The Thin Place by
Kathryn Davis was the first book I read in 2007, mainly because more than one Millions contributors had celebrated it in 2006. This lovely novel, about the residents of a small New England town, opens with three girls coming across a dead man on the beach. One of the girls, Mees Kipp, uses her powers to coax him back to life. Davis writes this moment beautifully: Like reaching your arm into a box you can't see inside of except - guess what? - you're already there. Like the man who put his arm in a jar of mosquitoes in the filmstrip about yellow fever to test his hypothesis, even though he knew he would die. So easy to die here, squashed under a landslide of fat and blood. Quick. Quick. Ship in a bottle. Harp strings.A more traditional novelist might have centered the story on Mees's powers, but not Davis, whose narrative eye follows many residents of the town, including a few dogs. Everyone's consciousness is rich and distinct, even those of the animals, and the wisdom of this omniscient narrator is a thing to marvel.
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by
Thomas Hardy should not be read in high school. From my unscientific poll, I've learned that anyone who tried this book as a teenager found it unbearably boring. Thankfully, I read this novel as an adult (or, okay, as a twenty-six year old), and loved the story of Tess, a "pure woman" as the original subtitle asserts. It was not only deliciously tragic, it was also readable - I devoured this in less than a week, and mourned its end for twice that long. The narrator's unrelenting compassion for Tess, his assertion that she is pure and moral, despite her society's view of her as a "fallen woman," felt quite bold, and the descriptions of nature, "...the seasons in their moods, mornings and evenings, night and noon, winds in their different tempers, waters and mists, shades and silences, and the voices of inanimate things," made me want to go milk some cows in the English countryside.
The End of Vandalism, which depicts the lives of Midwesterners in fictional Grouse County, was one of three books by
Tom Drury that I read this year. It was certainly the best of the three, although all were stunning in their comic yet compassionate treatment of their characters, and their crisp prose, not an extraneous word anywhere. Drury doesn't write for plot, but it doesn't matter - these characters' lives are strange and mundane, hilarious and tragic. This was a book that made me slap my knee with laughter (really), and then, an hour later, weep. I'm so glad I discovered Tom Drury this year.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by
Junot Diaz is a glorious, hilarious, heart-wrenching, and sometimes even terrifying novel, and Diaz's exuberant prose, packed with Spanish and nerd-cult jargon and lines like "the sexy isthmus of her waist," thrilled me again and again. I love the risky point of view here: the great authorial omniscience of a narrator who's simply a guy who knew Oscar and his family, these chapters interspersed with sections narrated by Oscar's sister. I loved the ranting footnotes about the Dominican Republic, the unflinching accounts of Trujillo's cruelties, and the book's focus on the corporeal - titties everywhere, and Oscar's fatness never forgotten. What a novel!
More from A Year in Reading 2007
…Nicola Barker's Darkmans. It wasn't released in the US until late November; will everyone finally catch on in 2008?
…Ian McEwan, The Child in Time. It is one of the last McEwans I had remaining, and for some reason I wasn't expecting much. Instead I got an adventurous experimental novel. The McEwan dissenters have a point with Amsterdam and Saturday — surely not here.
Well it's hard to choose. The best two books I read this year, definitely Snow and My Name is Red (idolatry of Pamuk can be found on my blog starting here) — those are probably the best two books I've read in a couple of years.
…Maugham's Razor's Edge, and Coetzee's Disgrace.
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt.
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin and
The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux. Although it wasn't noted on the list of books I've read, I also really enjoyed Garth Hallberg's A Field Guide to the North American Family. All three had great descriptions of spaces that helped me position myself within each book.
Max, good work on the blog this year!
Forgetfulness by Ward Just – one man's sober, restrained, thoughtful response to terrorism.
Tree of Smoke
by Denis Johnson
The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross. A shadow history of the 20th century through music, it is a completely absorbing read and makes one want to listen to every piece of music he describes.
An Equal Music, by Vikram Seth, Sarah Waters's Night Watch, and In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Souief. All smart, original, and absorbing.
At the suggestion of Ms. Millions a long time ago, I finally read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, it took two seasons but was worth the journey. It is now considered one of my favorites! Thanks Ms. Millions!
MAN GONE DOWN by Michael Thomas, a little like James Baldwin's "Another Country" meets "Good Will Hunting," that rare African American novel of identity which is extremely well-written but not preachy and doesn't browbeat the reader. What I mean is that unlike Baldwin's novel about an interracial relationship in which a bisexual black jazz musician mentally and physically abuses his lover – a white Southern woman who goes insane after which he leaps to his death off the George Washington Bridge – Thomas is not trying to PROVE anything (Baldwin's character were meant to portend America's fate if it continued to prevent people from connecting irrespective of differences). This novel is philosophically more in tune with Ralph Ellison, I would say.
