Books I Read June 4th 2023

I attribute the stark collapse in my reading, as well as the concomitant lack of reviews, to working three nights a week in a bakery, an intoxicatingly exhausting activity which leaves little time for anything besides a bit of writing. Hoping the second half of the year will see a return to form. In any event, these are the scant few books I managed to read over the course of this year.

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay – The story of a group of girls who disappear during a day trip in the Australian outback is one of those unclassifiably brilliant novels which functions as supernatural thriller and evocative literature. One can see its influence in innumerable later works but this remains as fresh and weird as the day it was written. Read it, but don't read the forward. Best to go in knowing as little as possible.

Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwarz-Bart – 'However tall trouble is, man must make himself taller still, even if it means making stilts.' The story of three generations of woman growing up in Guadalupe remains one of my favorite works of literature, a haunting, tragic, inspiring paean to the necessity of hope.

The Turnout by Megan Abbot – Tragedies strike an incestuous ballet studio.

Lady Joker Vol. 1 by Kaoru Takamura – An attempt to blackmail a large beer consortium exposes the corruption endemic to modern Japan.

Monsieur Monde Vanishes by Simenon – A bourgeois businessman abandons his Parisian existence to live as a lower class scoundrel in Marseilles. One of Simenon's innumerable but excellent explorations of the stifling limitations of modernity/existence.

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes – An ex-junkie and her sloth familiar track a pop star through a supernatural (although essentially authentic) Johannesburg. A sharply written noir-fantasy mashup, right up my alley.

The European Guilds by Sheilagh Ogilvie – Not exactly sure what compelled me to read a 1500 page academic history of the European guild system, but Ms. Ogilvie makes a compelling case that they were a cartel system which stifled development and had no particularly positive benefit for the continent writ large. So, yeah, glad we don't have those anymore. Would have really hindered my walking into a job at a bakery.

Don't Know Tough by Eli Cranor – A well-meaning football coach's attempts to help his troubled star player escape life of impoverished abuse in this excellent, bitter black noir. Strong debut.

The Trees by Percival Everett – Everett tries his hand at blaxploitation with mixed results.

Dr. No by Percival Everett – Another of Everett's genre re-workings.

The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende – Harry Potter by way of Herman Hesse, a re-working of the then nascent 'chosen one' trope which has swallowed the Y/A and fantasy genres. Weirder and more interesting than I anticipated, I can see why the author was so pissed about the films.

Deadwood by Peter Dexter – A fictionalized retelling of the murder of Wild Bill Hickock and the high days of the Black Mountains. At once engaging and deeply melancholic n the best traditions of the genre.

Mood Indigo by Boris Vian – Tragic romance as surrealist farce by the man responsible for bringing jazz to Paris. Memorably weird.

Divorcing by Susan Taubes – The eponymous separation leads the author's thinly veiled surrogate to mine her memories in an effort to re-define her identity.

Catastrophe and Other Stories by Dino Buzzati – Uncanny fables chronicling the rise of Mussolini and the fracturing of mid-century Italian society. Buzzati has a talent for making haunting stories out of very simple premises.

The Wounded Age and Eastern Tales by Ferit Edgu – Interlinked microfictions inspired by the author's experience as a teacher in war torn Kurdistan. Excellent.