Beth, from Little Women. (they don't call it social anxiety, though!)

 

A few years ago I read a book called Two Pink Horses that really struck me. The main character has schizophrenia, not SA, but his paranoid social interactions reminded me of how I really blow social situations out of proportion. It's very funny and painfully sad at the same time. Few short novels really stay with me, but this is one of my favorites.

http://www.amazon.com/Two-Pink-Horses-Jeffrey-Stewart/dp/0942979753

 

If you're into reading plays, try The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams.

 

The character of Oscar in Peter Carey's book, Oscar & Lucinda. I read it a long time ago - don't remember specifics but recall an extreme social awkwardness in that character. Time for a re-read I think.

 

Philip Carey in 'Of Human Bondage' by Somerset Maugham

 

The character Robert Cohn in The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, is a shy person. However, the book is not told from his point of view, so don't expect a flattering portrayal. Most of the other characters hate him because he is shy.

I found his character to be sympathetic, but I am sure the author didn't intend it that way.

It was kind of upsetting to see a shy person villified this way, but in all honesty it is probably a realistic look at how society at large views people who suffer from shyness or social phobia.

 

The character Robert Cohn in The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, is a shy person. However, the book is not told from his point of view, so don't expect a flattering portrayal. Most of the other characters hate him because he is shy.

I found his character to be sympathetic, but I am sure the author didn't intend it that way.

It was kind of upsetting to see a shy person villified this way, but in all honesty it is probably a realistic look at how society at large views people who suffer from shyness or social phobia.

It's been many years since I've read the novel, but my impression was that the hatred toward Cohn (both by the other characters and by Hemingway himself) had at least as much to do with his Jewishness as his shyness. I'd really have to go back and reread it, though. But the portrayal of Cohn did seem to me to reek of anti-Semitism.

 

If anyone is interested in horror, Nora from Watchers. I don't think the movie versions have this character. The book by Dean Koontz is better than the movies anyway.

 

Mr Sommer from The Story of Mr Sommer. Worth reading.

 

I love every novel and short story by William Trevor. This Wikipedia description of his thematic emphasis is about right:

Characters have deeply felt longings but must accept that life will not change, and the inevitable has to be endured. There are fragmentary moments of illumination, but these are soon quenched, and problems prevail. One of the dominant themes in the stories is the difficulty of dealing with truth, of recognizing it, of communicating it, and of accepting it. The characters in Trevor's work are usually marginalized members of society: children, old people, single middle-aged men and women, or the unhappily married. Those who cannot accept the reality of their lives create their own alternative worlds into which they retreat.

Like no other author, William Trevor presents characters with whom, as a social phobic, I can empathize completely. I often cry as I read his short stories.

 

The character Robert Cohn in The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, is a shy person. However, the book is not told from his point of view, so don't expect a flattering portrayal. Most of the other characters hate him because he is shy.

I found his character to be sympathetic, but I am sure the author didn't intend it that way.

It was kind of upsetting to see a shy person villified this way, but in all honesty it is probably a realistic look at how society at large views people who suffer from shyness or social phobia.

It's been many years since I've read the novel, but my impression was that the hatred toward Cohn (both by the other characters and by Hemingway himself) had at least as much to do with his Jewishness as his shyness. I'd really have to go back and reread it, though. But the portrayal of Cohn did seem to me to reek of anti-Semitism.

You are right. It's been a long time since I read the novel as well, but now I do remember the anti-Semitism directed towards Cohn. He was also heavily criticized for his shyness, though. It seems like the characters (and probably even Hemingway) decided up front they didn't like they guy, and so they criticized him for anything they could find. I find it highly annoying, however, that Cohn was portrayed as the "bad guy" of the story seemingly based on two factors that he had no control over -- his race and his shyness. Maybe that is because I see some of myself in his character.

 

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" was very helpful to me in high school. Here too the term social anxiety was never used

 

Any new suggestions? I remembered this topic while I was re-reading Watchers for a class

 

The The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz is an excellent read, very funny and heartbreaking too.

''Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who-from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister- dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú-a curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao<./I> opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere-and risk it all-in the name of love. ''

 

There's a character in Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski that only speaks when someone asks a question. I totally identified with this. But it's only a very minor throw away character so i can't really recommend it unless you like books about womanizing and drinking.

 

Freshers by Kevin Sampson

 

Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

I don't know if you'd call what he had social anxiety, but the whole book is about isolation and a feeling of detachment. A lot of his social interactions with people seem awkward and he has issues with intimacy with girls.

 

A lot of the main characters in Haruki Murakami's novels seem to have trouble with people. It's not as severe as SA but there is definitely something there I can relate to.

 

Boo in To Kill A Mockingbird kind of makes me think of SA