SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH BOOKS

Last year author Lawrence Block published a collection of short stories by seventeen different writers, primarily those known for mystery and horror. Each of these authors had written a story inspired by a painting of American artist Edward Hopper. The result, In Sunlight or in Shadow, was on my Favorites list for 2017, a book I described as the “Most Fun” of all the books I reviewed during that year. In Alive in Shape and Color, just released, sixteen authors, many of whom also contributed to the earlier anthology, are given much more latitude regarding the choice of artwork. Here each author has written a story about whatever piece of artwork most appeals to his/her imagination – free choice. The result is quite different.

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For those who have not yet finished their holiday shopping and/or have not yet discovered the Favorites tab at the top right of my website, here are some of my Favorites for 2017. Not all on this list will appeal to your great-aunt, your teenage grandchild, or your boss, so please take a look at the review, especially the last paragraph, for a few cautionary signs before you purchase a book you do not know Have a Happy Holiday Season!

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At the end of each year, I enjoy checking to see which reviews are getting the most attention on this website, and each year I am always surprised by the number of older books (and reviews) which remain in the Top Ten. For this new list I wanted to see which books published and reviewed in the past FIVE years would be in the Top Ten if I removed the recurrent “old favorites.” Gone from this new, more restricted list are books that have almost become classics (at least on my website’s pages): Jo Nesbo’s The Redeemer (from Norway, 2011), Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel (from Nigeria, 2004), Kamila Shamsie’s Kartography (from Pakistan, 2004), Alan Paton’s Hero of Currie Road (March, 2009) are only a few. Here is the new list of new favorites from the past five years, including five recent ones on the list from 2017.

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The latest winner of the Jolley Prize, Australian author Josephine Rowe creates a character novel driven by a father’s inability to deal with the horrors of the Vietnam War and the effects his traumas have on his abused family. In A LOVING, FAITHFUL ANIMAL, she presents the action in six chapters featuring five different members of the same family – the father, the mother, a twelve-year-old daughter, her elder sister, and her father’s brother, each of whom reveals his/her story in a separate chapter. In prose that often feels like poetry, Rowe creates lives for these characters, and the reader comes to know and empathize with them. They are what matter here, as there is little overriding plot, which the reader puts together from the many flashbacks and flash-forwards. Throughout, Rowe uses a series of animals to convey her characters’ connections to the wider world, avoiding the kind of sentimentality that a novel so emotional might suggest. Beautifully constructed, filled with original description and characters connected by vibrant themes, this debut novel establishes Josephine Rowe as a writer to watch for, one whose talents and accomplishments to date belie her thirty-three years. A new author to watch!

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Set in the Greenwich Village enclave of the Macdougal-Sullivan Historic District, Salman Rushdie’s latest novel is pure Rushdie, while also being pure New York. His young narrator, Rene Unterlinden, the son of Belgian academics, has lived in this district all his short life while working to become a filmmaker. The spacious house beside him, owned for over twenty years by a mystery man who has never been seen on the property, has been in the care of professionals – despite its highly desirable address. On the day of President Obama’s inauguration, an “uncrowned seventy-something king from a foreign country and his three sons take over their castle.” Rene confesses that when looking at this man, he “thought of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster,” but before long, Rene begins thinking that this man might, at last, be the unique film subject he has been searching for. Within a few pages. the reader learns that the new residents are from Mumbai and that they have survived a terrorist attack which took place there in November, 2008. About a month after that, the family escaped to their “safe” address in New York City, having planned for this for many years. Rushdie is obviously having the time of his life as he creates and develops these characters, and he certainly enjoys the opportunity to set his story in New York in the heady days immediately after the Obama election. With his immense intelligence, his wild, non-stop imagination, and his ability to see current events as the basis of satiric commentary, he includes music, films, novels, folk tales, and classical references to expand his scope.

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