Same as last year. No poll as such just a quick write up about the best fiction, best factual, best rediscovery you’ve read this year. Have also added a new section covering biggest disappointment(s).
FICTION
Vine St – Dominic Malone
An ambitious 600-plus-page Soho-based novel focused on the hunt for a serial killer that spans 60 years. If you love immersive, character-driven crime fiction (think James Ellroy’s LA Quartet) and John Lawton’s Frederick Troy series), you’ll probably love this. Hard to believe VS is only Malone’s third book. Having devoured the title in about a week, I’ve already got his first two fired up and ready to go on the Kindle.
The Passenger – Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz.
Like Irene Nemirovsky (Suite Francais) and Hans Fallada (Alone in Berlin), Boschwitz was one of those European Jewish writers of the 20s and 30s whose lives and/or potential were snuffed out by the Nazis. A nightmarish tale of a Jewish businessman with a suitcase of case caught in a never-ending train journey across an increasingly hostile Germany, The Passenger is finally getting Boschwitz the sort of rave reviews he’s long been denied.
Billy Summers – Stephen King
Almost 50 years into his career, SK’s addictive tale of an Iraqi war vet turned sniper ends up being the best book he’s written in ages.
Honorable mentions The April Dead (Alan Parks), Exit (Belinda Bauer)
FACTUAL
The Big Goodbye – Sam Wasson
Only caught up with this when the PB came out earlier this summer. Chinatown has been one of my favourite movies since I first saw it in a Coventry picture palace upon its release almost half a century ago. This wonderfully evocative examination of the trials and tribulations soon made all the memories of one of the best nights I’ve ever had at the cinema come flooding back. Following the fortunes of those behind and in front of the camera both before and after the film came out, this is like Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, one of those books about film-making and film makers that makes you want to immerse yourself in their movies again. Which I did the moment I put the book down.
Honorable mentions: The 12 Lives of Alfred Hitchcock (Edward White), The Insider’s Guide to Inside No 9 (Mark Salisbury)
OLD BOOK/REDISCOVERY
Betrayals – Charles Palliser
Having written the best Dickens pastiche ever in the form of the 1,000 pages-plus, Quincunx some 30 years ago, Charles Palliser has long remained a favourite author of mine. A meta examination of the nature of storytelling itself, 1996’s Betrayals never quite scaled the same critical or commercial heights as its predecessor. All of which is a big shame as, made up of interconnecting standalone stories that span eras, genres and writing styles, Betrayals is well worth dusting off and re-reading. Eight years since his last book, the notoriously unprolific Mr P must be about due for a new one – anyone here know?
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
Beeswing – Richard Thompson
Unstable Boys – Nick Kent
Two terrific writers whose 2021 offerings I found to be a real slog.
Most of mine have already been duly reported on Blogger Takeover, but here they are again for your unrestrained delight.
FICTION
I discovered two Irish writers that I’ve fallen in love with this year. Sebastian Barry and Anne Enright. The first thanks to Locust and KFD recommendations. Both have a beautiful way with language. (Barry and Enright, not Locust and KFD. Although they too have their moments.)
Sebastian Barry – ‘Days Without End’ was definitely my read of the year and when I can afford it I must delve further. No surprise that the chap’s also a renowned poet. I mean, look at this paragraph:
“Empurpled rapturous hills I guess and the long day brushstroke by brushstroke enfeebling into darkness and then the fires blooming on the pitch plains. In the beautiful blue night there was plenty of visiting and the braves was proud and ready to offer a lonesome soldier a squaw for the duration of his passion. John Cole and me sought out a hollow away from prying eyes. Then with the ease of men who have rid themselves of worry we strolled among the Indian tents and heard the sleeping babies breathing and spied out the wondrous kind called by the Indians winkte or by white men berdache, braves dressed in the finery of squaws. John Cole gazes on them but he don’t like to let his eyes linger too long in case he gives offence. But he’s like the plough-horse that got the whins. All woken in a way I don’t see before. The berdache puts on men’s garb when he goes to war, this I know. Then war over it’s back to the bright dress. We move on and he’s just shaking like a cold child. Two soldiers walking under the bright nails of the stars. John Cole’s long face, long stride. The moonlight not able to flatter him because he was already beautiful.”
