2021 · Annual selections
Dear All,
With the first three months of the year comprising forced lockdown and with the past three months dominated by travel, there has been ample time for reading in 2021, whether from the comfort of my sofa or the relative discomfort of an aeroplane. Although I’ve said it before, literature represents a wonderful escape – all the more so when the printed page is such a different form of media to the screens upon which we increasingly depend. I have no plans to take my reading digital. In addition, books are like a living work of art in our house, with the picture changing every time a new purchase is made. More books continue to enter the Gunz household, especially with my pace of reading unchanged, at around a book a week. As ever, please see below for my top-ten reads of the year, listed in order -
I Don’t Expect Anyone To Believe Me by Juan Pablo Villalobos (2020): A joyful and highly original work of modern fiction. Humour is used throughout to help mediate the violent backdrop of drugs and corruption in Mexico. Thanks D for this recommendation.
Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart (2018): I have enjoyed everything by this author and his latest work is an insight into the state of America right at the outset of the Trump era.
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (2020): A worthy winner of the Booker, this is an unflinching description of a descent into alcoholism and its consequences; like watching a car crash in slow motion.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021): Another author whom I respect hugely having read all his works. Ishiguro shows his literary dexterity once again by depicting the limits of artificial intelligence and the boundaries of friendship in a near future.
A Stranger City by Linda Grant (2019): The best novel I have read about London for some time. The term ‘stranger’ has a dual meaning, as both a noun and comparative adjective, for we are all relative strangers in this vast city, yet at the same time, London has become markedly stranger post Brexit.
The Wall by John Lanchester (2019): Another take on Brexit, where Lanchester imagines a wall (not dissimilar to in Game of Thrones) erected around the country to keep the outsiders where they belong. Taking in environmentalism too, this is a compelling read.
The Truants by Kate Weinberg (2019): A powerful coming of age novel set on a university campus that brings to mind elements of both Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and John Fowles’ The Magus.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1991): An engrossing piece of science fiction blended with thriller. If you want to understand what Mark Zuckerberg is going on about when he references the metaverse, read this – Stephenson was years ahead technologically.
New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson (2017): The title tells you the subject matter of this novel, but the imagined future described by this author envisages how life might be like in the city post a massive flood that has turned its streets into canals. Truly original.
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (1814): Always such a pleasure to read Austen. Her insights into human nature combined with her acerbic wit make her still highly relevant today. Class issues and slavery are the main topics under consideration here.
As a final note, it was also a wonderful experience to re-read two of my all-time favourite novels in the past year, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
In terms of non-fiction (where I average 1 to every 10 novels), highlights would include Scoff by Pen Vogler, Blueprint by Dr Robert Plomin and Who We’re Reading When We’re Reading Murakami by David Karashima. The former deals with food and its class associations in the UK, the next highlights the importance of our genes in making us who we are, and the final discusses the crucial role of translators when reading foreign fiction.