Recommendations please for noble-minded and literary nephew 20

[traviata]

My DN is captivated by noble tales of self-discovery and a search for authenticity, especially against a wild or epic backdrop, and he is nurturing a dream of discovering life's truths through 'life on the road' instead of buckling down to his mundane studies. Americana features strongly.

What else might he enjoy reading?

He has read all of Cormac McCarthy, William Maxwell, Faulkner, 'Into the Wild' by Jon Krakauer, 'Stoner', 'On the Road' & 'Motorcycle Diaries', George Orwell 'Down & Out in Paris & London', and he has probably read Camus and Sartre.

Definitely echo Laurie Lee As I Walked out one Midsummer Morning.

How about some Hemingway?

more excellent ideas, thanks everyone

Death comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. Also Butchers Crossing by John Williams.

Zen & the Art of Motorcycles.

Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna.
Paul Auster, 4321.
Leopold Trepper, The Great Game.
John Steinbeck , The Grapes of Wrath.

Keithlemonde- I loved the secret river! (Aus though, not USA)

What about some Thoreau, On Walden Pond?
Also, if he likes mountaineering, John Muir, perhaps A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf?

I loved This Thing Of Darkness, it's huge, but I never wanted it to end.

And yes, to whoever said Nan Shepherd!

Ewww to Ayn Rand

Americana - how about Carson McCullers?

More recently Willy Vlautin of the band Richmond Fontaine has written several novels - I really recommend Lean on Pete.

Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower - Lauren, a black teenager, escapes her gated community in California and goes to try and make a better life for herself up north (Oregon?) - there is lots of travel.

Just remembered another wonderful book, that I read many, many times at university (not for my course, never did anything of that!), Travels With Lizbeth by Lars Eigner.
It's about a man who becomes homeless for three years, and travels across America several times looking for work, taking his dog with him. It's very frank, but has great descriptive passages, and his journey is eye-opening. The ridiculous situation he finds himself in, whereby because he isn't an alcoholic or a drug addict, he cannot get assistance from homeless programmes, and because he has no kitchen he cannot get food stamps, is mind-boggling. I think I probably read it with Garrison Keillor's voice in my head.

In fact-;what about Garrison Keillor?
Lake Wobegon to start with.

White Fang - Jack London
Any by Bill Bryson

I agree about Ayn Rand - I won't be spending any money on buying her work; no doubt DN could find it in the (publicly funded, state owned, free-speech upholding) town library .

Thanks so much for all the suggestions on this thread. I hope there's plenty there to inspire others as much as me.

I see someone has mentioned Apsley Cherry-Garrard upthread - how about his The Worst Journey in the World? A remarkable and very humble account of Scott's last expedition from someone who was on it, which explains a lot about the motivations behind exploration and includes simply beautiful descriptions of the harshest conditions our planet can provide. The respect and appreciation C-G has for his fellow explorers is also heartwarming.

Just to update;

so far I have bought North Water and W G Sebald's 'The Rings of Saturn' when it fell into my basket at the local bookshop.

I'm also going to add Toni Morrison's Beloved - thanks to whoever suggested that. It isn't at all what I thought I was looking for, but somehow it's a great fit.

Definitely echo Laurie Lee As I Walked out one Midsummer Morning.

Yes to that

The Revenant (Forget the movie, the book is great)

2001: A Space Odyssey (Survival in hostile environment, are we alone in the universe, thoughts about consciousness, etc)

1984 (freedom, the ways in which language & information/news are used to control a population)

This Thing Of Darkness (true story, discovery, survival, clash of civilizations, historical treatment of other races)

What about the only genuine jones by Alex Roddie?

It's a climbing one, but set in the Victorian period when the equipment made it even more challenging

Travels with a donkey Robert Louis Stevenson
Eleni Nicholas Gage
Steinbeck
Jack London
Catch 22
From here to eternity