Book Recommendations for January-May 2009
Because I can't be relied upon to contribute to the blogosphere with any regularity, I submit instead this round-up of my favorite books I've read so far this year. I offer it not as a survey of contemporary literature or as an AP English reading list, just as a source if you're looking for something good to read. I begin with my favorite novel of the year, and of many other years:
Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner (1987)
Perhaps I'll write more about this novel at year's end, but I want to describe how I came across it: I had heard of Wallace Stegner as a literary figure, someone whom I remember seeing on a Pulitzer winners list, but I'd never read any of his works, never been inclined to. Then, one afternoon at the library, when we along with many other libraries in the state were counting how many people entered the building, I needed something to pass the time in between clicks. I reached into the return cart, recognized the name, dipped in, and was soon knocked on my ass. This is why I'm a librarian and continue to put up with "the public": for serendipitous moments like these.
Because I was not ready for how great this novel is -- how unassumingly great it is. It never announces itself as an Important Book, has no po-mo lit tricks, no major philosophical statements, and it is not difficult in the slightest to read; this is the perfect literary book to give to somebody who doesn't think they like literary books.
The novel basically charts the decades-long friendship of two couples who meet when the narrator begins teaching at university. Plot-wise, that's about it, just two couples navigating the peaks and valleys of a 50-year relationship; at one point, the narrator even wonders aloud what drama can be mined from such seemingly banal circumstances ("Where are the suburban infidelities, the promiscuities, the convulsive divorces, the alcohol, the drugs, the lost weekends?"). This is Stegner's gift: that he can capture these universal feelings in such unpretentious, memorable prose. It's a novel really to cherish, to give as a gift, to recommend whenever possible, so consider this my humble attempt.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz (2007)
I'm not sure I'm as enraptured of last year's Pulitzer winner as others, but I still admired this novel a lot. Oscar is depicted as an uber-geek, a slothful, girl-repellent sci-fi buff who makes it his life's crusade to fall in love. But there's much more at stake than that, as Diaz charts Oscar's family through several generations; in fact, despite the title, Oscar only appears in maybe half the book (I actually preferred the backstory of Oscar's family to the parts involving Oscar himself -- until the last chapter, at least). The language is fresh, it's funny, and surprisingly, given the academic stature of the narrator, very smart. The main thrust of the novel is how behavior runs through generations, and in particular, how Oscar's family, living through a brutal 20th-century dictatorship, still carries those scars.
The Cradle, by Patrick Somerville (2009)
In this short novel, a man is asked by his pregnant wife to search for a Civil War-replica cradle that had been stolen by her estranged mother's new boyfriend when she was young. His journey to find the cradle is filled with bizarre characters and at least one life-changing decision. There's also a counterplot featuring a mother reluctantly seeing her son off to war that eventually dovetails into the main story. If any of this sounds like a recipe for quirk-induced disaster, breathe easy: Somerville is too good for that. And at 200 pages, you can polish it off in one or two sittings.
Pieces for the Left Hand: 100 Anecdotes, by J. Robert Lennon (2005; reprinted, 2009)
As the title suggests, this is not a novel but a loose collection of 100 vignettes, none more than three pages long. They are slice-of-life stories, as recounted by a droll, older man living in upstate New York (e.g., Two professors disagree vehemently on the proper spelling of gray/grey, to the point that they refuse to speak to each other. Over the years, each comes to realize the other was right, but the grudge endures: they still refuse to speak to each other.) The book has a way of luring you in (you think you're just going to read three or four, and then you look up and you've read 15), and I do admire the economy of the stories. I would advise reading this in bursts, since one could grow weary of the stories' inevitable ironic twists at the end; however, when they work, they're very funny and observant. You could even view this as a roundabout character study of the narrator, a man who keeps you at a distance but whose behavior and the company he keeps does give you an idea of the person he is.
Zeroville, by Steve Erickson (2006)
By some distance the craziest novel I've read this year. A man calling himself Vikar moves to Hollywood around the time of the Manson murders and becomes a celebrated film editor. Right from the start we know there's something not quite right with Vikar (or is it that there's something not quite right with us?) : he has one of his favorite movie scenes tattooed on his bald dome, and Erickson describes him as cineautistic -- knows everything about movies but can't negotiate everyday interaction. There's an element of Forrest Gump in Vikar, in that he unwittingly shows up at seminal moments in cinema history; half the fun of reading this novel is in picking out what movies are being referenced in these encounters. I'm not sure I could explain why this novel works -- especially when it descends into pure chaos in its final pages -- I just know that it does.
