BEST READS OF 2021
Each year I endeavour to read at least forty books. As I choose what I read very carefully, almost all of those I consume are very good. Here I review the best six of 2021.
A recent, refreshing and ingeniously plotted science fiction novel : epic space battles are replaced by deep and moving insights on a personal level. The story concerns a certain planet where weavers spend their entire lives weaving a single carpet from female hair, which is later sold to traders who take them to be transported to the Emperor’s palace in another place in the universe. Gradually the viewpoint of the novel shifts outward to other places and bigger events: the empire collapses and the emperor, previously a mysterious myth-like being thought to be immortal, is killed. Eventually the news that the carpets will no longer be bought filters back to the planet of the weavers causing shock. Finally, as the scene shifts to the rebels who have overthrown the emperor, we learn of the impossibly bizarre reason why the emperor needed so many hair carpets over the centuries…
A collection of oral histories recorded by Alexievich in her interviews with hundreds of Russian women who fought in World War II. Disturbing and heart-breaking, but a book necessary to give voice to these women whose stories have been glossed over and forgotten. That the Soviet Union deployed female fighter and bomber pilots as well as snipers is well-known, but hundreds of thousands of other women, many naive teenagers, volunteered and served on the front lines directly experiencing the horrors of the battlefield. The excerpts are presented as is, with no judgement, and sometimes the things they cannot bring themselves to relate or only hint at are just as revealing as what they say. Alexievich’s work in tracking down and interviewing these women goes a long way to remedying this particular gap in the standard narrative of World War II.
A series of short stories about a family of three, Grandmother and Sophia, a child, and the almost-not-present Papa who go to stay on their own little island in the summer somewhere in the Finnish archipelago. These are the kind of tales set in such a limited arena in which even the smallest of acts are full of meaning. Jansson is one of those gifted writers who can paint vivid pictures and evoke deep emotions with the simplest of prose. If you thought this author only wrote for children, you are sadly mistaken.
Machete specialised in ‘noir’, short and tersely written crime novels set in 1970’s France. In ‘Nada’ an anarchist group in Paris abducts the American ambassador but things quickly spiral out of control when they come up against the brutal police officer put in charge of the case. Gritty, violent, but also darkly humourous, you can practically smell the Gauloise as you read.
All of Hungarian writer Szabo’s novels I’ve read have been superb. ‘Abigail’ is set in Hungary during World War Two. A general sends his daughter Gina from Budapest to a backwater to attend a strict religious school. At first the proud girl alienates her classmates by not believing in their traditions, such as leaving messages for the statue they call Abigail who supposedly always helps them when in need. After her eventual acceptance, she finds out from her father the real reason why she was sent there, and when the Nazis occupy the country and Gina finds herself in real danger, Abigail unexpectedly comes to her aid… Well-written and beautifully plotted.
Comedic science fiction that obviously influenced Douglas Adams of ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide’ fame. A man named Carmody is suddenly transported to another planet to receive a prize. He is then unable to return directly to earth and must travel to an array of possible earths to locate the true one, all the time pursued by a personal predator, accompanied by his morphing and sentient prize. Another work which shows that science fiction need be neither serious, nor concerned with epic space battles.
Here are the other books I read in 2021, including NERDY ratings:
Donald Barthelme - The King - (9/10)
Stefan Zweig - The Post Office Girl - (9/10)
Louis-Ferdinand Céline - Journey to the End of the Night - (9/10)
Jean Giono - A King Alone - (7/10)
Angelica Gorodischer - Trafalgar - (9/10)
Grettir’s Saga - (9/10)
Silvina Ocampo - Thus Were Their Faces - (8/10)
Charlotte Dacre - Zofloya, or The Moor - (9/10)
Donald Barthelme -The Dead Father - (9/10)
David R Bunch - Moderan - (9/10)
Henri Bosco - Malicroix - (8/10)
Aulus Gellius - Attic Nights Books 1-5 - (9/10)
Stanislaw Lem - The Cyberiad - (8/10)
Teffi - The Best of Teffi - (9/10)
Emile Zola - His Excellency Eugene Rougon - (9/10)
Honoré de Balzac - Selected Stories - (8/10)
Jean-Patrick Manchette - The Mad and the Bad - (10/10)
Angelica Gorodischer - Kalpa Imperial - (8/10)
Tatyana Tolstaya - The Slynx - (9/10)
Yuri Rytkheu - When the Whales Leave - (10/10)
George Orwell - The Road to Wigan Pier - (9/10)
Magda Szabo - Iza’s Ballad - (10/10)
Anna Kavan - Ice - (9/10) p
George Orwell - Coming Up for Air - (9/10)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon - Lady Audley’s Secret - (9/10)
Teffi - Memories from Moscow to the Black Sea - (9/10)
Jean-Patrick Manchette - No Room at the Morgue - (9/10)
Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights - (7/10)
Pascal Garnier - The A26 - (9/10)
Yuri Olesha - Envy - (8/10)
Thomas Tranströmer - Selected Poems - (10/10)
George Orwell - Keep the Aspidistra Flying - (9/10)
Pascal Garnier - How’s the Pain? - (8/10)
Pliny the Elder - Natural History : a Selection (8/10)
John Cooper Clarke - I Wanna Be Yours (9/10)
Pascal Garnier - The Panda Theory (9/10)