My reading year 2007 - best of - part 2
For this installment I didn’t want to have to say only negative things again, so I chose some books that I actually liked a lot. Here are the 9 books I liked most in 2007:
9. Lionel Shriver “We need to talk about Kevin”
Shortly before his 16th birthday, Kevin Khatchadourian kills 7 of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher. He is visited in prison by his mother, Eva, who narrates in a series of letters to her estranged husband, Franklin, her account of Kevin’s upbringing.
This is a fantastic book, even though the subject matter is not exactly a comfortable one. In 2002 there was a guy shooting up his high school in Erfurt, a town very close to my hometown. He killed 16 people and then shot himself. Having something like this happening so close to home makes you think, because what kind of person does such a thing?
I read this book in the hopes of maybe getting a glimpse into the mind of such an individual. But for this it was the wrong book, because it is written from the point of view of the shooter’s mother. Therefore it made me aware of things I had never thought about before. How hard it must be on the family not only of the victims, but also of the killers. I didn’t particularly like the mother in the book (nor the absent father), but I liked the book itself a lot. Also, it had a twist in the end, which I really didn’t see coming.
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8. Bryce Courtenay “The Power of One”
Bryce Courtenay is one of those authors I first heard of in New Zealand. Down there I didn’t have the chance to read one of his books, though. So when I found a copy of this one on Bookmooch I snatched it without having the slightest clue what it was about.
When I read the back blurb, however, and saw that not only was it set in 1939 (or at least the story started then) - my least favorite period ever - and in South Africa of all places, I kinda lost interest right then and there. Africa as a whole has never been of the slightest interest to me. Neither the landscape, the fascinating animals, nor the people, the culture or anything else ever aroused my curiosity in any way. And if that wasn’t enough to put me off, the main character, Peekay, is also obsessed with becoming a boxer. Now, I have nothing against boxers or sports in general, but I really don’t want to read about it. It just bores me to tears to read the blow-by-blow account of a boxing fight, a football match, hell even a Quidditch match just puts me to sleep in under 2 minutes! So I put the book on my bookshelf and intended to leave it there for a long while.
Boy, am I ever glad I picked it up again! It is one of those rare instances when the rave reviews on the cover are actually true. This is a charming, compelling, moving, engrossing and up-lifting story.
Ok, the boxing stuff really was dreadfully boring, but I just skimmed over those pages. A good part of the early story took place in a prison - another setting that isn’t all too high up on my list of favorites. It is unfortunately undeniable that some of the characters are pretty clichéd and neither exactly original, nor really believable in all their goodness/evilness. But Peekay himself really grew on me and it was an interesting journey to accompany him on his way from a frightened and bullied 5-year-old Pisskopp to a self-confident, intelligent, strong young man. I could even put up with the boxing talk along the way…
What surprised me most was the feeling this book evoked in me towards Africa. Apparently, Courtenay grew up in Africa, and his love for the continent and its people shines through every word in this book. I still can’t say that I would want to live there, but I’d not categorically dismiss the idea of taking a trip and having a look around one day.
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7. Richard Russo “Empire Falls”
Ever since reading “Nobody’s Fool”, which to this day is on my all-time top ten list, I have been a fan of Richard Russo. Sometimes one book is all it takes, right?
“Empire Falls” is the story of Mile, a divorced father of a teenaged daughter. He is the proprietor of the local diner in a quite depressing little New England town called, you guessed it, Empire Falls. Miles is an unlikely sort of hero for a book, but he grew on me pretty quickly, as did his good-for-nothing father and all the other numerous characters. I don’t know what it is about depressing little New England towns, but somehow I just have a thing for them. Russo certainly knows how to evoke a sense of place in his books and make you feel like you are actually there.
This is a book I will certainly re-read sooner or later. There is also a tv miniseries based on the book, which I intend to check out sometime, but however good that may turn out to be, I would definitely recommend reading the book first. I am very much looking forward to read the rest of Russo’s books as well.
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6. Terry Pratchett “Going Postal”
This is, of course, a discworld novel. It is one of five I have read last year. I already blogged about it back in April.
