Surprised by Loss: Three Atypical Modern Epics

Hey, everyone! Long time no see. Sorry for the long break. My last year of high school has been crazy! But now that I’ve been accepted to college, my thesis has been written and defended, and I GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL (!)—I can get back to blogging.

Today, I’d like to talk about the genre of the epic. No, I’m not going to talk about the Aeneid or The Divine Comedy or Paradise Lost (though you can bring those up in the comments if you want). I’m going to tell you about three of my favorite books (of which there are many), all of which were written in or after the 20th century.

7 Books I’m Reading for This Year’s Literature Class + An Announcement

I love reading, but I am terrible about getting off my bum and reading important, weighty books. You know, hard books. Books that are over a thousand years old. Or books that wrestle with tough questions. Or books that delve into the darkness of the human soul.

If left to my own devices, I’d just read Shakespeare comedies and C.S. Lewis (whose writings, although complex, are quite readable) all the time. That’s why I appreciate literature classes: they push me into books that I’d never read otherwise.