Have you heard about the 1965 Club?
It’s part of a twice-yearly initiative run by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggy’s Bookish Ramblings in which everyone’s encouraged to read (and review) books published in the same year. This month (22-28 April) the focus is on books first published in 1965. (You can read more about how it works on Simon’s blog.)
If you are considering joining in, I thought it might be useful to create a small list of books I’ve read and enjoyed that were published in 1965 and which should be readily available to purchase or loan.
Here is that list, which has been arranged in alphabetical order by author’s surname — hyperlinks take you to my full review.
‘Aunts Up the Cross’ by Robin Dalton (1965; republished by Text Classics in 2015)
Charming (and often outrageously funny) memoir about growing up in Bohemian Sydney during the 1920s and 30s by the leading UK literary agent of the 1960s.
‘The Dark’ by John McGahern (1965; republished by Faber in 2008)
Semi-autobiographical novel about an Irish boy’s painful adolescence and his confused, ambiguous relationship with his violent, widower father.
‘The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea’ by Randolph Stow (1965; republished by Penguin Modern Classics in 2008)
Deeply moving coming-of-age story set in Geraldton, Western Australia during the Second World War by one of Australia’s most under-rated writers.
‘The Boarding House’ by William Trevor (1965; republished by Penguin in 2014)
Ealing-like comedy set in a Wimbledon boarding house peopled by eccentrics and oddballs intent on remaining residents after the death of their live-in landlord.
Have you read any of these books? Can you name any others published in 1965? If you are taking part in the 1965 Club, which book have you chosen to read? I’m planning on reading ‘Stoner’ by John Williams, which was originally published by Viking Press in 1965 and has been languishing in my TBR for at least a decade.
Reading Matters 
What a wonderful thing, to have your favorites listed as a reference. I have already decided on a reread of The Arm of the Starfish, as I am an ardent fan of Madeleine L’Engle, and I hoping to fit in Stoner as well. But I’m glad for this reference from you!
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Hope it’s helpful! It required a bit of legwork going through my entire archive to see which books had been published in 1965 🙄 but it was fun to rediscover these.
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I don’t usualy like to reveal beforehand what I’ve chosen for the YearClub but this time I haven’t actually decided yet. It may well be a re-read as I’ve already read quite a few books from that year.
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Ah…I’m intrigued now…
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Ha! Ha! My plan worked.
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I’ve checked my stash of unread books but not a single one from 1965. I’m going to have to rely on our library system – I bet you none of the titles you mention will be in their collection.
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I hope you can find something suitable, Karen, I’d be surprised if you can’t get the McGahern or the Trevor; the two Australian titles might be a bit more difficult to source.
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I have read the John McGahern and the William Trevor. Another novel written in 1965 is an early Anne Tyler, ‘The Tin Can Tree’, very simple and primitive but the Tyler magic was already there.
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I love Anne Tyler but not sure if I’ve ever read that one. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Lovely to see The Boarding-House on your list, Kim, a wickedly funny tragicomedy with touches of poignancy. I must get around to trying John McGahern at some point – he sounds like the sort of writer I would enjoy.
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Oh, you must read McGahern, Jacqui but not sure this is the place to start. I always recommend The Barracks…it’s one of those reads that stays with you (think I read it in 2005 and I still occasionally think about it!)
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Oh, that’s really helpful. Thanks, Kim. I’ll certainly take a look at that – it’s always difficult to know where to start if you’re not very familiar with a writer’s work.
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I checked Annals of Australian Lit. 1965 was a poor year, only Thea Astley’s The Slow Natives to rival the Randolph Stow. I’ve read (and reviewed) a couple of 1965 memoirs – Martin Boyd’s Day of My Delight and Norman Lindsay’s Bohemians at the Bulletin.
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I was actually going to read The Slow Natives for this exercise, because I was so sure I had a copy… but I couldn’t find it and I really don’t want to buy a new edition cos, you know, I only have about 1,000 books in my TBR and I really shouldn’t be adding to it.
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Oooh nice! Glad you’ll be joining in! There are sooooo many good books from 1965 I don’t quite know what I’m going to pick up…
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Be interesting in seeing what you read, Karen. It’s a great project for helping to explore older books.
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Oo I didn’t realise that The Boarding House was 1965 – I’ve been meaning to read it for ages, because I love books set in boarding houses, but I don’t have it on my shelves.
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Oh, you must read it, Simon. It’s such a funny book… quite dark but full of comic moments, a bit akin to an Ealing comedy.
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Brilliant list! For a bit of fun, I typed my birth year into Wordery timeline and it selected the best selling book of that year. Like many northern hemisphere websites, it ignores the southern hemisphere cornucopia https://wordery.com/best-selling-books-by-year
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Oh, that is an interesting timeline… it was fun to go through to see how many of the books I had read!
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There are some very memorable ones indeed!
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