In his book Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America, Jay Parini describes and analyzes three iconic works of fiction. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Parini writes, almost single-handedly created a mass audience for the antislavery movement. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn interrogated race in fundamental ways and introduced a distinctive vision of freedom. And On the Road inspired the Beat Generation and many subsequent countercultural tendencies and movements. (Encore presentation.)
Jay Parini, Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America Anchor, 2010 (paper)
Jay Parini, Borges and Me: An Encounter Doubleday, 2020