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THE BOOKS OF 2016
Dec. 31st, 2016 01:43 amWhile I'll almost certainly do a "The Books of 2015" bookpost — and maybe throw in a 2014 version, as I think I never got to it — it will have to wait until I cobble together exactly what books I did read in 2015. (I was as disorganized as ever last year — this year I'm planning to use GoodReads more consistently as a track-keeper.) I know there were a couple Graham Greene novels (Our Man in Havana and A Burnt-Out Case); a couple of S.M. Stirling's novels of the Change; John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley; a Connie Willis book that I did not love (Blackout), an unusual experience with Willis books; and a number of others that aren't coming to mind right now. Plus lots of graphic novels, periodical articles, web content and so forth.
But it's never too early to start a Books of 2016 post! This post will be updated throughout the year and stay atop my LJ (not that I do all that much posting these days as a general rule). Future Land O'Ledley Readers may disregard the previous paragraph as irrelevant.
So, Book #1 of 2016 .....
1. TELEGRAPH AVENUE by Michael Chabon. This was my second experience with Chabon, after The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. This one doesn't quite rise to that book's heights — the scope is smaller, for one thing, being about Oakland black-interest record store owners, their midwife wives, and the people in their spheres as all their livelihoods are threatened — but I found it compelling. If only because I share many of Chabon's passions (music, history global and regional, comic books, and so forth). But not only that: His characters seem real even while skirting with but not falling over into cliche; they all (well, most) seem like people I'd like to get to know even though I would probably find each of them at times maddening and frustrating). And his voice is always lyrical, even when at the most gritty. Occasionally, he seems a little too aware of himself, a little too self-consciously a Writer -- and it can take one out of the story. My brief GoodReads review touches on this:
"Couldn't put it down. While Chabon occasionally can be a touch overindulgent in his frequency of metaphor, allusions to culture both high and pop, and writer's flourishes -- I haven't decided yet whether chapter 3, an 11-page sentence, is the height of brilliance or just showin' off -- the characters he creates and the story he tells are compelling."
Your mileage may vary. My wife Diane can't read Chabon -- she made a valiant effort with Kavalier & Clay, got halfway through it, but just couldn't. But she related to a few of the Telegraph Avenue darkly comic passages I read her about childbirth.
But it's never too early to start a Books of 2016 post! This post will be updated throughout the year and stay atop my LJ (not that I do all that much posting these days as a general rule). Future Land O'Ledley Readers may disregard the previous paragraph as irrelevant.
So, Book #1 of 2016 .....
1. TELEGRAPH AVENUE by Michael Chabon. This was my second experience with Chabon, after The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. This one doesn't quite rise to that book's heights — the scope is smaller, for one thing, being about Oakland black-interest record store owners, their midwife wives, and the people in their spheres as all their livelihoods are threatened — but I found it compelling. If only because I share many of Chabon's passions (music, history global and regional, comic books, and so forth). But not only that: His characters seem real even while skirting with but not falling over into cliche; they all (well, most) seem like people I'd like to get to know even though I would probably find each of them at times maddening and frustrating). And his voice is always lyrical, even when at the most gritty. Occasionally, he seems a little too aware of himself, a little too self-consciously a Writer -- and it can take one out of the story. My brief GoodReads review touches on this:
"Couldn't put it down. While Chabon occasionally can be a touch overindulgent in his frequency of metaphor, allusions to culture both high and pop, and writer's flourishes -- I haven't decided yet whether chapter 3, an 11-page sentence, is the height of brilliance or just showin' off -- the characters he creates and the story he tells are compelling."
Your mileage may vary. My wife Diane can't read Chabon -- she made a valiant effort with Kavalier & Clay, got halfway through it, but just couldn't. But she related to a few of the Telegraph Avenue darkly comic passages I read her about childbirth.