The whole book’s like that. Astonishing. I’ve not been so impressed by the sheer beauty of the English language since reading John Williams’ ‘Stoner’.
The other Irish writer I really enoyed was Anne Enright. ‘The Green Road’ is almost like a collection of short stories, all tied together by the principal characters of each story being the children of an Irish mother who calls them home for a final Christmas together. Enright also has a way with the words as well as story. I’ve just started her Booker prize winning ‘The Gathering’.
I also enjoyed Johnathan Coe – Mr Wilder & Me. A light, breezy novel that mixes real people up with fictional characters. Ideal summer read. My favourite of his since ‘What A Carve Up’ and a real departure from his usual approach.
FACTUAL
I don’t think I read any factual this year. The nearest I came was Tim Parks – ‘Italian Life’ which is a fictional story but really about the Italian univeristy system and modern Italy itself. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone specifically interested in those two subjects, but not to anyone else.
OLD BOOK/REDISCOVERY
Patrica Highsmith – The Talented Mr Ripley. A total hoot of a crime caper. Fast and gripping, as thrillers should be.
Matthew Kneale – English Passangers. Historical fiction about the mistreatment of aborigonal Tasmanians. Every bit as good second time round. Peevay is one of my favourite fictional characters ever.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
Quite a few. William Boyd – Brazzaville Beach wasn’t as good as I’d remembered and Restless was pretty dull. Colson Whitehead – ‘The Nickel Boys’ was a bit flat, despite a Pulitzer Prize and a Barack Obama recommendation. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Selfish Giant and Klara and the Sun’. I don’t think Ishiguro should have won the Nobel. If they wanted to give it to a Brit they should have given it to McEwan. He’s written far more outstanding novels than Ishiguo’s measly two (and we all know which two). Patricia Highsmith – ‘Strangers On A Train’ was the biggest disappointment of my reading year. So unrelentingly tedious.
Interesting – ‘The Selfish Giant’ was one of my favourite books last year. Do agree with you about Sebastian Barry though – haven’t read a novel of his which has been less than superb.
I haven’t read ANY new books this year because I am a creature of habit and slow to adapt to the new. But here are my top three highlights and lowlights of old/rediscovered:
HIGHLIGHTS
– The Road To Middle Earth by Tom Shippey: Thanks to Colin H for this recommendation. A scholarly analysis of how and why Tolkien created Lord of the Rings and his other fiction. Dense and academic enough to dissuade anyone who isn’t fully into it – I admit it was a struggle to get through at times, but the revelations were worth the struggle.
– Beowulf – I read three different translations of Beowulf this year, by Seamus Heaney, Kevin Crossley-Holland and Tolkien himself (the poem was a bit of a Tolkien obsession). It’s a fascinating piece of old English folklore/myth/storytelling, and a very pleasant rabbit hole to get lost down.
– Alan Garner – After Tolkien I was in the mood for another Great English Fantasist, and Garner fit the bill. He bridges that same gap as Tolkien where it is never clear if he is writing for adults or children. The only one of his I read as a child was Elidor. This year I re-read that, plus The Owl Service and Boneland. I’ve dropped enough hints that I should hopefully get his new one, Treacle Walker, for Christmas.
LOWLIGHTS
– Landscapes of Detectorists (Various) – This is a collection of essays about the TV show Detectorists, which I was a bit obsessed by this year. On the face of it, it’s a brave attempt to take the show seriously and apply academic rigour to studying its themes and allusions. But in actuality it’s just a bit dull, enlivened only by the final essay by the producer (i.e. someone with some actual inside knowledge and insight of the show).
