Schatje's 25 Best Books of 2021

Since today is the last day of the year, I’m presenting my list of the Best Literary Fiction I read in 2021.  I’ve divided my 25 choices into two categories:  Best Canadian Literary Fiction and Best Literary Fiction from Outside Canada.  All the books were published or translated into English in 2021. 

 I’ve added 10 other titles divided into two other categories:  Best Crime Fiction (all published in 2021) and Best Pre-2021 Books.

 

Best Canadian Literary Fiction

A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/02/review-of-town-called-solace-by-mary.html

A Funny Kind of Paradise by Jo Owens:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/03/review-of-funny-kind-of-paradise-by-jo.html

The Good Father by Wayne Grady:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/04/review-of-good-father-by-wayne-grady.html

Swimming Back to Trout River by Linda Rui Feng:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/05/review-of-swimming-back-to-trout-river.html

Darkness by David Adams Richards:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/06/review-of-darkness-by-david-adams.html

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/07/review-of-what-strange-paradise-by-omar.html

Fight Night by Miriam Toews:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/08/review-of-fight-night-by-miriam-toews.html

Undersong by Kathleen Winter:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/08/review-of-undersong-by-kathleen-winter.html

August into Winter by Guy Vanderhaeghe:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/09/review-of-august-into-winter-by-guy.html

The Mystery of Right and Wrong by Wayne Johnston:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/09/review-of-mystery-of-right-and-wrong-by.html

Astra by Cedar Bowers:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/11/review-of-astra-by-cedar-bowers.html

 

Best Literary Fiction from outside Canada

Silence is a Sense by Layla AlAmmar:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/03/review-of-silence-is-sense-by-layla.html

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/05/review-of-unsettled-ground-by-claire.html

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House by Cherie Jones:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/06/review-of-how-one-armed-sister-sweeps.html

No Honour by Awais Khan:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/09/review-of-no-honour-by-awais-khan.html

One Last Time by Helga Flatland:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/10/review-of-one-last-time-by-helga.html

Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/09/review-of-lean-fall-stand-by-jon.html

Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/10/review-of-strange-flowers-by-donal-ryan.html

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/10/review-of-oh-william-by-elizabeth.html

Girl A by Abigail Dean:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/10/review-of-girl-by-abigail-dean.html 

Phase Six by Jim Shepard:  https:// .blogspot.com/2021/10/review-of-phase-six-by-jim-shepard.html

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/12/review-of-lincoln-highway-by-amor-towles.html

Olga by Bernhard Schlink:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/12/review-of-olga-by-bernhard-schlink.html

Promise by Damon Galgut: https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/12/review-of-promise-by-damon-galgut.html  

Summerwater by Sarah Moss:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/05/review-of-summerwater-by-sarah-moss.html

 

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Best Crime Fiction of 2021

The Seven Doors by Agnes Ravatn:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/07/review-of-seven-doors-by-agnes-ravatn.html

Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/08/review-of-gone-for-good-by-joanna.html

The Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indriðason:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/08/review-of-darkness-knows-by-arnaldur.html

Girls Who Lie by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/11/review-of-girls-who-lie-by-eva-bjorg.html

Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/12/review-of-lemon-by-kwon-yeo-sun.html

 

Best Pre-2021 Books

*I did read some novels published prior to 2021 and, of those, I’d recommend the following:

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/03/review-of-vanishing-self-by-brit-bennett.html

The Ditch by Herman Koch:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/04/review-of-ditch-by-herman-koch.html

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell: https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/04/review-of-my-dark-vanessa-by-kate.html

The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/05/review-of-tidal-zone-by-sarah-moss.html

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/10/review-of-our-endless-numbered-days-by.html

Review of STATE OF TERROR by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny

 3.5 Stars

I don’t usually read political thrillers, but I was intrigued to see the result of a writing collaboration between these two women.  Though entertaining, the book is uneven.

