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Contemporary Fiction Views: Some of my favorites this year [1]

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Date: 2022-12-20

The book cave

In many ways, the sorrows and conflicts that we've endured the past few years retained their power in 2022. But there were some ways to counteract them. Friends and family, however we are in contact, are at the top of my list of what works. But right behind them? Why, books, of course. And on those occasions when people do let me down, books do not.

Here are some of the books that meant the most to me this year. What were some of the ones that brought you comfort or joy?

Intimacies: Katie Kitamura's novel of a court interpreter at The Hague delves into the complexities and layers of connections with other people, power and art. A quietly unsettling, ultimately satisfying, book.

Free Love: I was book drunk while racing through this story of a woman coming into her own in the 1960s. But Tessa Hadley's writing tends to do that to me.

The Sentence: Louise Erdrich's novel about being haunted by ghosts of the past and tragedies of the present continues to stay with me, including the sections about George Floyd's murder and Erdrich's own bookstore.

The Boy with a Bird in His Chest: Emme Lunde's debut novel is a magical realism story of a boy literally born with a bird in his chest. But it's also a story about love of many kinds and how family find each other.

Sea of Tranquility: Emily St. John Mandel's latest novel is a story that stands on its own, but also has glimpses of two earlier novels. It chronicles the lives of several characters in different times and places, brought together in a single moment. And it demonstrates how a single moment can reverberate in a life.

Violets: Kyung-Sook Shin's novel of a young Korean woman born into loneliness is stark and unrelenting. It also is an ode to power in an unexpected way.

City on Fire: Don Winslow has been writing compelling crime novels for years. I've been a fan since California Fire and Light. This is the first in his final trilogy, and chronicles a crime family in a retelling of classic Greek literature. Don't miss it.

Angel of Rome: Jess Walter is one of my favorite writers. The title story in this collection is one of the dearest, loveliest stories.

Fire Season: Leyna Krow's novel takes the Great Spokane Fire of 1889 to tell the stories of those trying to make a quick buck, territorial politics in the wild Northwest and women of a certain kind. A delightful story that is told well.

Night of the Living Rez: Morgan Talty's connected short stories are about a young man growing up on the rez, his family and friends. Their bonds are tight and carry them through many travails.

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy: Jamie Ford's latest novel tells the stories of several women in one family who just miss on making that one connection in their lives. The yearning and sweetness here are lovely to behold. If you've ever just met someone and felt like you've known them always, this is a novel to savor.

A Woman's Battles and Transformations: Édouard Louis writes about his mother's very hard life and how that life went through great and remarkable changes. As he chronicles what happened to his mother, he learns more about himself. A very different kind of book about self-discovery and an amazing woman.

My Government Means to Kill Me: A young man leaves his affluent Indianapolis home in the 1980s, lands in New York City and seeks well, not fame and fortune, but some of the lustier glories of the big city. And since he is a young Black gay man with unresolved sorrow in his heart, a flamboyant attitude and a quick mind, he can only be Trey Singleton in Rasheed Newson's fascinating book.

Bliss Montage: In a year of great short story collections, this one by Ling Ma is one of the best. There are George Saunders-like images, such as the opening story where all the narrator's former boyfriends live in another part of the huge house she shares with her rich husband and child. There are quiet moments. There are illuminating moments.

The Book of Goose: Yiyun Li's amazing novel about a French war bride, now relocated to the States, recalling her childhood friend and the stories they told, and the unlikely events that followed creating those stories, is a quietly complex, unsettling book about the ties that bind. Utterly fascinating.

Marigold and Rose: Poet Louise Gluck writes about the first year in the life of twin girls in a fairy tale of discovery. Absolutely lovely.

Shrines of Gaiety: Kate Atkinson has been one of my favorite writers for some time. Her latest historical fiction, about a strong woman who runs a nightclub empire in Roaring 20s London, and her family, is a romp. Plus, there is an intrepid librarian.

Liberation Day: George Saunders has the remarkable gift of taking the oddest ideas and using them to show the reader what it means to be fully human. The opening story of people who agree to live on the walls of rich people is a mindbender, especially when the Battle of Little Bighorn plays a prominent role.

The Marriage Portrait: Maggie O'Farrell knows how to make the past feel contemporary, yet still completely not our era. The connections between the real duchess, sent to marry a power-mad duke in medieval Italy and Browning's poem My Last Duchess, plus the idea of underpainting by an artist, work together to create one of those stories a reader can feel surrounded by.

Haven: Emma Donoghe has another novel about solitary people in this story of three monks who try to create a community on a stark island off the coast of Ireland a thousand years ago. The setting is the real Skellig Michael, where there has been a monastery for centuries. The three characters portray the conflict between faith in a higher being and love for fellow human beings.



All book links are to The LIterate Lizard, the independent bookshop owned by fellow Readers and Book Lovers columnist Debtors Prison.

READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/20/2142541/-Contemporary-Fiction-Views-Some-of-my-favorites-this-year

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