T.C. Boyle's 4 favorite books to turn to for comfort

T. C. Boyle's many novels include World's End (winner of the PEN/FaulknerAward), Drop City (a New York Times bestseller and finalist for the National Book Award), and the newly released When the Killing's Done.

One of his four favorite books to turn to for comfort, as told to The Daily Beast:

The Stories of John Cheever

A book I revisit every decade or so, reading straight through, not only for the majesty and beauty of Cheever's prose but to discover a whole hidden history of an era. The 61 stories here run in chronological order, from "Goodbye, My Brother" to "The Jewels of the Cabots," and they are imbued with joy and sorrow in equal measures. Plus, we have the staunchly anti-academic Cheever's two-page introduction, in which he muses on his beginnings in an era "when the city of New York was still filled with a river light, when you heard Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationery store, and when almost everyone wore a hat."

Read about another book on Boyle's list.

--Marshal Zeringue