This year was a good year I thought, with a series of fantastic debuts.
Ben Markovits impressed with Either Side of Winter, a sensitive and melancholic insight into the minds of four New Yorkers going about their daily lives. Like all the great writers he has a voice all of his own. I’m trying hard not to but I’m going to say it - Ben Markovits is destined to be a household name…
Another debut novel I loved was The Short Day Dying by Peter Hobbs. Narrated by a blacksmith/Methodist preacher who is not too hot on punctuation this is another book written in a distinctive style not everyone will appreciate. But those that do are in for a treat. There are passages here I will never forget.
Alexander Masters wrote Stuart: A Life Backwards and ensured I will never look at the homeless in the same way again. Initially I was wary of a book that could so easily fallen flat on its face but no, Stuart is brought brilliantly to life. Everyone should read this book.
Now, We Need To Talk About Kevin…Blimey. The most devastating novel I read this year, Kevin tore me to pieces but left me desperate to discuss the experience with others. Simply outstanding writing from the woman with a man’s name - Lionel Shriver.
The Booker was as frustrating as ever. Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go or Sebastian Barry’s A Long Long Way would have won had I been invited to judge. Ishiguro’s cool, reflective prose was matched with an eerie plot and vacant characters to create a weird and magical reading experience. A Long Long Way made me cry. (Only one other book has ever dented my hard heart!) I didn’t think there was anything left to write about the first world war but there was. Heartbreaking stuff and interesting politics too.
A few random others:
Peregrine by JA Baker read like a prose poem and chronicled a year in the life of a man obsessed with these beautiful birds of prey.
Summer In Baden Baden by Leonid Tsypkin is essential reading for Dostoyevsky lovers. The great man is here revealed as a chaotic genius addicted to the roulette wheel whilst attempting to write his way out of financial crisis. His new wife Anna holds things together on an almost hallucinatory literary journey.
American Purgatorio by John Haskell I found both bizarre and brilliant.
Maggie Gee’s My Cleaner made me laugh out loud while also raising some interesting points about our pampered lifestyles.
There are just too many to mention here…James Meek’s The People’s Act of Love, Bret Easton Ellis’s return to form with Lunar Park, Cormac Mcarthy’s dark and brutal No Country For Old Men and finally a new edition of Paradise Lost with an introduction by Philip Pullman. His assertion that the poem must be read out loud helped me to experience the work anew and served as a reminder of the beauty of the English language when in the hands of a master. Read it before the awful film arrives…
