Here’s my New Year’s List of Books I Read Last Year. Actually I probably left out a few, but here are the memorable ones, more or less, and some thoughts about them.
Two by Samual Beckett: The Lost Ones and The Unnamable. I’ve always loved Beckett’s writing, love how they transport me to another level of experience beyond words yet through the use of words.
Short Stories by Nadine Gordimer, Something Out There. I really enjoyed these stories and would like to read more by her.
John Banville Eclipse. An aging actor’s search for himself. I was glad when I finished this one. It was okay but dragged on.
Dan Chaon: Among the Missing has one of the best stories I have read in a long time. I enjoyed the entire book.
On the other hand, his novel You Remind Me of Me really went on too long, needed cutting. Although a good story, too much of a good thing is not good. The book would have benefited by a good editor.
Joan Brady: Prologue. This was a wonderful memoir of her youth, her ambitions to be a professional ballet dancer and the tensions between her and her mother. I’ve been planning to read more of her writing, and soon.
J.M. Coetzee: Waiting for the Barbarians. Another wonderful novel. Beautifully written story of a man who faces an extreme moral dilemma involving power and colonial unrest and violence.
William Trevor: Felicia’s Journey (made into a motion picture by Atom Egoyan) A primer on how to become a derelict. A well-written story but without any possibilities of hope or transcendence of despair. Another book I didn’t mind finishing.
The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukayama. Most of this novel was perfect, the part told by the young Chinese man recuperating from tuberculosis in a small resort town in Japan. But then, when the story changed point of view, it failed for me. The main theme is about outcasts: tensions between nationalities and also between the healthy and the ill. The underlying theme is the beauty of life as symbolized by the Garden.
The Master by Colm Toibin, about Henry James, a beautiful, intense, quietly profound book about creativity and loneliness.
News from Paraguay by Lilly Tuck. Perfectly crafted short episodes (a whole chapter in each paragraph) that give a full story of a major part of Paraguay’s history.
The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt. Searching for clues to the fire at the Venice Opera House, the entire history of Venice and its social life is laid out in a fascinating travelogue.
Everyman by Philip Roth. An interesting probe into the feelings of an aging retired successful advertising executive.
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. A fascinating look at isolation and what it can do to the mind and what kind of person chooses it.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Still one of the best books ever. To write a book from the point of view of a six year old and have it seem believable is, well, unbelievable for how successful it is.
Yesterday by Agota Kristof. A very sad and beautiful book.
Pig Earth by the art critic and writer John Berger. A fascinating story of life in rural France.
Louise Bourgeois’ Destruction of the Father; Reconstruction of the Father. Her writings and interviews from 1923 to 1997. Fascinating!