Ellen Adams, a former media magnate, has been appointed Secretary of State in the administration of President Doug Williams.  Three bombings occur in three European cities, and Ellen is soon criss-crossing the globe trying to find who is responsible and to prevent bombings in the U.S. when it seems that terrorists have acquired nuclear weapons.

From the beginning, I had difficulty accepting that someone with no political or diplomatic experience would be chosen for the position of Secretary of State.  The suggestion is that the President appointed “his most vocal, most vicious adversary” to a high-level cabinet position because he wanted revenge:  he expected her to be publically humiliated when she failed miserably at her job.  Perhaps I’m politically naïve, but would a President do that since her failure would reflect badly on and perhaps prove disastrous to his administration as well?

Quite often, the reader is expected to suspend disbelief.  Ellen’s best friend Betsy, a retired teacher, serves as her personal counselor.  Obviously, Ellen wants someone she trusts to be her confidante, but would a person in such a role be allowed the access she has and to actively take part in political and diplomatic missions?  Likewise, Ellen would be allowed to take her daughter, now the head of Ellen’s media empire, on such missions?  She also brings along a junior foreign service officer and knowingly places her in danger?  Other of Ellen’s tactics, like blackmailing a head of state, stretch credibility. 

Then there are the chance events and coincidences.  Not one but two cell phones run out of battery power.  A young woman is both the love interest of Ellen’s son and related to people at the heart of international events?  Would a person in Iran know so much about a relative in the U.S. with whom there has been no contact?  And the connections to the small village of Three Pines in Quebec and Inspector Gamache are just too much! 

Characterization favours women.  The females tend to be courageous, determined, and intelligent; it is they who save the world.  Most of the men are secretive and often deceitful and treacherous.  Strong prejudices against women abound.  I appreciate the pro-female perspective, but would prefer a more balanced portrayal. 

In terms of the characterization of the previous President, there is no mistaking that the disparaging portrayal of Eric Dunn is a depiction and character assassination of Donald Trump.  His pre-presidency days are described:  “his empire had grown, then crumbled, then rose again.  Each time more audacious.  More bloated.  More fragile.”  During his term, people were “punished for revealing anything resembling a fact, never mind the truth” because “Total loyalty to President Dunn and his decisions, no matter how ego-driven and uninformed and outright dangerous they were, had been demanded.”  After losing the election, Dunn lives in Florida and spends his time golfing.  There’s even a reference to his “big gold door” which can only be a nod to the 24-carat gold door in Trump’s New York apartment.

Other characters are also barely veiled references to world leaders.  The British Prime Minister is described with “hair askew, as always.”  The Russian President has a video showing him “bare-chested on that horse.”  Could the woman who is Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs be based on Chrystia Freeland?  Interestingly, there is no usual disclaimer that all characters are fictional and any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental.

Part of the message of the book is that Trump’s incompetent leadership has had devastating long-term repercussions.   Ellen finds allies do not trust Americans, “Not after the debacle of the past four years.” Trump’s abandonment of the Iran Nuclear Deal is criticized:  “As long as Iran was part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and allowed in UN inspectors, we were pretty sure their program had stopped.  But since the . . . administration threw it out . . .”  The Doha Agreement signed by Trump regarding the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is denounced:  “It was done without a plan, without getting anything in return.  Nothing was put in place to make sure all the gains, the hard-won stability, our intelligence and counterintelligence and counterterrorism capabilities would be maintained.  Under the . . . plan a vacuum was created.  One the Taliban is happy to fill.”

As expected with a thriller, this book is plot driven.  The plot, though convoluted, basically relies on the race against time trope:  the protagonist must prevent a catastrophe put into motion by some evil villain.  Disaster is averted only in the last seconds.  Obviously, there is a great deal of suspense, especially because there are surprise twists. 

Readers of thrillers will probably enjoy this novel.  I found it uneven in quality, but it is entertaining.  Of course it is based on enough real events and facts that Hillary’s last comments in her Acknowledgments are somewhat chilling:  “Finally, this is a work of fiction but the story it tells is all too timely.  It’s up to us to make sure its plot stays fictional.”  

