The Best of 2010

This is the first year I have ever kept track of what I have read so it was interesting to look at the numbers. I read a total of 150 books: 16 non-fiction, 5 re-reads, 5 books of short stories and four books I did not finish. I started the year reading a lot of about Buddhism and Buddhist Philosophy (which accounts for many of the non-fiction) and then got on a fiction kick. Before this year my reading had been split more evenly between fiction and non-fiction but I have enjoyed the fiction reading I have done in the past twelve months immensely. I think one reason for that is the bookish discussions and on-line literary criticism you can read on the internet. I looked at my top list and I can’t decide which is my favorite (although part of me leans toward Last Night in Montreal) so the list is in no particular order.

In looking over the list I can see I am drawn to books that are more interior than exterior, with great language and beautifully written passages. I don’t need a whole lot of dialogue or lots of movement within the plot. I like books about memory, boundaries, connections, and the impact of a single human being. I am greatly looking forward to continuing this reading journey in 2011.

• The Disappeared by Kim Echlin (Short Listed for the 2009 Giller Prize) – a spare fantastic little novel about the love between a young girl and a Cambodian refugee. Anne, a motherless child falls in love with Serey who was studying in Montreal when Cambodia fell to the Khmer Rouge. After a period of time, Serey goes back to Cambodia and disappears for 11 years. Anne eventually travels to the country, finds Serey and then loses him again all against the backdrop of a country struggling to come to terms with what has happened. In interviews Echlin talks about traveling in Cambodia and meeting a woman in the marketplace and being struck by the importance of the woman’s story, the importance of everyone’s story. What happens in this book isn’t always easy to read but Echlin writes this story in evocative, poetic language which gives importance to the smallest of details.
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Murial Barbery – is the story of a French Concierge. She is self-taught and very intelligent but hides this from the residents of the apartment complex where she works. Also in the complex is Paloma, a 12 year old girl who is also struggling with the role she has to play within her family and French society. Into into the mix, a new resident, an elderly Japanese man. I found this novel to much like its title – elegant. It is deeply philosophical and some readers have difficulty with those passages, but I felt the author worked them into the narrative very well and they added to the experience and to the understanding of the characters. I also think I drove my mother and a friend crazy because I would call them and read them passages or even text small snippets. I fell in love with the language of this book and as a novel it fit right in with my Eastern Studies. There is a lot of Eastern thought behind much of what the author was saying and I could really appreciate that aspect of this novel.
• Tinkers by Paul Harding (2010 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) – a very eloquent book. I liked how the author could sum up a whole life in just a few pages, all without saying a biography – just a few poignant details written so clearly and beautifully that I could feel the whole story. Tinkers is the story of a dying clock repairman relating his life and his father’s struggle with epilepsy. Small but mighty. My friend would read me or text me passages from this book and I was hooked.
• The Waves by Virginia Woolf – I read this for my book group and many of them found The Waves to be difficult to read. It is a very different novel following the soliloquies of six friends as they grow up, go to school and become adults.  There is no plot, per se, rather the interior rhythms of these six individuals. I was fascinated by how Woolf could moderate the pulse of each section to mirror the age of the protagonists. For example, when they are young children, the sentences swirl and move in a way that is reminiscent of young children at play. When they are teenagers, the sentences are more halting, etc. Although The Waves is not your typical book, I would recommend sticking with it to the end because like Shakespeare, the more you read it the more understandable I think you will find it.
• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender – I was thinking about why I liked this book so much and I feel it is because the novel is such a good description of the length children go through to form protective barriers. Growing up and becoming a person is hard, even if you have a nice, stable childhood, and if things are the slightest bit awry, then those barriers begin to build. I would caution people to read it as a fable, otherwise the ending might be a little hard to swallow. I didn’t have that problem but many readers I respect did have issues with the ending.
• Kings of the Earth by Jon Clinch This is a book that stays with you, one that goes very deep in a very small pool, one that points out the human being in each and every person. This is a story about three elderly brothers in upstate New York, uneducated, poor, marginalized and what happens when one of the brothers dies. And it is a story of the differences between the brothers and those around them. And it is a story of our own humanity.One of the very best reviews/thoughts on this book can be found on The Reading Ape where The Ape writes, “And perhaps that’s what Kings of the Earth offered me: a way of seeing Gilberto (a homeless person) and not flinching, of acknowledging his existence and his death without sentimentalizing or marginalizing him. He was here, and he was one of us. That’s not the best I can do, but it’s all I can do now. “
• Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel This novel was a wow for me – I soaked it up, reread whole pages, and when I finished, I was dismayed that I was actually done. The author’s language is incredible, tight, atmospheric, evocative, and more. This is a story of memory, of acknowledgment, of lack of acknowledgment. In short, I found it magical.
• Driftless by David Rhodes An excellent novel about a small town and one man’s impact on the people of that town. Not much happens, but enough to keep the plot moving but great passages of interior thoughts and the growth people undergo as they go about their ordinary lives.
• Great House by Nicole Krauss – I started out not really liking this novel but the more I got into it, the more I found. It is hard to pin down what this novel is about; it would seem to be about a desk that passes from one person to the next. But like a Russian nesting doll, Great House has more and more inside it (much like the many drawers of the desk) so it becomes about what remains of memory and how we hold onto the past, sometimes at the expense of the present. And what do we pass on to our children and what binds us together as a family, as a people.
• Trespass by Rose Tremain – A simple novel about a property dispute that is again more that what it seems. What boundaries to we put up and what do we do when those boundaries are trespassed.  A French brother and sister have arguments about their property. An Englishman wants to live closer to his sister so he is looking for property. We all seek to have happy moments and to get to a place that replicates those moments. The novel is somewhat melancholy reminiscent of the fog on the cover. I was shocked this novel did not make the short list for the Booker Prize. I wonder if it is underrated and overlooked because of its simplicity but for me it is that simplicity along with very taut writing which makes Trespass such a great read.
• Best Non-Fiction: Changing My Mind by Zadie Smith – Slight caveat – I did not like On Beauty (much to my mother’s dismay as she loved it). I barely got through the novel so when my mother had a copy of Changing my Mind lying around at her house I picked it up with some trepidation.  I needn’t have worried because this book of essays is so well written. Zadie Smith is an excellent literary critic and I especially appreciated those essays on literature. But there are other fine essays in this collection about film and life in general.
• Best book of Short Stories: Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr – Haunting and cohesive. So many times with short stories collections there are stories that don’t fit or are more uneven than others. In this collection of works about the power and pull of memory, almost all of them are timeless and well written. There were two that “didn’t fit” for me but they did fit the overall theme and were well written. The remaining four stories are powerhouses and the entire collection is definitely worth reading.

Almost Made It List

• Small Wonders by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
• Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
• The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar
• In Other Rooms Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
• Sumertime by JM Coetzee
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
• The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley
• Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong

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