Friday Column: Best Books I Read This Year

Arranged by somewhat whimsical categories, here are my best reads for 2006.

Best Post-9/11 Novels: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers and Triangle by Katharine Weber--As I noted in a previous Friday Column, 2006 seems to have been a watershed year for post-9/11 novels. Of all the books I read that could be considered in some way post-9/11 novels, the two best are The Echo Maker by Richard Powers and Triangle by Katharine Weber.

Best Novel Where Nothing Happens: The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald--Ready for the entire plot of The Rings of Saturn? W.G. Sebald takes a walk. That's it! But damn if this isn't one of the most engaging and beautifully written books I've read this year, or any. This strange, gorgeous beast breaks down the line between fact and fiction via a series of mental riffs. For more, read some of my commentary on this book.

Best Crypto-Fascistic, Post-Borgesian, Novel that Henry Kissinger's Statecraft Inadvertently Enabled and Has A Detective Story Tacked On At the End: Distant Star by Robert Bolano--If this is what you get when a country is held under a military dictatorship for decades . . . well I'm not going to argue for military dictatorships, but this is an incredible novel. In it, Bolano deconstructs politics and literature with the aid of a skywriting poet, and, yes, concludes with a classic "locked-room" detective story that of course subverts the genre. Thankfully, FSG and New Directions are busy making the rest of Bolano's works accessible to the English-only world.

Best Novel that At First Appeared to be a Doorstop But that was on Further Investigation Actually a Book: Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o--For the purposes of this column, I'm gong to define "doorstop" as a book of 600 or more pages. By that definition, I read six this year. For making this expansive space feel immense, yet also cozy and comfortable, and for revealing just how an African post-colonial dictatorship functions, I have to give this award to Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o.

Best Purposely Poorly Written Novel: Mulligan Stew by Gilbert Sorrentino--I  know, I know; that subject-verb disagreement wasn't an error on your part, but rather reflects my failure to grasp your transcendent style. Suuuure. Not since you laughed at your pretentious friend's crappy short stories will you so enjoy basking in another author's shame. In this book, Sorrentino demonstrates how not to write, but he does it in such a way that you'll be hanging off of every last crass, clichéd syllable. For more, read my essay in The Quarterly Conversation.

Best Novel that was so Skinny I Couldn't Hardly Believe It was a Novel: Television by Jean-Philippe Toussaint--This light, whimsical story of a Frenchman's attempt to jettison his TV and write a monograph is one of the most delightful things I read all year. If you want, you can just live off of Toussaint's prose and the hilariously lazy narrator, or you can choose to look deeper and see the interesting points Toussaint is making about our increasingly mediated world.

Best Novel that I'm Not Sure was a Novel: The Blue Guide to Indiana by Michael Martone--Michael Martone writes books that may be neither novel, nor short story collection. He just calls them fictions. I call them incredible. Martone has carved out a space all his own, and so far the best that I've read of his is The Blue Guide to Indiana, a book that sets itself out to mimic, a guidebook to Indiana. For more, read my review.

Best Book that Was Ahead of its Time: Bouvard and Pecuchet by Gustave Flaubert--Flaubert is widely acknowledged as the creator of literary realism. Many also consider Bouvard and Pecuchet to be the first modernist work. How the hell do you invent two literary genres? Well, anyway, this biting satire consists of two French clerks who strike it rich and begin to eat, moth-like, through the world's accumulated knowledge. It still rings true today. If you don't believe me, read and crack-up at the book's Dictionary of Accepted Ideas. For more, read Derik Badman's review in The Quarterly Conversation.

Best Book that Made Me Realize Don DeLillo Used to Be Really Hip: Great Jones Street by Don DeLillo--Holy shit! With White Noise and Underworld to distract us, does anyone even remember that Don DeLillo's second novel is a very convincing dramatization of a rock star's Dylan-like disappearance into a cruddy apartment on Great Jones Street in New York City? Not only that, but it's also a unique meditation on rock'n'roll music and fame in America that includes what I am convinced is the most laugh-out-loud funny scene in all of DeLillo's works.

For the Love of Tom Wolfe, Why Didn't I Read This Earlier?: Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar and Hopscotch by Malcolm Lowry--Read these books.

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Comments

[derikb]

(I think you mean Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry in that last sentence.)

Lots of great stuff on this list (a few of my favorites in there). I'll have to look up some of the others.

[bdr]

I agree on the Powers - Mark's Capgras is a great metaphor for post-911 America.

Among many other things too.

[ed]

Alright. That settles it. I'm going to have to check out TRIANGLE.

But while we're on the subject of 9/11 novels, I'll say that Jess Walter's THE ZERO is also a fine 9/11 novel. In addition, I should note that while Ken Kalfus's A DISORDER PECULIAR TO THE COUNTRY doesn't entirely hash out, I'm very happy to have become acquainted with Kalfus's great satirical voice. Kalfus is DEFINITELY a guy to watch.

Also, Scott, if you can get your hands on Scarlett Thomas's THE END OF MR. Y, do so immediately.

[Dorothy W.]

What a lovely plot summary: "Sebald takes a walk"! I must read that book, as I've been in search of books about walking -- or what happens in someone's mind when they walk.

[davidbdale]

Obviously I'm late in getting to this list, but I trust you haven't updated it too much since the first of the year. Your takes on Great Jones Street and Mulligan Stew (and your analysis elsewhere of t-zero) give me confidence in the rest of your list. That's what these spaces are all about, aren't they? Finding like-minded readers whose opinions we can trust. Thanks for all the pointers.

[Ellen F.]

Just discovered this list. Now I want to put everything on it on my book club, especially "Distant Star".