– The Lark Ascending (Richard King) – I really wanted to like this, but the theme (British landscape as reflected in the music of the twentieth century?) is just too vague to make this any more than a collection of disparate essays. Some are interesting, but I would have preferred a more cohesive argument overall. I didn’t feel the book gave me any great insight into anything.
– The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy) – Every time I get an inkling that I might fancy some Victorian fiction I always regret it afterwards. I really struggled to get through this: too episodic, too melodramatic, and the female characters are all so puny they faint or fall ill (or even die) when anything remotely shocking happens.
Books – finally! 😀
Fiction:
Susanna Clarke – Piranesi
An absolute delight from start to finish, this is the journal entries of a man (Piranesi) living in a big labyrinthic house, full of statues. He’s alone there; apart from a man he meets once a week, and fish, birds and the bones of thirteen people he’s never met, as far as he knows (but he doesn’t remember much). Little by little Piranesi – and the reader – finds clues to the many questions, in this “literary fantasy thriller”. Piranesi and the House he lives in will forever live in my heart.
Jane Rawson – From The Wreck
Phenomenal Australian novel about a young sailor who survives a ship wreck thanks to a woman he believes is a supernatural being of some sort, and can’t forget; always there as a shadow in his mind, and strangely present. The writing is wonderful, the many voices feels so authentic and real, and the story is bizarre but completely credible when you read it. Yes, the shapeshifting alien octopus too!
So original, so literary ambitious while still a complete pageturner and so emotional…I think it’s a masterpiece.
I read my first novel by Carol Shields in 2020, but 2021 was the year when I decided to become a Shields completist, thanks to the second novel I read by her, in January: The Stone Diaries, which was even better than Larry’s Party, the first one I read by her.
The life of Daisy Goodwill Flett from birth to death, a small life, a fairly dull life, but the way Shields can write forth the extraordinary in the very ordinary is nothing short of a miracle, and it’s so effortlessly brilliant that the brain can’t understand how she does it… I am now 1 ½ novel away from completion of her works, and they’ve all been wonderful – but this is the very best one, IMO.
Honorable mentions: Frances Hardinge – The Lie Tree, Kazuo Ishiguro – Klara And The Sun (disagreeing with @Gary there, it seems to be a love it or loathe it kind of novel), Valeria Luiselli – Lost Children Archive, Vanessa Springora – Consent, Madeline Miller – Circe, Robbie Arnott – The Rain Heron, Tim Powers – Three Days To Never, Carol Shields – Happenstance, and also her novel The Box Garden…among many others (including a few Swedes that you lot can’t read anyway)!
Factual:
The best non-fiction this year was Swedish, from journalist Magnus Västerbro, who is a master at making history come alive, this time about the tyrannical king Carl XII and his disasterous reign in Tyrannens Tid.
And I suppose that David Sedaris’s diaries fits in here as well; A Carneval Of Snackery was as entertaining as its title promised.
Disappointment:
The Barack Obama tome was very dull and too detailed and wordy by far – I lasted 503 pages before giving up – partly because it coincided with the failed Trump impeachment while I was reading about how Obama was trying to get his healthcare reform through and having to compromise it to pieces…I got fed up with the USA that week, and it was too depressing so I stopped. Very dull, very defensive, and knowing that it was only part 1…not for me, I gave it away in a box of books for my neighbours.
75 books read so far (DNFs not included) this year, my guess is I’ll be able to fit in two or three more before the year is over. A good year for quality as well, most months with an average rating of high 7/10 or low 8/10, and no book given less than 5/10. plus 7 books that I DNF.
This was also the first complete year since I started keeping a reading journal – began in 2020 but some months in. I’ve thought about keeping a journal since i was a child, it only took me 53 years (OK, 49 if you start counting from when I learned to read) to get it started – but better late than never!
I’ve just ordered this Jane Rawson book for myself. I’m a sucker* for octopuses.
