Samuel Beckett, Watt, Grove Press, 1970.

For a stark contrast to Wouk, there is this work of the Irishman who fought for the French resistance when Germany occupied France in World War II, Samuel Beckett. His absurdist novel of 1953 features a protagonist named Watt who wanders around searching for meaning.

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness,Everyman's Library, 1993.

Recounts Marlow's journey into the Congo to retrieve Mr. Kurtz.

Barbara Ehrenreich, The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment, Doubleday, 1983.

Ehrenreich examines some of the reasons and motivations behind a male revolt against reverence for the nineteenth-century cult of motherhood. She draws her evidence from pop cultural developments ranging from the rise of Playboy to the gray flannel suit.

Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Penguin, 1991.

This novel became the bible of a whole generation of disillusioned beatniks. His philosophy and images provide a vivid contrast...