I felt that I read neither as widely nor as deeply as I wanted to in 2019, but in reviewing my reading I can still find an eclectic spirit. I read more memoirs than I expected to, with a common thread being creativity coming out of difficult circumstances. My 2018 reading is here.
-My Father, the Pornographer, Chris Offutt
The author’s father was a prolific writer of pornography and science fiction, and this memoir is the story of Offutt coming to terms with his Dad while going through the man’s papers. An affecting story of an American family whose issues almost certainly not like yours.
-The Female Persuasion, Meg Wolitzer
A novel that supposes that significant cultural figures might not always live up to the ideals that they inspire in others. I’m glad I read this, but the turns in the story are pretty easy to see coming.
-The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante
The second in Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet. I came late to these because of the HBO series, and I’m planning to start 2020 off with #3.
-Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir Of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc., Jeff Tweedy
I wrote about this here.
-We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, Ta-Nehisi Coates
This annotated collection of journalism is the Coates at his best. The depth and breadth of his vision of American structural racism is quite powerful, and I’m looking forward to reading his recently published novel soon.
-Night Moves, Jessica Hopper
One of my favorite reads of the year. Hopper’s (pictured above) episodic memoir perfectly captures the feeling of possibility when you’re in your 20’s and living a lo-fi life in pre-gentrified urban spaces.
-Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
There is beautiful writing here, but the “present” sections of this novel (published in 1971) haven’t aged well.
-I’ll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search For The Golden State Killer, Michelle McNamara
Michelle McNamara passed away suddenly just before finishing this exhaustive true-crime story. This book is an impressive evocation of an era when law enforcement agencies didn’t work together and crime was frightening in a very different way than it is now. Still, there’s a reason that true crime isn’t my genre.
-Warlight, Michael Ondaatje
Very good. Ondaatje conjures post-war Britain like a master. Again, do we ever really know our parents?
-You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession, Piper Weiss
What if you wanted to write a book about a sensational attempted abduction you remember from your youth, but no one would talk to you? This memoir doesn’t work, the author’s purported proximity to those involved isn’t nearly enough to go on.
-Conversations With Friends, Sally Rooney
A popular novel that has not stayed with me.
-The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai
My favorite read of the year. The story of a group of friends affected by the AIDS crisis, and of those left behind.
-Raised in Captivity, Chuck Klosterman
Klosterman finding new ways to look at the world. Short fiction may not be his best medium, but the trip is worth taking.
-All That You Leave Behind: A Memoir, Erin Lee Carr
Carr is a documentary filmmaker and the daughter of the late journalist David Carr. This short memoir is Erin’s account of the days after David’s passing as well as her own efforts to overcome her alcoholism.
-The Overstory, Richard Powers
A sweeping novel that brings a group of characters into each other’s orbit and into engagement with their own relationships to our planet. Inventively structured and deeply moral.
-Year of the Monkey, Patti Smith
I’m up and down on Smith as a prose writer. She can be precious, but this short book reckons directly with mortality in the way that her other books haven’t gotten to.
-Chances Are, Richard Russo
A genial novel by a writer I like, but – unless Russo is commenting on the self-centeredness of privileged white men in their 60s – the revelations don’t resonate the way they might.
-My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh
A well-regarded novel in which the narrator’s circumstances become too weird and specific for the book’s own good. Moshfegh can certainly create a voice, though.
-The Outsider, Stephen King
Read in advance of the HBO series. A police procedural that feels pretty grounded even when things get supernatural. Too long, but what’s new for King? I didn’t realize until after I’d finished that a major character is also featured in other King books.
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