Culture Clash + The Epic Book Project

[trinityofone]

I’ve been really craving “culture clash” romantic comedies. I’m pretty sure this started because I’ve been rewatching The West Wing (siriaeve’s fault) and I was reminded of a Josh/Donna fic I read years ago where Josh, the East Coast Jew, meets Donna’s Midwestern WASP family, and amusing awkwardness and eventual romance ensue. (This is, incidentally, the story of my mother’s family—my Grandpa G. was even from Connecticut and my Grandma C. from Wisconsin!) Anyway, I can’t find this fic anywhere. Does anyone:

1) Know what the heck I might be talking about?
2) Have any other recs for culture clash rom coms—be they books, fic, films, or anything else? (Just don’t say Meet the Parents.)

Second, I used to nobly set aside a Large and Intimidating Classic to read in the summer months of July and August; this is how I tackled Ulysses and War and Peace. I want to start doing this again, but I can’t decide what book I should read. Can I beg your thoughts? (I’d make a poll but I just realized you can’t without a paid account. Pooh.)

Trin should read:

1) Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
2) Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
3) Middlemarch by George Eliot
4) Something else that I’ll suggest in the comments
5) The very idea of this project is incredibly pretentious and I think Trin should just read fanfic and more of akukorax’s Star Trek novels

Thanks, as always, for your suggestions!

Comments

[wychwood]

PS - Do you like Georgette Heyer's Regencies? Because a lot of those have culture clashes, albeit of the "upper-middle-class girl falls for upper-class boy! oh no! can they cross the class boundaries??one?" kind where you need to know a fair amount about cultural markers and so on to really get the clash *g*.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I've read two Georgette Heyers: loved one, hated the other. But I recently got Cotillion from the library and have been thinking of reading that. Do you know that one?

*records your vote for Middlemarch*

[wychwood]

Hm. I think Cotillion was ok? The Masqueraders is TOTALLY my favourite, though, so it might be all down from there! I also liked (though not necessarily for culture-clash reasons) Venetia (generally considered one of her best), Black Sheep, Frederica, and - for a *very* different one - A Civil Contract, in which true love doesn't conquer anything, there is very little snappy banter or falling madly for anyone, and relationships really have to be built.

[soupytwist.livejournal.com]

I was going to say Heyer as well! I think you might like her, Trin; she's a bit like if Jane Austen upped the pace and the snappy dialogue by about 25%. Really good fun.

*goes off to think of other culture clash based novels*

(Oh and I would say Don Quixote out of your list of classics, but that might be because Stephen Fry loves it and in the absence of other criteria for choosing - I've not read any of 'em - I tend to go with his judgement. *g*)

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I should try Heyer again, because I really did love The Masqueraders, even though I hated These Old Shades. Cotillion, y/n?

Stephen Fry is an excellent arbiter of taste! *adds another vote*

[soupytwist.livejournal.com]

Cotillion is way more like The Masqueraders than These Old Shades, so I say YES. :)

(I also just read The Foundling and sort of want everyone else to read it in the hopes they also think it is ridiculously gay.)