2020 · Annual selections
Dear All,
2020 has certainly been a year unlike any other. While lockdowns proved challenging for all, one of the advantages of not being allowed out was that there was (more time for reading. For me, it constituted a form of perfect escapism, reading about alternative worlds/lives, even if some did show eerie similarities with the current situation. I’ve managed ~60 books year-to-date, with my highlights below. My ratio remains about 1 non-fiction to every 10 novels, but there were clear winners in both categories, even if the choosing constituted an exciting challenge, as ever –
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (2014) – sure, about a post-apocalyptic world following a flu that has wiped out much of humanity, but a beautifully lyrical and knowing work; also a homage to Shakespeare. If you like Margaret Atwood and/or David Mitchell, you will love this.
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami (2017) – the best Murakami I have read since 1Q84. To enjoy any work by this author, you have to be endowed with “the capacity to believe”, as this novel’s narrator says during its course. The mundane and the fantastic meld seamlessly.
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra (2013) – his second novel (The Tsar of Love and Techno) won my novel of the year in 2019; this is his first. It’s set in Chechnya and is often brutal and unflinching, but also wonderfully redeeming.
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon (2018) – a short and powerful work of a multi-thematic nature; all about the loss/discovery of faith and the destructive power of cults. At times I was reminded of Donna Tartt’s wonderful The Secret History.
Submission by Michel Houellebecq (2015) – no one shocks quite like this author, but the unerringly realistic – even if somewhat depressing – view of both the world and human nature is a must-read. It’s also very funny in places too.
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John Le Carré (1963) – described by Graham Greene as “the best spy novel I have ever read”, I would struggle to disagree. Anomalous that I had not read previously, and almost impossible to put down.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Mosfegh (2018) – certainly the most ‘original’ novel I have read this year. I don’t want to give anything away, but I loved this, as much as anything for its sheer verve and audacity.
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1864; 2007 translation) – if I wasn’t going to read this during lockdown, then when would I?! Think of it as a 19th Century version of ‘Game of Thrones.’ The title gives you a fair idea what to expect, and there is ample drama throughout; love (requited and unrequited), life and death.
Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marias (2016) – Spain in a post-Franco world as if done by Hitchcock might be the best way of characterising this superb psychological work about human nature and impulse.
The Aerodrome by Rex Warner (1941) – thanks Paul L for this recommendation, a copy of which I luckily found in Strand Books in NY. It is a highly under-appreciated novel about the compellingly dangerous nature of totalitarianism, but told in a very ‘British’ way.
Notes from an Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell (2020) – disturbingly prescient, particularly since I read while traversing the US just as the world began to shut down. It’s all about how best to plan for the future, even if the author does take issue with the general over-use of the slightly hyperbolic term ‘apocalypse’.
On the Map by Simon Garfield (2012) – a history of cartography (map-mapping). The key point is that just as no map can tell you everything, nor can any work on the subject. The book is nonetheless highly engaging taking in everything from Ptolemy to video games via Joseph Conrad and TomTom navigation devices.
Cooked by Michael Pollen (2013) – a novel account about the provenance of food and our relationship towards it told through a series of personal discoveries grouped around the four elements (fire, water, air and earth). I learned an awful lot.