*ba dum tish
@Kid-Dynamite
You should have approached Locust about swapping books in a literary squid pro quo
Another year of part furlough means I’ve got through almost 150 books since January. These are some of the highlights:
Fiction
The standout novel of the year for me was Violet Kupersmith’s Build Your house Around My Body. I’ll c&p the blurb, which describes it very well:
Other honourable mentions:
Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura is an unbelievably bleak tale of life on the margins in feudal Japan, centred around a small coastal community who survive by luring ships onto the rocks and plundering them. It starts out wretchedly miserable, and boy does it get worse by the end.
For light relief I read all of Caimh McDonnell’s Dublin set crime novels, which are very funny and come recommended – the first is A Man With One Of Those Faces and you can go from there
Kyoko Nakajima’s Things Remembered And Things Forgotten is an excellent collection of short stories about Japan coming to terms with WWII (or not) that is eerie, offbeat, and terrific.
The Apparition Phase by Will MacLean is a hauntological ghost story that brilliantly evokes the vibe of 70s classics like The Stone Tape. I absolutely raced through this one, loved it.
Over in genre corner, the best SF novels I read this year were Arkady Martine’s A Desolation Called Peace and Alastair Reynolds’ Inhibitor Phase. In horror Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart Is A Chainsaw and Grady Hendrix’ The Final Girl Support Group coincidentally both dealt with the Final Girl phenomenon in very different ways, and Tom Fletcher’s Witch Bottle tapped into the vogue for rural folk horror with an unsettling story that has a properly nightmarish conclusion. This was also the year I discovered Mick Herron’s spy novels which are exciting, cynical and oh so darkly funny.
Non-Fiction
Just like buses, you wait ages for a book about The Sisters Of Mercy and then two come along at once. Mark Andrews’ Paint My Name In Black And Gold and Trevor Ristow’s Waiting For Another War both cover the story up to the dissolution of the Eldritch / Hussey / Adams lineup in 1985, and they’re both very good. WFAW has more on the American side of their adventures, whereas PMNIBAG is much more detailed on the early days. Both recommended for fans, but if you only read one I’d make it the Andrews book.
Last Days In Old Europe: Trieste 79, Vienna 85 and Prague 89 is Times reporter Richard Bassett’s account of those cities and times as the Cold War drew to an end. An enjoyable read which ticked my Mitteleuropan boxes nicely.
I loved Soviet Space Dogs by Olesya Turkina, which is a small but beautifully produced book about, surprisingly enough, Soviet space dogs – Laika, Strelka, Belka and the other pooches who were taken from the streets of Moscow and sent into space. Alongside the text there are hundreds of images of Soviet ephemera related to them – cigarette packets, sweet wrappers, children’s toys and books, etc – and it is a lovely little thing.
That Kupersmith novel sounds very interesting…I’m not allowed to buy any more books right now, until I get through a fair number of the ones I’ve already bought these past months; as soon as I’m allowed (or go nuts and break my own rules) I’ll order it!
I read a lot but I’m not good at remembering if books are “new” or not. So with that in mind…
FICTION
Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
He can be quite hit and miss in his fiction (definitely not in his non fiction), but Mayflies is ace. A friendship between two men in youth and in middle age, the close mouthed-ness of Scottish men of a certain class, the importance of music in overcoming these things? It’s pretty much the perfect Afterword read.
NON FICTION
I, You, We, Them by Dan Gretton
It wasn’t out this year but when you read a 1000 page monster about “desk killers” then you are going to mention it! This book brings together Nazis, oil company executives, and people who supply services to similar to explore how easy it is to just end up working in a place which causes deaths. It’s also an autobiography and piece of literary criticism. The result is a non fiction Sebald thing which really is compelling and wonderful.
REDISCOVERY
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
I am amazed that this has not been filmed in recent years, but it’s just a fantastic ripping yarn with one of the GREAT double acts in fiction in the form of David Balfour and Alan Breck. Put this together with the sequel Catriona and it would be just the most fun and bingeworthy Netflix series ever.