“Going Postal” tells the story of Moist von Lipwig (honestly, how do you come up with a name like that?), a con artist who gets on the wrong side of Lord Vetinari - which of course is never a good idea - and gets himself conned into reforming the ailing postal system of Ankh-Morpok. The way he goes about it is nothing short of hilarious, as usual for Pratchett’s books. This book had me in stitches numerous times (it is never a good idea for me to read a funny book in public) and I can’t believe my own stupidity in giving it away on Bookmooch after I was finished reading it. Meanwhile I have started to re-build my Discworld collection, this time with the english editions of the books. And I’m happy to say that I have 5 more discworld novels on my Mt. TBR at the moment. If it wasn’t for all those good library books here I would start right in with them now. As it is they will have to wait a bit longer. And I have to find a copy of “Going Postal” again.
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What good can I say about Neil Gaiman that hasn’t already been said a hundred times before? This was the book that sold me on him. The first one of his that I read was “American Gods” and even though I liked his ideas, the book was hard going for me. But “Anansi Boys” I loved from page one.
Surely everybody can relate to a story about embarrassing parents or pesky brothers that drop in uninvited and just refuse to go away again. Of course, with Gaiman, nothing is ever so simple and the supernatural is only ever one blink away from our normal world. Yet it never seems particularly outlandish when there are gods around every corner, or batty old voodoo ladies who can actually do magic.
At the heart of it, this book is a funny and heart-warming story about family, pure and sinple. Only some families are a bit stranger than others.
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4. Jon McGregor “If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things”
If nobody speaks of remarkable things, then how can they be remarkable?
It’s hard to write much of anything about this book without giving the plot away. Well, not that it actually had that much of a plot, really. But in this case that is not a bad thing.
Mc Gregor observes life in a perfectly ordinary, perfectly average neighbourhood, where only ordinary things happen to ordinary people. Until one day something extraordinary happens that impacts on everyone involved in the incident, but isn’t even worth a mention outside that circle.
The writing itself, though, is anything but ordinary. Not only does he manage to make the mundanest details feel somehow important and interesting. The whole book felt like stream-of-consciousness writing instead of a coherent narration. The almost non-existent punctuation and all this he said she said in the middle of sentences takes some getting used to, but after a while I didn’t even notice it anymore.
What bothered me a bit was the fact that up to the end we never really get to know what horrific thing actually happened that day. I know that was done intentionally as well, it pisses me off when authors keep such things to themselves until the very end, because usually (here, too) the revelation then is somewhat anticlimactic. I was expecting something like it all the time, and I just knew one of the children mentioned throughout the book would be involved. So, in the end, the revelation came as no big surprise to me. He might as well have told the story right at the beginning and spared his readers the suspense. I think the book would have worked pretty well anyway.
That said, apart from that little gripe, I loved the book. I loved the prose, the simple flow of the words, and the way everybody seemed so real. Apart from “the thing that isn’t mentionend” I could write a book like that about the people in our street as well. I guess, everybody could. Except that most of us probably don’t know their neighbours well enough to actually do so and couldn’t weave our words as intricately as McGregor does here.
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3. Jim DeFede “The Day The World Came To Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland”
This is one of the few books last year I have actually written a review for. You can read it here.
And I have to say, even after a couple of months, I am still as much in love with the book as I was back then. Everybody who was affected by 9/11 - and who wasn’t? - should definitely read this book.
Even if you are sick of hearing or even thinking about that day because of the terrible things that happened, you should read this book. Especially in that case. Because it might give you a bit of your belief in humanity back. I know, because that’s what it did for me.
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2. Kazuo Ishiguro “Never let me go”
This is another book I have written a lengthy review for (here).
At the time I read it I had mixed feelings about it, because it sure is not perfect. I had trouble with some aspects of the story (especially the cloning and the more practical parts of the whole thing), but now, after almost a year, the story still resonates with me.
When I think back I still remember being exasperated with the main character’s actions (or lack thereof) sometimes, and I still remember shaking my head at some piece of totally unbelievable science kibosh or other. But I also clearly remember being blown away and not being able to stop thinking about it for weeks even after I finished it.
And that, I think, makes it one of the most remarkable books I have read last year.
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1. Michael Marshall Smith “Only Forward”
If you ever consider following one of my reading recommendations, let it be this one. Not only is this book my absolute favorite of the whole lot I read last year, Smith has also risen close to the top of my all-time favorite authors list (funnily, I never actually compiled such a list, but if I had one he would be on it). I think, he gives the word fantastic a whole new meaning.
This book changed the way I look at fiction in general. Not only can Smith write believable and likeable characters like only few other authors I know, what really blows you away is his incredible inventiveness (is that even a word?). The world he invents here is exciting and new and real in a way that is hard to describe. You really have to read the book and discover it for yourself.
Of course, I have written a longer review of this book as well. You find it here.
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