Review of THE PROMISE by Damon Galgut

 4 Stars

Though this is my first encounter with this South African writer, two of his previous novels were nominated for the Booker Prize and this book is the 2021 winner of that prestigious award.

The book focuses on various members of a white Afrikaans family living on a farm near Pretoria.  It begins in 1986 with the death of Rachel Swart, the matriarch.  Her 13-year-old daughter Amor overhears Rachel extracting a promise from her husband Manie to make Salome, their black domestic servant, owner of the small house in which she lives.  Manie ignores his promise and Amor faces objections from her older siblings, Astrid and Anton. 

There are four sections (spring of 1986, winter of 1995, autumn of 2004, and summer of 2018), each including the death of a Swart family member.  (Ironically, Swart in Afrikaans means Black.)  The four funerals coincide with an important event in South African history. 

The narration of the novel immediately gets the reader’s attention.   The third-person narrator flows through the consciousness of characters, often changing mid-paragraph.  For instance, in a description of a man being hit by a stone thrown at him, the narrator enters the man’s mind mid-sentence and switches to first person:  “What wasn’t weightless is the stone that suddenly comes at him, hurled from the hand of a man who leans out of the scene, bloodshot eyes fixed only on me.”  The narrator even enters the mind of jackals:  “It is necessary to renew their markings, using bodily juices, to lay down the border.  Beyond here is us.”  The narrator corrects himself:  “In the hearse, I mean the house, a certain unspoken fear has ebbed.”  Occasionally, the narrator comments on someone’s thoughts:  “So people will pity themselves, soaked in sadness over what they’ve lost, with no awareness of other losses close to hand that they have brought themselves.”  Strange observations are made:  “The three toilets downstairs, unused to such traffic, have between them flushed twenty-seven times, carrying away nine point eight litres of urine, five point two litres of shit, one stomachful of regurgitated food and five millilitres of sperm.”  Sometimes the reader is addressed:  “She dislikes her whole body, as many of you do.” 

Interestingly, the one person whose inner life is not revealed is Salome.  Just as she is denied ownership of her home, she is not given a voice.  Her presence is often not noticed by others, unless her help is required.  One woman comments about the black workers:  “they’re always around, like ghosts, you almost don’t notice them.”  Obviously, Salome represents the subjugated majority of non-whites. 

The title refers to the promise Rachel asked Manie to make, a promise which long goes unfulfilled.  When steps are finally taken to give Salome the property, it may be too late because of a prior historical claim to the land.  Certainly Salome’s son does not react with gratitude.  Furthermore, the lives of many of the people do not match their initial promise:  one succumbs to alcohol, another suffers from bulimia, and another is expelled from school. 

The moral failings and broken promise of the Swart family can be interpreted as an allegory for post-apartheid South Africa and the broken promises made to blacks.  Mandela’s promise of” a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world” is unfulfilled because of greed, corruption, and violence.  Just as the promise made to Salome is unfulfilled as each decade passes, so is the promise of the country unfulfilled.  Everyone’s life is warped by the bitter legacy of apartheid:  “For there is nothing unusual or remarkable about the Swart family, oh no, they resemble the family from the next farm and the one beyond that, just an ordinary bunch of South Africans, and if you don’t believe it then listen to us speak. . . . Something rusted and rain-stained and dented in the soul, and it comes through in the voice.”

Perhaps the one glimmer of hope is Amor whose name means love.  She serves as the conscience of the family, vehemently arguing against the denial or deferment of Salome’s inheritance.  She refuses her own inheritance and distances herself from the family.  She devotes her life to selflessly caring for others.  But her journey, like her country’s journey to a better future, is not complete so she moves forward “step by step, towards whatever it is that happens next.”

I certainly understand why this book was chosen for the Booker Prize.  It has layers upon layers; in its portrayal of the effects of white privilege and institutionalized racism, the book is relevant to other nations besides South Africa.

