman Silk is taken away from him by force. Those are moments where Roth truly shows his genius.
#4. The Road — Cormac McCarthy
There is no God and we are his prophets.
Themes: Fatherhood, love, morality, death
Get ready to cry while you’re reading this Pulitzer-winning masterpiece. Out of all the novels by Cormac McCarthy, The Road is the easiest to read. In many ways, McCarthy is someone you really want to read for academic exams due to his countless allusions to past literary works and the Bible. His prowess in biblical allusions is especially noted by contemporary scholars. You will find no shortage of biblical allusions to the holy sacrament, resurrection, and the holy trinity.
McCarthy is the author to go to when morality is discussed in the modern context. In The Road, the man commits acts such as murder and theft to keep his son alive. Throughout the story, the man continues to tell his son that they are the “good guys”, and the son begins to grow increasingly skeptical as he looks at the devastation his father has caused. With this moral dubiousness, clearly doctrinal parables of the Bible and its binary morals clash against McCarthy’s wasteland. This juxtaposition is where McCarthy is, and your discoveries will help you uncover the intricacies of good and evil.
#5. Lolita — Vladimir Nabokov
It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.
Theme: Adolescence, love, Aestheticism
This novel has been slowly pushed out of the literary canon in my college because of its controversial topic. While the reasoning is understandable, Vladimir Nabokov remains one of the most critically acclaimed authors in the English canon. His crowning jewel Lolita, is the perfect example of an English aestheticist novel, a centuries-long tradition in global literary history.
Aestheticism is an artistic movement entirely focusing on the aesthetic parts of the works. The key point is that Aestheticists often de-emphasize art’s societal and political role in society. The pinnacle of this movement is Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, and Nabokov is one of his biggest admirers. Unshackled by societal expectations, Nabokov unapologetically explores the vulnerability and immortality of art by paralleling it with the abrupt death of childhood. No one incorporates all of our senses as masterfully as Nabokov, and his prose is a landmark accomplishment for humanity.
#6. The Trial — Franz Kafka
It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.
Theme: Absurdism, 20th-century philosophy, chaos
I’m recommending Franz Kafka’s The Trial over Albert Camus’ The Stranger for one reason. Camus’ Mersault is often a poor lens to view Existentialism due to his inherent rebellion to find his essence in life. This results in the piece being interpreted by amateur readers as a nihilist work, do not make this mistake. The Trial describes Kafka’s Absurdism with precision. The cosmic chaos sweeps the protagonist Josef K. Until his sudden execution in a dark alley, Josef is never told what crime he was charged with, nor the due process followed to convict him.
Absurdism insists on accepting the inexplicable chaos that affects our life and ceasing the futile attempt at finding one’s place in the cosmos. This is one of the most important philosophical theories that affected countless writers in the 20th century. Having this concept down, as a result, is integral to analyzing key works written during this time period.
#7. As I Lay Dying — William Faulkner
It takes two people to make you, and one people to die. That’s how the world is going to end.
Theme: Family, death, Southern Gothic
William Faulkner is the most problematic author for students. On one hand, his influence as a writer is only matched by the likes of Ernest Hemingway. On the other hand, his convoluted prose makes you spend minutes trying to understand the nuances in every sentence of his works.
As I Lay Dying explores the influence of family living and dead through the arduous trip underwent by the Bundren family to bury their dead mother in her hometown. With each chapter, there is a new narrator revealing one additional wrinkle in the dysfunctional family dynamic. The rotting corpse of the mother upon arriving at her hometown is a symbolic parallel of the Bundren family’s evident collapse. This impending doom looming over the pack of morally dubious characters is a key trait in the Southern Gothic movement.
#8. Sense and Sensibility — Jane Austen
I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.
Theme: Love, friendship, desire, matrimony, Romanticism
Do not fall into the trap of classifying Jane Austen as a Feminist writer. Yes, she writes nuanced, sophisticated women characters that battle the oppressive patriarchy of the West. This does not mean that this is the only thing Austen has to provide, and Sense and Sensibility proves my point perfectly.
Through the foil characters of Elinor and Marianne, Austen explores the irony of the binary characterization typical in Western narrative. Elinor is a reserved, wise woman of dignity while Marianne is lively, adventurous, and a hopeless romantic. Each of their doctrines is tested with neither of them able to find happiness without borrowing each other’s strengths. This beautiful character development ending in both the sisters happily married is sophisticated, witty, and powerful. It embodies the spirit of Romanticism perfectly and justifies Austen as one of the best writers to ever live.
#9. The Overcoat — Nikolai Gogol
All this has for me an indescribable charm, perhaps because I no longer see it, and because anything from which we are separated is pleasing to us.
Theme: Realism, modernization
Nikolai Gogol was a key figure in the Realist movement. By veering away from characters of noble heritage, Gogol explored the general society of Russia during its tumultuous modernization period. The Overcoat is a short, but powerful story about the result of societal change. The protagonist is constantly ridiculed for his old, ugly overcoat. As a result, he purchases a new one and is immediately well-respected.
Of course, the overcoat gets robbed and the man falls into immense depression as he realizes that his coat speaks more about his place in society than he ever could. This loss of agency is heartbreaking and revolutionized Russian literature forever. Fyodor Dostoyevsky has gone as far to say “We all come from Gogol’s overcoat.”
#10. Pale Fire — Vladimir Nabokov
I was the shadow of the waxwing slain.
By the false azure in the windowpane.
Theme: Postmodernism, metafiction, narrative voice
If anyone in my circle asks me to name postmodern literature, I immediately respond with Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire. It is the only work in the entire list that I cannot confidently categorize as a novel. The work composes of an epic poem by John Shade, a murdered poet whose manuscript was stolen by the killer, Charles Kimbote. The second half is Kimbote’s endnote commentating on Shade’s work.
Nabokov pushes the concept of an unreliable narrator farther than any of his predecessors. Charles Kimbote is a schizophrenic who believes that he is an exiled king from a fictional realm called Zembla. Driven by his madness, he mistakes Shade’s poem as an ovation of his life and eventual exile. As such, the endnote actively battles against the poem by trying to evoke meaning in places where it is simply absent. The fragmentation of Kimbote’s fragile narrative, combined with Nabokov’s beautiful prose tests its readers' definition of fiction.
