Another year of reading has come and gone
Novels
This year, I read a lot of novels that I admired, and more than a few that I didn’t finish. But these are my favorites. There’s a bit of an Irish theme, with three novels that are at least partly about Irish-American families in Boston and New York City, as well as a lot of death…
The Ninth Hour, Alice McDermott
The novel opens with a young husband’s suicide in early 20th-century Brooklyn; the novel is about the aftermath – the lives of the widow and daughter, and the nuns who make an essential difference in those lives. My only quibble is with the occasional first-person plural narration that’s supposed to be from the perspective of the grandchildren or great-grandchildren, which took me out of the story and didn’t seem to match up in time.
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders
I have never read a novel like this one! It’s a kind of speculative historical fiction, with so many POV characters it’s almost impossible to keep track. This novel has ghosts (spirits who are trapped in a kind of Buddhist purgatory, not able to accept their own deaths), some of them comically misshapen by the circumstances of their deaths, endeavoring to help a grieving Lincoln. A beautiful novel, and surprisingly moving.
Saints for All Occasions, J. Courtney Sullivan
An Irish-American family gathers for the funeral of one of their own; the novel follows two storylines, one from the present (the days leading up to the funeral, from the POV of various family members, trying to figure out what led to the unexpected death) and one from the past (two sisters emigrate from Ireland to Boston, and eventually go through a major falling-out). This is Colm Toibin territory, but more straightforward; more commercial, I guess. I admire Sullivan’s storytelling, sympathetic characters, restrained style, and clean prose.
Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan
Essentially a World War II novel, Manhattan Beach focuses on a handful of intersecting characters, mainly Eddie Kerrigan, a mid-level Irish gangster who disappears around the start of the war; Anna, Eddie’s daughter, who’s determined to become a Navy diver; and Dexter Styles, a higher-level gangster whose marriage has almost allowed him into Manhattan WASP society. Occasionally the research intrudes, but that’s a small quibble. A great picture of life in 1930s and World War II-era Brooklyn, and a compelling story that’s as much about loneliness and connection as it is about surviving the war years.
Short Stories
The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen
A story collection, mostly about immigrants from Vietnam and the people in their orbits. I haven’t read his novel The Sympathizer yet, but I loved the restraint and (sometimes bleak) humor of these stories.
Anything is Possible, Elizabeth Strout
This collection seems to be a companion to My Name is Lucy Barton, since the stories look more closely at the lives of some of the characters who pop up briefly in Lucy Barton. Likewise, the character of Lucy Barton shows up briefly in a few of these stories. There is some profound weirdness, not to mention severe sadness and loneliness, in these straightforward, plainspoken stories.
Nonfiction
Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life, Yiyun Li
Here’s a link to the review I wrote for BookPage last spring.
Reading With Patrick, Michelle Kuo
A memoir about Kuo’s time as a Teach for America intern in one of the poorest towns in the Mississippi Delta, trying to teach middle-school kids in a last-chance school, and of her return to the Delta after law school, when she’s learned that her most promising student, Patrick, has been jailed for murder. Kuo is such a thoughtful young writer, and she’s lucid in detailing the effects of extreme poverty, as well as her struggles to teach, and Patrick’s experience reading the classics and learning to write. Beautiful, sad, infuriating. I wish more people were reading and talking about this book.
I also really liked this novel, but am still puzzling over it:
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
Main character Eleanor recounts her transformation from closed-down, repressed trauma survivor who’s so lonely that it’s painful to read her, to an alive, caring, loving young woman. The first-person voice of Eleanor is strong and compelling, and there’s a lot of humor in between the bleak and pathetic moments, humor in Eleanor’s bizarre misreading of social situations, and in her often smart assessments about other people.
And I’m baffled by the positive reception for this novel, which was not a favorite:
My Absolute Darling, Gabriel Tallent
This novel tells the story of an abused girl, fourteen-year-old Turtle, and how she breaks away from her awful father and their squalid life. The novel is in her POV, yet I never felt like I was in her head – to my mind, the novelist didn’t create a remotely believable female narrator. And the obsession with guns, oy! I think this novelist was aiming for gritty realism combined with lyrical prose about the rural California surroundings, but it felt overwritten and voyeuristic (especially in descriptions of her father’s sexual abuse of her) rather than empathetic and illuminating.