Review of LEMON by Kwon Yeo-sun

 4 Stars

How much you will enjoy this book depends on how you feel about ambiguity.  Readers who want a traditional whodunit should look elsewhere.

In 2002, eighteen-year-old Kim Hae-on is killed.  There are two suspects, but no formal charges are laid and the case remains unsolved.  The novella traces the lingering effects of this murder on three women connected to the victim:  Kim Da-on is the younger sister; Yun Taerim was a rival for the attentions of Shin Jeongjun; and Sanghui was a classmate. 

The book’s eight chapters switch time frames over a period of seventeen years.  The perspective of each woman is given so we see the impact Hae-on’s murder has had on each of them.  Da-on, for example, tries to become her sister by undergoing numerous plastic surgeries.  She seeks out Han Manu, one of the suspects, thinking she can exact revenge if she can confirm that he is the one who murdered her sister.   

The role of narrator alternates among the three women, and it is soon obvious that they are not always reliable.  Sanghui is the most objective so her observations are most accurate.  Kim Da-on proves to have secrets and Taerim is still jealous of Hae-on’s beauty, so all her comments about her are negative.  In terms of style, Taerim’s sections stand out because they are one-sided conversations which are almost stream-of-consciousness.  Her sections are confusing and revealing at the same time.

There is little focus on the victim and the suspects.  Hae-on remains almost ethereal.  Though we learn about what happens to Han Manu, our information is provided by Da-on.  Taerim speaks about the other suspect but her reliability is perhaps most questionable. 

This is a book for attentive readers.  Fragments of information emerge so we are given a glimpse of what happened, but nothing is confirmed.  In fact, a second crime is revealed but, again, the reader is left to deduce the identity of the perpetrator. 

At about 160 pages, this is a short book so it lends itself to re-reading.  I will definitely return to it.  It’s perfect for a reader willing to play detective.

Review of OLGA by Bernhard Schlink

 4 Stars

Like many other readers, I first encountered Bernhard Schlink as the author of The Reader, a book which certainly had an emotional impact on me.  Even though I read it almost 25 years ago, I remember it well.  I was excited therefore to encounter Schlink’s latest book to be translated into English. 

Olga Rinke is a poor, orphaned village girl who falls in love with Herbert Schröder, her aristocratic neighbour and childhood friend.  His parents disapprove of the relationship, but the two continue to meet, though there are long periods of time when they are apart.  Olga fights against the prejudices and restrictions she faces because she is poor and a woman.  She manages to get an education and become a teacher.  Herbert is a man consumed by wanderlust.  He yearns for vast, empty spaces.  He travels to Africa, South America and the Arctic with little concern for the dangers.  A poem he writes indicates his philosophy for living:  “First look, consider, then leap, without delay!/ Better in the bloom of life to be snatched away/In the struggle to serve humanity – to dare – /Than a hobbled old age, an existence free of care.”

The novel has three parts.  The first part is a third person, dispassionate telling of Olga’s life from her birth in the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.  The second section is a first person reflection on Olga’s life; it focuses on the later years of her life until her death in the early 1970s; the narrator is Ferdinand who got to know Olga when she came to work for his family in the 1950s.  The last part is epistolary; it consists of a series of letters written by Olga to Herbert after he left on a trip to the Arctic just before the beginning of World War I.

Olga is a very interesting character.  She is independent and resourceful, a woman very much out of step with her time.  She is an original thinker who rejects ideology.  Herbert and Eik, a young man she sees grow up, embrace Germany’s nationalism and desire for greatness and conquest.  She thinks “Germany was aiming to be too big.  Bismarck had already wanted and made it too big in his time.  And a second world war would follow the first.”  In the end, “Too big – it was to this that Olga thought she had lost Herbert and Eik, what she held Bismarck responsible for.”  Her actions support her beliefs:  she refuses to teach Nazi racial theory in school and cuts off ties with a person she loves because that person espouses beliefs she cannot accept.