Other worthwhile reads:
Lowboy, by John Wray (2009)
The Dart League King, by Keith Lee Morris (2008)
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, by Peter Cameron (2007)
City of Refuge, by Tom Piazza (2008)
Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner (1987)Perhaps I'll write more about this novel at year's end, but I want to describe how I came across it: I had heard of Wallace Stegner as a literary figure, someone whom I remember seeing on a Pulitzer winners list, but I'd never read any of his works, never been inclined to. Then, one afternoon at the library, when we along with many other libraries in the state were counting how many people entered the building, I needed something to pass the time in between clicks. I reached into the return cart, recognized the name, dipped in, and was soon knocked on my ass. This is why I'm a librarian and continue to put up with "the public": for serendipitous moments like these.
Because I was not ready for how great this novel is -- how unassumingly great it is. It never announces itself as an Important Book, has no po-mo lit tricks, no major philosophical statements, and it is not difficult in the slightest to read; this is the perfect literary book to give to somebody who doesn't think they like literary books.
The novel basically charts the decades-long friendship of two couples who meet when the narrator begins teaching at university. Plot-wise, that's about it, just two couples navigating the peaks and valleys of a 50-year relationship; at one point, the narrator even wonders aloud what drama can be mined from such seemingly banal circumstances ("Where are the suburban infidelities, the promiscuities, the convulsive divorces, the alcohol, the drugs, the lost weekends?"). This is Stegner's gift: that he can capture these universal feelings in such unpretentious, memorable prose. It's a novel really to cherish, to give as a gift, to recommend whenever possible, so consider this my humble attempt.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz (2007)
I'm not sure I'm as enraptured of last year's Pulitzer winner as others, but I still admired this novel a lot. Oscar is depicted as an uber-geek, a slothful, girl-repellent sci-fi buff who makes it his life's crusade to fall in love. But there's much more at stake than that, as Diaz charts Oscar's family through several generations; in fact, despite the title, Oscar only appears in maybe half the book (I actually preferred the backstory of Oscar's family to the parts involving Oscar himself -- until the last chapter, at least). The language is fresh, it's funny, and surprisingly, given the academic stature of the narrator, very smart. The main thrust of the novel is how behavior runs through generations, and in particular, how Oscar's family, living through a brutal 20th-century dictatorship, still carries those scars.
The Cradle, by Patrick Somerville (2009)In this short novel, a man is asked by his pregnant wife to search for a Civil War-replica cradle that had been stolen by her estranged mother's new boyfriend when she was young. His journey to find the cradle is filled with bizarre characters and at least one life-changing decision. There's also a counterplot featuring a mother reluctantly seeing her son off to war that eventually dovetails into the main story. If any of this sounds like a recipe for quirk-induced disaster, breathe easy: Somerville is too good for that. And at 200 pages, you can polish it off in one or two sittings.
Pieces for the Left Hand: 100 Anecdotes, by J. Robert Lennon (2005; reprinted, 2009)As the title suggests, this is not a novel but a loose collection of 100 vignettes, none more than three pages long. They are slice-of-life stories, as recounted by a droll, older man living in upstate New York (e.g., Two professors disagree vehemently on the proper spelling of gray/grey, to the point that they refuse to speak to each other. Over the years, each comes to realize the other was right, but the grudge endures: they still refuse to speak to each other.) The book has a way of luring you in (you think you're just going to read three or four, and then you look up and you've read 15), and I do admire the economy of the stories. I would advise reading this in bursts, since one could grow weary of the stories' inevitable ironic twists at the end; however, when they work, they're very funny and observant. You could even view this as a roundabout character study of the narrator, a man who keeps you at a distance but whose behavior and the company he keeps does give you an idea of the person he is.
Zeroville, by Steve Erickson (2006)By some distance the craziest novel I've read this year. A man calling himself Vikar moves to Hollywood around the time of the Manson murders and becomes a celebrated film editor. Right from the start we know there's something not quite right with Vikar (or is it that there's something not quite right with us?) : he has one of his favorite movie scenes tattooed on his bald dome, and Erickson describes him as cineautistic -- knows everything about movies but can't negotiate everyday interaction. There's an element of Forrest Gump in Vikar, in that he unwittingly shows up at seminal moments in cinema history; half the fun of reading this novel is in picking out what movies are being referenced in these encounters. I'm not sure I could explain why this novel works -- especially when it descends into pure chaos in its final pages -- I just know that it does.
Other worthwhile reads:
Lowboy, by John Wray (2009)
The Dart League King, by Keith Lee Morris (2008)
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, by Peter Cameron (2007)
City of Refuge, by Tom Piazza (2008)
posted by Mike at 6:23 PM
0 comments
