Carolyn See Books In Order

Novels

  1. The Rest is Done with Mirrors (1970)
  2. Mothers, Daughters (1977)
  3. Rhine Maidens (1981)
  4. Golden Days (1987)
  5. Making History (1991)
  6. The Handyman (1999)
  7. There Will Never Be Another You (2006)

Non fiction

  1. Blue Money (1974)
  2. Two Schools of Thought (1991)
  3. Dreaming (1995)
  4. Making A Literary Life (2002)

Novels Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

Carolyn See Books Overview

Golden Days

Available again in paperback, Golden Days is a major novel from one of the most provocative voices on the American literary scene. Linking the recent past with an imagined future, Carolyn See captures life in Los Angeles in the 70s and 80s. This marvelously imaginative, hilarious, and original work offers fresh insights into the way we were, the way we are, and the way we could end up.

The Handyman

With this brilliant novel about the surprises of destiny and the origins of fame, the critically acclaimed author of Golden Days ‘Extraordinary…
a very, very important book’ Los Angeles Times Book Review and Making History ‘Radiant…
exciting and imaginative’ Cleveland Plain Dealer firmly establishes her place as one of the preeminent chroniclers of our times. The Handyman is the story of Bob Hampton, an aspiring young painter who has had to face the humbling fact that he doesn’t know what to paint. And how are you supposed to be an artist in this world if you don’t have a vision? Bob trades in his artist’s palette for a minivan full of house paints, hammers, and nails, and sets about earning a little cash as a handyman. Although he turns out to be very bad at fixing the things he’s hired to fix, Bob demonstrates quite a knack for fixing the lives of the people around him. In the midst of his jerry built repairs and inspired home improvements, Bob meets an extraordinary cast of characters rendered in all their delightful eccentricity and human frailty as only Carolyn See can each of whom shows Bob the true scope of his own remarkable talent. There’s Angela Landry, a housewife with far too much time on her hands, a sexpot of a stepdaughter, and a son in need of attention; Jamie Walker, whose allergy prone and ADD afflicted children keep a menagerie of scaly pets that far exceed Jamie’s managerial skills; Valerie LeClerc, older, sadder, and certainly wiser than Bob; and Hank and Ben, who leave a narrow minded Midwest only to find unremitting illness and isolation in the California of their dreams. Replete with stunning images and all of Carolyn See’s trademark humor and wisdom, The Handyman depicts the countless ways in which our lives are intertwined and the profound effects we can have on one another. It is the kind of surprising and miraculously uplifting novel we have come to expect from the woman Diane Johnson has called ‘one of our most important writers.’From the Hardcover edition.

There Will Never Be Another You

Carolyn See has written a novel alive with wit and love and energy a book about things falling apart that turns out to be a day at the beach…
. Pure joy. Joan DidionAccomplished author Carolyn See triumphantly returns to fiction seven years after her last novel was published with this provocative, vibrantly written new novel. Set in a security obsessed world that eerily mirrors our own, There Will Never Be Another You captures the paranoia and propaganda of a volatile time and place in which humanity’s divisions run deep and society sits on edge and one Southern California family faces profound crises from within and without. It is a moment in the near future when the global threat of terror has cultivated rage, apathy, and panic across the country. People fear that anybody could be armed, or have a bomb. Or a disease. Or all three. For Phil, a dermatologist at the UCLA hospital, it is a time of unease and uncertainty, in stark contrast to the days when he coasted through life on his good looks, a modicum of charm, and only haphazard effort. Now Phil must deal with his mother, Edith, who s been grieving over the death of her husband for several years and only recently has thought to reconnect with a family that seems to have other priorities. Phil s energies are already divvied up among his belligerent children, his wayward wife, and his unreliable mistress. Then Phil s life takes a dramatic turn: He is recruited for a top secret team whose task is to act quickly in the event of a biological or chemical attack. The assignment just may provide him with a renewed sense of purpose. Yet dire circumstances force Phil to make profound decisions that will affect not just himself and his loved ones but the entire country. It is a chance for an ordinary man to rise from mediocrity to heroism and at which failure would prove to be catastrophic. Foreboding and all too plausible, There Will Never Be Another You is a cautionary novel of family and society, where a na ve past is replaced by a menacing future in which distinguishing between reality and imagination proves to be more challenging than ever. From the Hardcover edition.

Dreaming

In this bittersweet and beautifully written memoir, Carolyn See embarks on nothing less than a reevaluation of the American Dream. Although it features a clan in which dysfunction was something of a family tradition, Dreaming is no victim’s story. With a wry humor and not a trace of self pity, See writes of fights and breakups and hard times, but also of celebration and optimism in the face of adversity. The story of See’s family speaks for the countless people who reached for the shining American vision, found it eluded their grasp, and then tried to make what they had glitter as best they could.

Making A Literary Life

As Carolyn See says, writing guides are like preachers on Sunday there may be a lot of them, but you can t have too many, and there’s always an audience of the faithful. And while Making A Literary Life is ostensibly a book that teaches you how to write, it really teaches you how to make your interior life into your exterior life, how to find and join that community of like minded souls you re sure is out there somewhere. Carolyn See distills a lifetime of experience as novelist, memoirist, critic, and creative writing professor into this marvelously engaging how to book. Partly the nuts and bolts of writing plot, point of view, character, voice and partly an inspirational guide to living the life you dream of, Making A Literary Life takes you from the decision to become a writer to three months after the publication of your first book. A combination of writing and life strategies do not tell everyone around you how you yearn to be a writer; send a charming note to someone you admire in the industry five days a week, every week, for the rest of your life; find the perfect characters right in front of you, Making A Literary Life is for people not usually considered part of the literary loop: the non East Coasters, the secret scribblers. With sagacity, a magical sense of humor, and an abiding belief in the possibilities offered to ordinary people living ordinary lives, Carolyn See has summed up her life s work in a book so beguiling, irreverent, and giddily inspiring that you won t even realize it s changing your life until it already has. From the Hardcover edition.

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