Thank you for this! I'd never heard of Prep and you know how I love anything about unhappy, wealthy people at East Coast Prep Schools.

Or maybe you don't but now you do.

@kiala : I think you'll like it!

@rb : Fixed, thanks! I guess I should admit that I've never actually read The Chosen.

The Chosen is a wonderful book! I was required to read it in high school, but I've since read it again for fun, and it is still awesome.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (also)...I was forced to read this book when I was in 8th grade (thanks, Mrs. Grady). I procrastinated, and the weekend before my report was due, I flew through the most beautiful story of Francie Nolan. I was 12, she was 12 (at the start)...it just made so much sense. I laughed, I cried and cried and cried and was totally moved. It's on my re-read list...

For a lot of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s, "Forever" is the ultimate coming-of-age story. Some of our moms wouldn't let us read it, so those with more lenient parents shared their copies. We all knew which pages to look for, where the dirty parts were.

But what's often overlooked, amid the naming of Michael's Member and the deflowering, is the love story. Katherine and Michael truly fall in love and often stumble when they try to navigate their relationship. It's very real, and very true to what a lot of us experience when we go through that rite of passage.

All hail Judy Blume!

If you can't say "bildungsroman," I probably can't get away with "subverts the bildungsroman," but Fortress of Solitude is still a work that sticks me.

I also have unending affection for Roald Dahl's Boy, although I guess that's more of an auto-bildungsroman.

The Chosen remains my favorite coming of age book, and I think it's even the first book listed on my facebook readin' roundup. I've also said when I saw PCS was putting this on that there was finally a play I would be interested in being my gateway back to enjoying live performances. I think the last (and only other) play I saw was Steve Martin's Picasso at Lapin Agile back in college.

In conclusion, me wanty.

I was forced to read The Chosen when I was a freshman in highschool and although I don't remember the book I do remember we had to create a piece demonstrating what the book was about. I played both Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter in a scene when they were throwing a football around. Please gimme the tickets so I can remember what it was like to have earlocks. L'chaim!

I like to say roman a clef just to upset people and make them really, really dislike me.

I still like Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks, even though it it's derivative of every other book in the genre. But I read it at the correct age to enjoy that sort of thing.

But easily, and I mean EASILY, favorite coming of age-ish novel is Kim by Kipling. It's got everything, intrigue, India, spiritual journey, et al. And it's Kipling! God amn wonderful colonialist imperialist Kipling. Writing a spy novel about a boy. Fuck yeah! That book is awesome.

I'm voting Paper Towns, and only because were I actually forced to go back "come of age" again, that would be the book I'd want by my side. Plus, any book that starts with a Mountain Goats quote is going to get my support.

Kiala: Everytime I use a ten dollar word, I can feel my place among the fraternity of man slip inexorably away. And then I type the word "inexorably" to drown my sorrows.

Graham: Kim is the prototype for the modern spy novel and the boy detective genera and like ten other things. Good call.

Cool For You by Eileen Myles.

Spare, conversational, staggered memoir that's got a bit of everything-sadness, sexual awkwardness, mortifying family life, fucked-up jobs, et. al.
I'm bad at lit reviews but nothing's wasted. Every paragraph is great in content, style or tone. Usually all three. The poet Myles avoids all annoying poetry tactics (although her poetry is actually way more than tolerable).

If it helps build my case, Alison, I'm a jew. I like coming-of-age jew stories. I like seeing plays. I've never read The Chosen but would love to see it. I kind of look like the jew in the photo, not the Hasidic.

I agree with Rob! John Green is a brilliant young adult author. His first book, Looking for Alaska, is another treasure; literally, it won the Printz Award in 2006. Paper Towns speaks to everyone with its compassion and humor, a little waywardness. Anyone that can seamlessly weave Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass into a coming of age novel has my vote. Long live the Nerdfighters! See http://nerdfighters.ning.com/

While we're gushing over John Green, REMEMBER THAT TIME HE COMMENTED ON MY BLOG POST?? http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…

@kiala But then those unhappy, wealthy East Coast prep schoolers move out to Oregon, get jobs in something they can vaguely justify as "public service," and then look down their nose at the rest of us in a concerted effort to make everyone in Portland unhappy, yet still unwealthy.

@Bronch I KNOW ISN'T IT GREAT?

I forgot to say A Good School by Richard Yates is amazing and semi-autobiographical.

A Clockwork Orange. A Clockwork Frikkin' Orange! Yea, a strong dose of ultra violence and a bit of the old inandout. Sure, it's interesting from a historical perspective as the extreme representation of the fashion and violence of the 1960's British, youth cultures of the Teds, Mods, Rockers, and Skins. And of course, it's a fine rumination on language, slang, and identity. Naturally, it's viewed as a philisophical, Orwellian warning on the troubles of a totalitarian state that uses Skinnerian determinism to achieve order at the price of freewill. Du-uh. But a bildungsroman in the truest sense; (In its original, British form) It specifically ties the progression of angry, angsty adolescence - a young Alec begins the novel at age 16 - through growth and transformation with chapter numbers corresponding to milestones of age, culminating at 21 when our little dodgy droogy begins to fancy becoming a member of society and, well, maybe having a child of his own? Gulp! Rightrightright! Burgess is my Chosen bildungsroman.

Other Bildungsroman award categories;
Best (Dark) Comedy - Candide
Best Horror - The Picture of Dorian Gray / The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Tie)
Best Recently Deceased AKA 'Can't Not Mention' - Catcher in the Rye
Best Abused Asian Girl Finding her Mother and Personal Strength in a Video Game/Schmancy Book While Inspiring a Generation of Chinese Girls to Become Soulful Warriors - The Diamond Age