I did not always understand Olga’s love for and loyalty to Herbert.  His arrogance, for instance, does not make him an attractive person.  He travels to Argentina with “idlers with a penchant for travel and adventure.”  Although he doesn’t see himself this way, that’s the perfect description of him.  He is enthralled with “German discipline, German audacity, and German heroism.”  He can be admired for believing “he could do anything.  All he had to do was not give up” but his recklessness and lack of concern for how his choices impact others, especially Olga, cannot be ignored.  His refusal to consider the morality of Germany’s actions in Africa shows him to be narrow-minded.

Of course, as Olga points out, “Love doesn’t keep a tally of the other’s good and bad qualities.”  Her love for Herbert is not blind.  She admits that he is cowardly and stupid and sweet, “But sweetness cannot compete with stupidity and cowardice.”  She tells Herbert that Eik has similar traits:  “his decisiveness and fearlessness, the artless egotism with which he hurts others without meaning to hurt them – he simply doesn’t see them.  When he’s excited about something, when he succeeds in doing something, he lights up.”  She understands Herbert’s limitations:  “Olga knew that he loved her and was as close to her as he was able to be with another human being.  He was also as happy with her as he was able to be with another human being.  He denied her nothing he was able to give.  What she felt she lacked he wasn’t capable of giving.”  She describes Herbert as loyal, but it is she who is unfailingly so. 

This novel had me doing some research.  For instance, I knew virtually nothing about the Herero genocide or the search for the Northeast Passage.  A better knowledge of German history would have helped me.  In my research, I discovered that Herbert seems to have been based on a real person, Herbert Schröder-Stranz.  In the novel, mention is made of the fact that “Herbert later hyphenated [Schröder] with the name of the village, because he didn’t want to be one Schröder among many.”

Olga doesn’t have the emotional impact of The Reader, but it is a good book.  Olga is a character that will remain with me for a while.  She is a strong, resilient person who remains true to herself and who loves despite being disappointed in those she loves.    

Review of THE SECRETS BETWEEN US by Thrity Umrigar

3.5 Stars

After listening to The Space Between Us, I wasn’t certain I wanted to listen to this sequel, but then my curiosity about what the author decided would happen to the characters got the best of me.  In many ways I preferred this novel, though the ending totally vexed me.

The novel focuses on Bhima, a poor woman living in a Mumbai slum, who works two jobs in order to support herself and her granddaughter Maya.  Believing that education is Maya’s way out of a life of impoverishment, Bhima is determined that Maya will complete college.  Circumstances bring Bhima into contact with Parvati, a vegetable vendor; together the two of them establish a business selling fruits and vegetables.  Gradually, the two also forge a friendship which changes both their lives.

It is the development of that friendship which interested me the most.  Initially, the two women are dismissive of each other:  Bhima makes assumptions about Parvati and almost regards her as someone beneath her notice whereas Parvati thinks Bhima is a snob.  Parvati is irreverent, cynical, and sharp-tongued and that doesn’t help their relationship, but the two women need each other’s skills to be successful.  As they spend time together and learn each other’s secrets, they come to trust and admire each other. 

Bhima fears change but does change.  She sees social norms shifting and this makes her uncomfortable.  For instance, she takes a job which brings her into contact with a lesbian couple, and her first instinct is to quit the job until Maya encourages her to overcome her prejudices.  Though she wants Maya to succeed in the modern world, she is unsettled by Maya’s ease with people whom Bhima regards as superiors.  As she learns about Parvati’s past, she questions her assumptions about her and realizes that Parvati’s angry bitterness is understandable. 

Parvati is a really interesting character.  Her life has been one tragedy after another; as Bhima learns the details of her past, she realizes that she has not been the only one to suffer.  To see such a perceptive and intelligent woman reduced to homelessness is heart-breaking. 

