Keeping the tradition alive. This year I read what is likely a record lowest number of books perhaps since high school. After the richness of last year's reading, 2018 was a bit humdrum, and there are a fair number of 2-star works on here. Nonetheless, here's what I read:
Nonfiction
The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire by Edward Gibbon
For
nearly six years I slowly made my way through this work. At one point Gibbon
mentions “historians of blood” – which I am not. I have very little interest in
battles, rulers, and such. The work continues through the entirety of the
Byzantine era, and Gibbon does not consider the exercise complete until the
Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1493. Thousands of names and hundreds of
battles later, I remember almost no details, and consider it mostly a waste,
except for Gibbon’s amusing asides and reflections.
Well Met: Renaissance Faires &
The American Counterculture by Rachel Lee Rubin
Noticeably
repetitive, Rubin still manages to make a strong point in her work tracing the
role of the Faire’s origins in the 1960s to the utopian visions of that decade
to the continuing role as a safe space for genderqueer patrons and others. The
last chapter is perhaps the oddest, looking at the role of faire in literature,
but all in all a worthwhile study.
Wonderful Life by
Stephen Jay Gould
Thirty
years have passed since Gould’s popular account of the Cambrian and the
now-more-famous Burgess Shale. The basic thrust is that contingency is more
important to evolution than popularly considered. This volume is the
record-holder for longest on my shelf, having stayed there from either late
middle or early high school. Having tackled his more complex academic work last
year I found Wonderful Life to be more accessible, but a little bit
overstuffed.
These Truths by Jill Lepore
A
massive, 800-page history of the United States, from Columbus to Trump. The
focus is fairly exclusively political, and, excepting some troubling omissions
(in particular Native American citizenship when citizenship is one of her main
themes), it is a very worthwhile, and arguably very important book to read.
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
Quick,
fascinating, and significant. Lewis charts how an administrative hollowing-out
of the US government (focusing on the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and
Commerce) poses an unexpected risk to our country – even more, actually, than
someone (who finds the idea of "hollowing out" fairly scary) might already expect.
Fiction
Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley
Just
prior to Brave New World Huxley wrote
this very funny, but also rather acidic, account of intellectual pretensions in
England in the 1920s. The cast is based on real personalities (DH Lawrence,
Oswald Mosley, Huxley himself) but that fact is in no way necessary to enjoy
the work.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One of
those works I had meant to read for some time. I had greatly disliked the
movie, but this showed me that was more Jack Nicholson, and not the main
character. Problematic and dated, of course, but in all I understand why its
reputation holds, and could see myself recommending this to the right person.
Confessions of Zeno by
Italo Svevo
Perhaps
if I’d encountered Svevo’s work before Joyce, or Woolf, or other, better,
Modernists, I’d have more appreciation for his style. As is the main character
is what is now considered a stock unreliable narrator, a sort of
pre-stream-of-consciousness version of Roth’s Portnoy.
Devil on the Cross by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
In an
ongoing attempt to broaden horizons I figured I’d read this classic by a Kenyan
author who wrote the work while imprisoned. Not all that surprising, then, that
the resulting work is a bit preachy and defiantly righteous – it reminded me of
Lang’s Metropolis in tone – while
having some interesting experimental structure.
Appointment in Samarra by
John O’Hara
After
slogging through psychological portraits that I found unpleasant, O’Hara’s cast
was wonderfully human, tragic without a capital ‘T’, and relatable. His use of
language and description was also vivid, a quality I was starting to miss.
A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
A fun
spy novel – indeed, apparently the “birth of the modern spy novel” – which has
a typical fast-paced plot and lots of fun twists and turns.
The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
Interesting
in blending the aging father’s psychology with the unpleasantness of dealing
with his adult children’s struggling marriages. A good read.
As kingfishers catch fire by Gerard Manley Hopkins
My
father bought me the complete Penguin Little Black Classics. These short
(50-ish page) volumes are often extracts. Many, being short stories and
extracts, I will not bother to include here. However, this volume was a
selection of Hopkins’ best poetic work, which I thoroughly enjoyed, as one
previously unfamiliar with his verse.
The nightingales are drunk by Hafez
Another
Penguin LBC, this one containing the poetry of Hafez, a Sufi writer of the
1200s. Along with Sadi, Rumi, and Omar Khayyam, Hafez is considered a master,
and I was glad to finally engage with his work.
Remember, body by
CP Cavafy
Yet
another Penguin LBC – and another poet whom I’d never bothered to get to, and
whose work was powerful and excellent. For each of these LBCs mentioned, there
are another three which are not; but this work was very enjoyable.
Independent People by
Halldor Laxness
A peasant
epic of the highest order, with a strong message of how finance can come to
ruin good, hardworking people – a seemingly timeless moral, given its native
Icelandic setting’s recent banking woes. Has the common issues of books of a
certain age with regards to women and others, but as its written from the tonal
point of view of the bigoted and stubborn sheep-crofter, perhaps that’s a
narrative license.
Dear Life by Alice Munro
The
Canadian Nobel laureate’s collection of recent short fiction left a mark – the
stories are excellent, and clearly destined to be classics. Oddly, their power
was blunted, perhaps, by the fact that so many modern short story authors are
so indebted to her now-commonplace narrative and time-hopping style.
The Family of Pascual Duarte by
Camilo Jose Cela
A
short, violent existentialist work of life in rural Spain lived by an
unreliable couple of sets of narrators. A definite page-turner and intriguing
work with a lack of moral but lots of profound reflections.
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
It’s
genuinely odd to read a war novel, anymore, that is triumphal and holds a
nineteenth century view of battle as glorious – which Crane’s work balances
with a wide-eyed realism. Definitely the best work of fiction I’ve read concerning
the Civil War.
The Loa of the Divine Narcissus By Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
This
short, and increasingly famous allegorical play is worth reading as a document
of the attempts to intertwine the indigenous and Spanish cultures of Mexico. Like
Montaigne’s famous essay “On Cannibals” there is a level of rare and worthwhile
moral / spiritual relativism.
Lord Jim by
Joseph Conrad
I gave
up caring about Jim around 200 pages in, and found the conclusion to be of
little help. Only if you are over the moon for Heart of Darkness would I
recommend. It is not as good.
Rhinoceros and Other Plays by
Eugene Ionesco
Rhinoceros
is an excellent work, one of the best 20th century plays I’ve read.
The other two works (The Leader and The Future is in Eggs)…are not. In fact,
they’re fairly dreadful.
Graphic
Novels
The Sandman: Endless Nights by
Neil Gaiman et al.
I
enjoyed Sandman a great deal, but never enough to further seek out its
spin-offs. So when this volume was given as a gift I perused it, enjoyed it,
and shelved it. If you like Sandman this is up your alley.
Sabrina by
Nick Drnaso
The
emotional void which meets the characters in light of the most vivid horror is
why Drnaso’s work is so heralded, and even shortlisted (a graphic novel first)
for the Booker. Is it… reasonable? expected? A success? if the book leaves you
in a void as well? I don’t really know, but I was nevertheless left feeling
that folks could probably get something out of reading this work.
Locke and Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
What
begins as compelling horror turns into a generational mystery, and a relatively
straightforward one. Still, with good art and characters, and a solid, if
increasingly tired out-of-sync narrative style, this was one of the better
graphic novels I’ve read in a good long time.
Top 5
of 2018
The
Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
These
Truths by Jill Lepore
The
Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo Jose Cela
Appointment
in Samara by John O’Hara
Locke
and Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
Unlike
last year, where I had too many 5-star books, I read no 5-star works this year,
but these are all very good, 4-star works.
