Learn about these 1950s genres through the following novel reviews:
• Finnish author Mika Waltari’s The Egyptian (1949) is a picaresque novel that suggests parallels between the ancient and modern worlds and lessons to be learned from history.
• Canadian author Thomas B. Costain’s The Silver Chalice (1952) is a bildungsroman novel about the developing faith of a Greek slave during a difficult time for Christians in the Roman Empire.
• African American author Frank Yerby’s The Saracen Blade (1952) is a romance novel taking place in Europe and the Middle East during the Crusades.
• American author Alan Le May’s The Searchers (1954) is a western novel about an inverse captivity narrative based on the frontier legend of Cynthia Ann Parker.
• British author D. A. Raynor’s The Enemy Below (1957) is a WW2 fiction about sea warfare during the Battle of the Atlantic.
• British author Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger (1959) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1962) are spy thrillers that occur in and draw on motifs from the Cold War.
• French-Canadian author Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957) is a roman à clef representing the activities of the Beat Generation.
• American author Robert A. Heinlein’s Space Cadet (1948) is a science fiction novel that imagines the future of space exploration, governance and technology.
Louis Townsend is a self-published author and lawyer who has a B.A. (Hons.) (English and Philosophy) (2010), J.D. (2013) and was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 2014.
