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This was a sad year, then a calm year, then a happy year, then a stressful year, then, now, again, returned to happiness.
A first year of marriage. A grief year. A loving year. Mostly, surprisingly, still, a fun year.
It was a big year filled with big books.
I recently re-started Finnegans Wake by Joyce, with the help of William York Tindall’s A Reader’s Guide to Finnegans Wake. You don’t want to hear about that.
Let’s go back to January.
I started with Fantasy. My wife and I experienced a few tragedies in the first months. Back-to-back. I wanted to escape into a different world for a few hours a day. I’m newish to Fantasy, encouraged to read it by my students, who love the genre and pass along their excitement to me. I read R.F. Kuang’s Babel, which is serious fun. I started Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty, a four-book series about warring magical states. Think a mild Game of Thrones with East Asian influences, a little less violence and sex, joyful attention to detail. I’ve tried a few different Fantasy writers this year. Robin Jordan, Robin Hobb, Brent Weeks, Brandon Sanderson. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series came closest to enthralling. I have a sense, however, N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, which I read a few years back, will remain my standard.
I took some time off from work in February and March, grew back toward reality. I figured: why not fill some blindspots in my reading history? I finally picked up The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. I had read pieces of Bellow before. As a Chicagoan, it was time to give our Nobel winner some honest attention. Soon, after a few hundred pages, Bellow dug deep and didn’t let go. I read all of his major novels this spring. Herzog, Humboldt’s Gift, Henderson the Rain King, Mr. Sammler’s Planet, and Ravelstein. He is unparalleled at describing the depressive wandering of lovelorn and silly male protagonists. A master of interiority. He is a beautiful writer, unless he’s handling non-white or non-male characters. He reaches glorious heights with Herzog.
Okay. Blindspot filled.
Somewhere in my Bellow haze, I found time to read Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Chain-Gang All-Stars, which, as you all know, is a hit, which I loved, in particular, because it blended the big thrills of Fantasy and Sci-Fi with the close-felt introspection and emotion of Literary Fiction. An important lesson in how great writing moves beyond genre and exists on its own terms.
We’re not even halfway through the year and I’m running out of space and time. Quick!
Here my not-previously-mentioned favorite books of this year. The grounding books. The ones that pulled me from chaos or fired up my brain.
Dark Neighbourhood by Vanessa Onwuemezi
Septology by Jon Fosse
North Woods by Daniel Mason
Witness by Jamel Brinkley
Stay True by Hua Hsu
House of Cotton by Monica Brashears
A Thread of Violence by Mark O’Connell
Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park
More from A Year in Reading 2023
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