As in The Space Between Us, the theme is that women suffer unfairly in a society dominated by men.  Certainly, most of Parvati’s suffering was the result of men’s behaviour.  The brief appearance of Sera Dubash, Bhima’s previous employer, seems to have been included to show  that even wealthy women suffer because of men, but there is no doubt that poor women are even more at the mercy of men.  The emphasis on the importance of men, especially poor men, being able to keep their pride left me nauseous. 

I enjoyed the book very much, but the ending is a real letdown.  (The ending of The Space Between Us I also found problematic.)  It contrasts so sharply with what has transpired throughout:  the book is brutal in its depiction of life for poor women in India, yet the ending is so sentimental.  The reader is surely supposed to see the ending as hopeful, but I found it not just emotionally manipulative but distasteful.  Why is Bhima the one who has to make this final journey?   The two men behave as if they are faultless and it was Bhima who had to see the light!

It is unfortunate that the ending ruined the book for me.  Because of that ending, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend the novel except to people who will accept a fairy tale ending even though it’s totally unrealistic.  (If you want to read this book, I’d strongly advise reading The Space Between Us first.)

Review of THE APOLLO MURDERS by Chris Hadfield

 3 Stars

This alternate-history, Cold War thriller set in space is uneven in quality. 

The plot focuses on Apollo 18 whose mission includes collecting geological samples on the moon and disabling a Russian lunar rover after sabotaging a Russian spy satellite.  As expected, things do not always go smoothly; even before liftoff, unexpected events threaten the mission.  Once space is reached, the dangers multiply. 

Every Canadian knows of Chris Hadfield and his many accomplishments.  I count myself amongst his admirers.  His knowledge and experiences are certainly obvious in the book.  Readers will learn many things about space flight that only an astronaut would know.  If you’ve ever wondered about how astronauts handle bodily functions, your questions are answered.  I never knew that a rocket was mounted to “yank the capsule off the Saturn V in an emergency close to the ground.”  That being said, I had the impression that the editor was in such awe of the author that s/he was reluctant to suggest removing unnecessary detail. 

Pacing is inconsistent.  The novel begins very slowly so suspense is not created.  What slow down the novel are the overly technical explanations.  For example, there are paragraphs devoted to describing jet fuel.   Much of one chapter focuses on a family in southern Siberia rushing to salvage the body of a Soviet rocket.  Action does pick up later in the novel, but then the ending is over-the-top.  That ending suggests it was written for the cinema, and I am not a fan of such plot manipulation.   

The first character introduced in the novel is Kaz Zemeckis.  The prologue describes the accident that cost him his left eye.  I assumed that he would be a major player, but he is often cast aside.  His role is confusing; he is introduced as “the crew military liaison” and “crew-government liaison” yet he ends up giving instructions to the moonwalker about repositioning a camera to a launch observation location?  When a man is killed, he tells a friend “’maybe I’d missed taking some action that could have prevented it.  I feel the need to find out what happened so we don’t repeat it, and the need to take care of his family.’”  Yet he doesn’t really do any investigation and his concern for the dead man’s family seems fleeting.

There are a lot of characters and most of them are two-dimensional.  Some of them make no impression whatsoever.  Even the crew members of Apollo 18 are not fully developed.  There are only two women, and they are almost stereotypes.  One seems there only to add a romantic interest.

The title suggests this is going to be a murder mystery; this is what I expected.  It isn’t really a mystery.  The murderer’s identity is obvious throughout, though I found his motivation weak and unconvincing.  His action, “the strategic loosening of one nut,” doesn’t guarantee he will get what he wants, depending on decisions made by others.  Making one character so unlikeable is also a giveaway.  I also don’t understand what the purpose is of “taking spacecraft control away from the guidance computer” during landing.  What was the plan?  After what is learned, in the end “The military had decided to honor both men”??

I’m not saying that this is a bad book.  It does, however, need revision.  At almost 500 pages, it is fairly lengthy and could be shortened.  If the plot were tightened by removing extraneous details, there would be more suspense.  Focusing on fewer characters would strengthen character development.  Hadfield’s extensive knowledge and unique experiences could have been shaped into a better novel.   

