My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

What we're reading

1980s setting

44 replies

Auntlinny · 12/04/2013 22:21

What I said in the title really. Can anyone think of a good read with an eighties setting?

OP posts:
Report
MrsLettuce · 12/04/2013 22:26

The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst - is set in the 80's I think.

Report
MrsLettuce · 12/04/2013 22:26

Yes, (Britain) in the early to mid-1980s. Really enjoyed it.

Report
joanofarchitrave · 12/04/2013 22:31

Starter for 10 is quite fun.

Report
joanofarchitrave · 12/04/2013 22:33

i've always understood bonfire of the vanities to be the ultimate 80s novel but haven't read it.

Report
Francagoestohollywood · 12/04/2013 22:35

Jay McInerney Bright Lights Big City

And Brett Easton Ellis Americn Psyco are the first that spring to mind

Report
Francagoestohollywood · 12/04/2013 22:36

Margaret Drabble The Radiant Way

Report
highlandcoo · 12/04/2013 23:28

What A Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe is brilliant, especially if you like intelligent political commentary which is also very funny.

Report
Francagoestohollywood · 13/04/2013 11:37

Oh yes, how could I forget about What a carve up??? It's brillinat!

Report
EggsEggSplat · 13/04/2013 11:45

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell is set in 1982.

Or why not go back to that classic of the time, The Secret Dary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and three-quarters? Full of period detail...

Report
Shanghaidiva · 13/04/2013 12:07

Also The Rotters Club by Coe
Northern Clemency by Hensher - starts in the 1970s I think

Report
MilanToMinsk · 13/04/2013 12:13

Was going to suggest Bonfire of the Vanities too - Tom Wolfe.
Also David Lodge - late 1970s/early 1980s.

Report
MilanToMinsk · 13/04/2013 12:16

And a more recent on set in the 1980s -
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (sp?)

Report
marissab · 13/04/2013 20:17

Am loving these suggestions. Love adrian mole! I was gonna suggest american psycho. Gets really into eighties yuppy lifestyle but you need a strong stomach. By far the most disturbing, Torture book i've ever read. Extreme sexual violence. It's good though. I've read it twice Grin

Report
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 13/04/2013 20:22

Just Googled this and,'Let The Right One In' is set in the 80s - tis a Swedish vampire novel and is pretty good but don't read anything else by him because his others are rubbish.

Report
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 13/04/2013 20:24

I think Willy Russell's, 'The Wrong Boy'might be set in the early 90s but it still has an eighties 'feel' iirc.

Report
nettie · 13/04/2013 21:10

'Never Let Me Go' has a late seventies, early eighties feel to it.

Report
QueenofWhatever · 13/04/2013 21:19

'Once In A House On Fire' by Andrea Ashworth is an incredible read. Highly recommended.

Also another vote for The Northern Clemency, part of it takes place during the miners' strike.

Report
joanofarchitrave · 13/04/2013 21:59

I'd rushed back here to say 'what a carve up' but am not surprised that lots of people got there first!

Report
revolvenotevolve · 14/04/2013 13:11

what was lost by Catherine oflynn

Report
notcitrus · 14/04/2013 13:30

Secret Diary and Growing Pains of Adrian Mole are great - I reread them recently as so much of them went over my head at the time.

Report
ISpyPlumPie · 15/04/2013 20:52

Was going to suggest The Line of Beauty but was beaten to it! Also agree with What a Carve Up and the first three Aidrian Moles.

Report
ivehadaverybadday · 15/04/2013 20:54

Horrid as it is, American Psycho is a fantastic book. I second all the Jonathan Coe, and The Line of Beauty Smile

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

needanewnickname · 16/04/2013 00:13

I second Black Swan Green - well observed story of a boy who is a teenager at secondary school in the 80s.

Report
tripfiction · 18/04/2013 20:14

I have just come across this:
www.tripfiction.com/Book/3046 set in the 1980s, Winner of the Mail on Sunday Novel Competition

Report
PeasandCucumbers · 18/04/2013 23:48

I really enjoyed Starter for Ten

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.