I'll also second Fredericktoo's nomination of TREE OF SMOKE by Denis Johnson, which gets really interesting around the time Skip translates the Antonin Artaud passage with its echoes of semiotics.
The worst book I read all year was I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson. Wow.
I'm bad at "bests," though, so here are several I enjoyed.
VALDEZ IS COMING, Elmore Leonard
ROCK SPRINGS, Richard Ford
THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION, Michael Chabon
ANGELS, Denis Johnson
THE ROAD, Cormac McCarthy
THE DEAD FISH MUSEUM, Charles D'Ambrosio
FAT CITY, Leonard Gardner
THE COAST OF CHICAGO, Stuart Dybek
DROWN, Junot Diaz
a tie! Both very different, both very excellent: "Then We Came to the End" by Joshua Ferris was the wonderful surprise/debut of the year, and "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy is simply a force of language that cannot be ignored.
Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Reading THE USED WORLD by Haven Kimmel was the most engrossing and divine experience I've had with a book in a long, long time.
Stoner by John Williams.
Max:
Thank you for a terrific series and for your hard work with The Millions. I enjoy the blog immensely.
My favorites for the year were The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Stunning work. And The Perfect Man by Naeem Murr — another riveting novel that sadly seems to have sunk into obscurity.
Hope you and your team have a terrific '08!
Away, by Amy Bloom. It is a female extreme adventure story and the writing is exquisite.
I have enjoyed The Millions all year. Thanks to the "ask a book question" guy for your recommendations on books set in Paris.
Can't decide between Memories of My Melancholy Whores, Forgetfulness, and Everyman
— Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1881). I read several new (2007) novels but this one beat them all (and was also new for me).
Of 2007 works, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz is impressive, but given the mix of Spanish and sf/fantasy references (Gary Gygax and Porfirio Rubirosa share pages with cuco and la ciguapa, Shelob, Dr. Zaius, Chakobsa and Dr. Gull), no wonder that, even with Pulitzer talk, very few people are attempting to read it (only 27,000 copies sold, according to a post-Christmas AP wire report at http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hAU6173HEXh_YzLoDnjQRY2yf4TwD8TQNCCO0)
I kept wishing for a genre glossary/Dominican slang dictionary stuck in the back, but a good one would probably double the size of the book and cripple the reading experience for those of us going back and forth.
A word for graphic novels in 2007:
The Courageous Princess by Rod Espinoza (http://www.amazon.com/Courageous-Princess-Rod-Espinosa/dp/159307719X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198984971&sr=8-1) is one of the better kid-friendly graphic novels to come out in 2007 and in glorious full color,too, unlike The Invention of Hugo Cabret (http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Hugo-Cabret-Brian-Selznick/dp/0439813786/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198985585&sr=1-1)
whose black and white images suit the silent film theme but never seem to rise above the overwhelming melancholy of the story.
The Arrival by Shaun Tan (http://www.amazon.com/Arrival-Shaun-Tan/dp/0439895294/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198985415&sr=1-1)is is also black and white but more open-hearted in its depiction of humanity, and the artist/writer sweeps you up in a terrific wordless depiction of the immigrant experience (it is also G-rated but adult in sensibility and visual sophistication).
Lastly, thanks for an amazing year of The Millions, Max, and all the work you put into it; your year-end contributor's lists of "Best Reads" also just keep getting better. Happy 2008!
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
Can't pick just one. Actually, I can't even remember them all but a few favorites were, After This by Alice McDermott, The Echo Maker by Richard Powers,and I love/hated The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale was fascinating and multi-layered; I look forward to re-reading many times. Also John Crowley's books. Thanks to The Millions for the references to both of these authors! And although not a "best", I'd recommend Nicholas Christopher's A Trip to the Stars and The Bestiary. Finally, I'd include Verlyn Klinkenborg's Timothy, or Notes of an Abject Reptile. It's a beautifully written, quiet book unlike any other I've seen.
Thanks for promoting the concept of Trusted Fellow Readers!
Two from this year are tied for best: Montano's Malady, by Enrique Vila-Matas; and Extinction, by Thomas Bernhard.
Eat, Pray, Love which had an enormous impact on me.
Funny no one has mentioned Against the Day — what did you all think of it? I was very happy with it — it would be my favorite book of 2007 if I had not found out about Pamuk. Or were you all speedy readers and finished it in 2006?
the Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian. there's nothing else like it.
The Go Giver by Authors Bob Burg and John David Mann was my favorite read of 2007. I received it for Christmas and couldn't put it down!
The Testament of Gideon Mack, by James Robertson, tied with Bedlam by Jennifer Higgie.
I really enjoyed Divisidero by Michael Ondaatje. His diction and sense of atmosphere is beautiful…
I read so many great books this year! One of my favorite was Eat- Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. A funny, poignant, and honest story about how a woman had to go around the world to find out who she really was.