Ronald Reagan, Michael Jackson, Sally Ride, and Gandhi the movie. Here are 15 popular books from 1983.
1. Ironweed, William Kennedy
Received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize, third in Kennedy’s Albany cycle.
2. Ancient Evenings, Norman Mailer
Set in ancient Egypt, journeys by the dead, sex and violence (rumor has it Orhan Pamuk plagiarized quite a lot of it in his book, My Name is Red)
3. The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco’s first novel published in Italian in 1980, translated to English in 1983 (unreadable in any year, fantastic movie)
4. Mr. Palomar, Italo Calvino
Does it count if Palomar was actually published in 1983 and translated into English in 1985? Both Calvino and Eco were translated by William Weaver
5. A Gathering of Old Men, Ernest Gaines
A racial whodunit. Everyone takes the blame.
6. Scandal, A.N. Wilson
A politician’s rise and fall caused by a relationship with a prostitute based on the Profumo affair. Aren’t we still having these conversations?
7. Lost in the Cosmos (The Last Self-Help Book), Walker Percy
Though Mr. Percy’s was a satire, it was also said to be his weirdest book. We’re still buying up anything “self-help”. Guess we’re still in need.
8. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
“An attempt to do for the classic fantasy universe what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns. Make jokes about them?
9. Phantoms, Dean Koontz
Imagine arriving home and everybody in the entire town is gone or dead of some strange thing
10. Poland, James Michener
Michener was hired by a television company to go anywhere and make a documentary. He chose Poland and begin writing the book years later. The Lubonski’s, the Bukowski’s and the Buks families across eight centuries
11. Bluebeard’s Egg, Margaret Atwood
Her collection of short stories, mostly set in downtown Toronto
12. Heartburn, Nora Ephron
Autobiographical novel based on Ephron’s second marriage to Carl Bernstein and his affair that ended the marriage
13. During the Reign of the Queen of Persia, Joan Chase
This one is the queen of Bingo and matinee movies in rural Ohio. One description has it as “Norman Rockwell gone bad.”
14. Life and Love of A She Devil, Fay Weldon
An unattractive woman goes to extraordinary lengths to take revenge on her husband and his lover.
15. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard
Winner of the 1984 Edgar Award for best novel
