Politics, and awesome political power, as well as the trappings of a mighty capital city, are unsurprisingly a defining characteristic of Washington’s literature. But there is a lot more than monuments, official buildings and museums: its varied neighbourhoods and diversity of cultures make a fascinating mix, a side often forgotten but not less worth visiting. DC-based literature is, in fact, not particularly urban, wrote Charlotte Jones in her blogpost, where she offers really interesting reads for DC-bound travellers. Here is what you had to add. Is your favourite missing? Let us know below the line.
1. George Pelecanos’s body of work
If there was a consensus among our readers, that was that George Pelecanos is one of the very best chroniclers of Washington DC. Oranje14 says:
George Pelecanos’s books are a great social history of Washington DC. The novels are in the crime section but Pelecanos himself calls them modern westerns. Don’t read them expecting whodunnits, the glory of them is in the sparkling dialogue of the hard-bitten characters and the fantastic sense of time and place the author creates. Mind you, we should expect nothing else from one of the writers of The Wire and Treme.
AlsoRecommended by Anita Rhett Prentice, Lakis Fourouklas, Tony Ross and cransell.
In quotes from the book:
Soon it began to drizzle for the second time that night. The drops grew heavier and became visible in the headlights of the cars. It was said by some of the police on the scene that God was crying for the girl in the garden. To others, it was only rain.
2. Echo House by Ward Just (1997)
This political chronicle of three generations of Washington powerbrokers was recommended by marsgrover. Ward Just was a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post and had great insider knowledge of the city and its political animals, brilliantly displayed in this story of family relationships and politicians’ entourages.
In quotes from the book:
A Washington homily fit the situation: ‘That which must be done eventually is best done immediately.’
3. The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen Carter (2002)
This is a novel about two different privileged elites: the upper-crust African American society of the eastern seaboard and the inner circle of an Ivy League law school. Reader DCWash says:
Stephen Carter does a good job of explaining DC on the grass-roots level. For instance, his debut novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park, delineated the differences between the upper-crust African American community of DC’s Gold Coast and the middle-class African American community of Northeast, and how the twain shall never meet, even within the same family. [Also by the same author,] I had a lot of fun with his The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln because he went into such geographic detail describing DC in 1867, and he made it so easy to compare it to today’s city. He produces pretty good thrillers in the process.
In quotes from the book:
Fidelity in a sad marriage can fairly be described as an act of faith.
‘You draw a line, Talcott. Put the past on one side, the future on the other, and decide which side you want to live on. Then stick to your decision.’
4. Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (1959)
This novel, which won the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 1960, revolves around the US Senate confirmation of secretary of state nominee Robert Leffingwell, a former member of the Communist Party – and it was followed by four sequels. It is also, of course, remembered because of the film based on it. Recommended by Anita Rhett Prentice and hemsaw. The Wall Street Journal said this about the book on its 50th anniversary:
Fifty years after its publication and astounding success (102 weeks on the bestseller list, and the Pulitzer prize for fiction), Allen Drury’s novel remains the definitive Washington tale. Anyone who tries to write a political novel must admire the way Drury crafted a huge story (616 pages) with a prodigious cast, and packed narrative pull into a plot in which (aside from a few fade-to-black couplings and a heart-piercing suicide) the entire drama builds to “The Yeas and Nays have been ordered … ”
In quotes from the book:
Son, this is a Washington, DC kind of lie. It’s when the other person knows you’re lying, and also knows you know he knows.
5. Shelley’s Heart by Charles McCarry (1995)
Start with two former friends who face each other at a presidential election, add some vote-rigging, and twist it with some masterful writing – and you have the perfect DC novel. “Washington Intrigue With Poetic Overtones” said the New York Times. “A weird and wonderful thriller,” says hemsaw. “Charles McCarry writes extremely well about CIA agents while capturing a lot of DC”, adds Anita Rhett Prentice.
6. Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison (1999)
A posthumous version of Ralph Ellison’s unfinished second novel, made up from texts written by Ellison over 40 years. It was first published in 1999 in a condensed form, and then re-edited by biographer and critic John F Callahan. It was published in 2010 as a 1,100-page doorstopper with the title Three Days Before the Shooting. Bix2bop says:
It’s set primarily in Washington DC in the 1950s, where an African American church congregation from the state of Georgia has come urgently seeking an audience with a member of the US Senate from a northern state. (...) In one memorable scene, the leader of the Georgia delegation meditates at the Lincoln Memorial, in the manner of Roger Wilkins’s Jefferson’s Pillow.
In quotes from the book:
Words of Emancipation didn’t arrive until the middle of June so they called it Juneteenth. So that was it, the night of Juneteenth celebration, his mind went on. The celebration of a gaudy illusion.
7. Personal History by Katharine Graham (1997)
Moving on to non-fiction, this is the Pulitzer prize-winning autobiography of American publisher Katharine Graham, who ran the Washington Post during the Watergate period. This covers her work (in a completely male-dominated environment), her relationship with her husband, and her political and feminist awakening. Recommended by hemsaw.
In quotes from the book:
I believe … that education is not only the most important societal problem but the most interesting.
8. Heartburn by Nora Ephron (1983)
It’s always a plesure to read Nora Ephron writing about anything, but Heartburn is one of the most intimate and personal books she’s ever written. This autobiographical novel recounts her second marriage, to Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein, his affair with Margaret Jay and their divorce. It is also a story of a New Yorker (the protagonist) in Washington, where she has moved to support her husband’s career, and a great insider’s take on power couples and Washington social life – all with Ephron’s wit and sensitivity. Recommended by Raymond McNeel.
In quotes from the book:
When I first met him, he had a recurrent nightmare that Henry Kissinger was chasing him with a knife, and I said it was really his father, and he said it was really Henry Kissinger, and I said it was his father and he said it was Henry Kissinger, and this went on for months until he started going to the Central American shrinkette, who said Henry Kissinger was really his younger sister.
You can settle for reality, or you can go off, like a fool, and dream another dream.
9. Loyalties: a son’s memoir by Carl Bernstein
While we’re at it, legendary journalist Bernstein’s own autobiography, Loyalties, in which he revealed that his parents had been members of the Communist Party. It was picked by DCWash:
It tells the story of growing up in Washington and the bordering suburb of Silver Spring during McCarthyism, when his father was suspected, with some plausibility, of being a communist. Lots of nitty-gritty about the streets of DC at the time, about the working-class Jewish community, about moving out of the working class, and about what it’s like to find the FBI spied on your bar mitzvah.
10. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (2007)
Addis Ababa meets DC. In his debut novel, Dinaw Mengestu explores the life of an Ethopian immigrant in the US capital, who runs a grocery store after fleeing to America from his country’s revolution. It’s much more a story of reflection, however – of identity, displacement and longing. The focus is as much on Washington as on his memories of Addis Ababa. Recommended by cransell “for anyone trying to get a sense of DC through literature.”
In quotes from the book:
I remember another aphorism of my father’s, one that he used to say whenever we passed someone pissing openly in the street: add color to life when you can.
Is your favourite missing? Add it in the comment thread below. And while you’re at it, tell us what cities and places you would like us to tackle next. You can also email your ideas and suggestions to marta.bausells@theguardian.com
