American dream, American nightmare
Subtitle: fiction since 1960
By: Kathryn Hume.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Urbana
Language: eng
Number of pages: 359
Subjects: American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Failure (Psychology) in literature; Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Psychological fiction, American -- History and criticism; National characteristics, American, in literature; Loss (Psychology) in literature; Disappointment in literature; Economics in literature; Success in literature
Description: "Kathryn Hume explores how estrangement from America has shaped the fiction of a literary generation, which she calls the Generation of the Lost Dream.".

"In breaking down the divisions among standard categories of race, religion, ethnicity, and gender, Hume identifies shared core concerns, values, and techniques among seemingly disparate and unconnected writers including T. Coraghessan Boyle, Ralph Ellison, Russell Banks, Gloria Naylor, Tim O'Brien, Maxine Hong Kingston, Walker Percy, N. Scott Momaday, John Updike, Toni Morrison, William Kennedy, Julia Alvarez, Thomas Pynchon, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Don DeLillo.".

"Hume explores fictional treatments of the slippage in the immigrant experience between America's promise and its reality. She exposes the political link between contemporary stories of lost innocence and liberalism's inadequacies. She also invites us to look at the literary challenge to scientific materialism in various searches for a spiritual dimension in life."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [319]-345) and index.