London Observed - Doris Lessing

And this was the first book I read after we left the hospital with our baby daughter. 

It was ideal, London-based, touching and not dated at all despite being made up of stories published over a number of years (for that, I guess you have to thank London and it's ability to remain true to itself even in moments of dramatic change). 

A perfect read for a hectic time in my life, and one of the few collections of short stories to make it onto my bookshelf. 

Love, etc - Julian Barnes

A very solid 30p buy from the Barbican's library. Shame they only appear to have gigantic hardbacks on sale these days...

As a demonstration of the fact that I read (and buy) books more or less at random, I read LOVE, etc without having read its predecessor (Talking It Over). In spite of that, I really rather enjoyed it - the story is very easy to pick up (to be fair, Barnes does offer what I believe is a pretty substantial recap through the words of the three main characters), and the London setting is, as usual, very appealing to me. 

The biggest selling point for me was the decision to allow the characters to "speak for themselves" in an almost theatrical way, something that appears so smart and so simple, and something that surprisingly other authors (to my very limited knowledge!) haven't decided to imitate. 

The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler

In all honesty I was biased against this novel before even starting it: after reading quite a lot of Chandler, I had had enough of him and with how cool Marlowe finds himself, but I did like the movie (though many didn't!) and needed something reasonably long and reasonably light to carry with me to the hospital as my wife delivered baby numero dos. Yes, because that happened too...

Unsurprisingly, I didn't particularly like the book, but the setting remains one that I enjoy (though I'd pick an LA novel by Ellroy any day over this one!). The biggest surprises were in the differences with the movie, but I never really got into the plot, and that's partly due to the little time that I have for Marlowe and to the fact that I was quite on the sleep-deprived side of things those days!
 

All in all, though, it was oddly enough the perfect read for uncomfortable nights on uncomfortable hospital chairs!

A Long Way from Home - Peter Carey

Possibly the best book I've read this year (then again, I probably have a handful of books I can say the same for if I go through the list). I've read reviews saying that Carey was back to the level of Oscar and Lucinda, but I liked this book so much more. 

What I liked about it is its soft and subtle approach to issues of race and repression in Australia. He surely gets plenty of things wrong, but he appears to me one of those white men who at least make an effort, and obviously that's something that resonates with me. 

And, despite not being into any sort of motorsport, I have to say the idea of a car race across an almost uncharted Australia is absolutely fascinating. On top of that, the switch of focus from Irene to Willie works surprisingly well, as the reader grows truly fond of both of them.

Purity - Jonathan Franzen

 

And I actually liked it. I liked it better than Freedom, the book it displaced on my bookshelf. Granted, I might be biased as a big chunk of it is set in my wife's hometown (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, is not exactly the most literarily visited of places, the only author I know that has written about it was Mario Vargas Llosa, but that doesn't count as he lived right next door!). 

I don't think anything will ever come close to The Corrections, but Purity has enough flashes of genius to remind the reader of how amazing a writer Franzen can be. Said flashes of genius (first among them Andreas Wolf's first TV interview outside the Stasi archives) are enough to make one overlook some unpredictable turns of events that are actually not so unpredictable. 

The penultimate chapter (The Killer) felt absolutely eternal, and I do think Franzen could have shaved a fair few pages from the 563 of the book, but it remained a great read to end 2019. Also, this book is so very reflective of his disdain and disregard for a number of contemporary developments and trends, and to me it appears clear that Tom Aberant is in the end his favourite character. 

Eileen - Ottessa Moshfegh

Had it not been for a former student, I never would have known who Ottessa Moshfegh was. Instead I saw this book selling for 50p at the local farm, and immediately made it mine. Now it has been sold to Skoob (the secondhand bookshop in Russell Square) for 50p as it didn't quite make it as one of the 283 novels I have space for in my living room. The circle of life applied to books!

This was one of the most disturbing (if not the single most disturbing) reads of the year, one in which you know from the start that things are going to go so darkly wrong. Kind of like watching Fargo. 

I can absolutely see why Moshfegh is hailed as one of the best young American novelists, though I think that My Year of Rest and Relaxation deserves more praise, but that may have to do with the even more bizarre plot.

Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin

 

Oh, the haunting beauty of James Baldwin's writing! In a year that saw the release of the wonderful If Beale Street Could Talk (which I unfortunately went to see with a friend who failed to appreciate it, probably due to its lack of car chases and superheroes) I thought it was fitting to finally read this book. 

In many ways, reminded me of Secrets and Lies transposed in a racially turbulent American East Coast. All the characters appear like good people at heart, but broken (to different extents) but the drama of daily life. The reader wishes them to have good lives, but knows that in most cases there are simply too many hurdles. It is heartbreaking, but it has love in it and, ultimately, hope. 

And, much like with Coates below, I am afraid that it still does not get read by the people who really should, like my friend with his car chases and superheroes.

Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates

 

A book that was given to me by two good friends before they moved all the way to Australia. A book I had unsurprisingly never heard of (which happens with plenty of works of fiction, but with the very vast majority of the works of non-fiction). 

This was a painful read, and not a cathartic one. It makes the reader think deeply about the plague that is discrimination (racial or of any kind), and also about the role of parents as educators. Yet, for all the reflections that this book causes, I don't think it will result in me taking any drastic action to change my behaviour or, worse, others'. And that is a big problem. Much like the fact that the audiences who would benefit the most from reading this book and entering the discussion are probably not going to read it.

4 3 2 1 - Paul Auster

 

Self-indulging. Obscenely long. Repetitive. 

And yet. 

Beautiful. (Not overly) ambitious. Surprisingly readable. 

After investing the classic £2.50 at Fopp, this book was used to stop any door in the flat (even the heaviest ones) from slamming. Then I was left with only this and some other long-unread tomes, and decided to give it a chance. 

Sure, 4321 is a stylstic exercise if there ever was one, but because Auster is such a superb writer, and because he has so much to write about, the countless pages actually flow quite seamlessly. The reader actually grows to like every single one of the Archies, and actually fall in love with every single version of Amy. 

If this was anybody without Auster's skills (or without the life-experience that he can draw upon for the autobiographical passages) this book would be absolutely unreadable. Or, actually, it just wouldn't get published. But it did, and hopefully enough readers have decided to give it a chance rather than using it as a door-stopper.

Zero K - Don DeLillo

 

It might be that I've read way too many of DeLillo's books, or it might simply be that, having just had my second child, I am not quite ready for anything too deep, but Zero K didn't quite do it for me. 

I understand why plenty of critics found this to be a fine book, but I couldn't bring myself to love it. The scientific/futuristic dynamics are not particularly exciting for me (then again, he probably is miles ahead of everyone and foreseeing things like he did with Cosmopolis) and the bodies with severed cryogenically heads just remind me of Futurama...

Like all of DeLillo's books, I'm really glad I've read it. And, like most of his books since Underworld, it is a quick read (but not a light one by any means!).