Review of SILENT PARADE by Keigo Higashino (New Release)

3.5 Stars

This is the fourth installment in the Detective Galileo series.  Having enjoyed the previous books, I was happy to receive an advanced reading copy of this one. 

The skeletal remains of Saori Namiki are found three years after her disappearance.  They are found in the home of a woman connected to Kanichi Hasunuma, a man suspected of murdering a young girl over two decades earlier, though he was not convicted because of lack of evidence.  DCI Kusanagi of the Tokyo police is determined not to let that happen again.  Then another death occurs and there are a number of suspects with motives but all have an alibi.  Manabu Yukawa (a.k.a. Det. Galileo), a physics professor, is consulted and he uncovers hidden relationships and tragic events that led to murder.

Dr. Yukawa will remind readers of Hercule Poirot; certainly they share the same intelligence and ability to see clues and connections the police miss.  Yukawa, however, has more kindness and compassion.  There’s a type of locked room mystery and the reader may think of Murder on the Orient Express.  In fact, the Agatha Christie novel is directly referenced so the parallels are intentional. 

The book is typical of Higashino’s mysteries:  lots of twists and turns, secret relationships among characters, connections between past and present events, a detailed final reveal.  Yukawa comes up with theories which are modified when new information comes to light.  A reader will think s/he knows the truth until a new clue suggests s/he doesn’t. 

An additional element I enjoyed is the insight into Japanese culture.  Saori’s family owns a restaurant so references to Japanese cuisine are frequent.  The custom of gift-giving is mentioned:  when Yukawa is invited for a drink, he comments, “’You invited me for a drink, but I see no sign of a gift.’”  Readers also learn about the Japanese judicial system; for instance, the statute of limitations for certain crimes becomes relevant. 

Though there are clues and foreshadowing, most readers will not be able to unravel all the complexities.  The book certainly maintained my interest throughout.  I look forward to further translations of Higashino’s novels. 

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

BOOK SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS LIST

Here's the article I wrote for The Madawaska Valley Current in which I suggest novels to add to your Christmas wish list or shopping list.

Readers who believe they’re on Santa’s Nice List might want to include some of these fiction titles in their letters to him, whereas readers who suspect they might be on Santa’s Naughty List could perhaps gift these novels to themselves.  Everyone deserves a good book.   

Fight Night by Miriam Toews

A Miriam Toews novel is always a must-read.  This one focuses on the relationship between Swiv, the 9-year-old narrator, and her unconventional grandmother.  Despite having experienced several tragedies, Grandma Elvira believes people should live joyfully and fight ferociously to live on their own terms.  This is the lesson she tries to teach her granddaughter, though Swiv is often embarrassed by Elvira’s antics.   This book has memorable characters, humour, and thought-provoking ideas.  

 

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad

This book, winner of the 2021 Giller Prize, explores the global refugee crisis in a way that will not leave readers unaffected.  Amir Utu, a 9-year-old Syrian boy, washes up on the beach of a Mediterranean island where he encounters a local girl, 15-year-old Vänna Hermes.  In chapters entitled “Before” we learn about Amir’s past and how he came to be on the boat; in alternating chapters entitled “After” we see how Vänna tries to help Amir escape authorities and get to safety.  The novel has many strengths:  realistic, well-developed characters, lots of suspense, and a theme which should have everyone thinking.

 

August into Winter by Guy Vanderhaeghe

This book illustrates the author’s master storytelling skills.  In 1939, Ernie Sickert brutally kills an RCMP police officer in rural Saskatchewan.  Making his escape, Ernie takes with him the girl with whom he is besotted.  A policeman in pursuit of Sickert enlists the help of two veterans of World War I.  They make their way to a schoolhouse where they believe Sickert may have sought shelter and where a new teacher has just moved.  The encounters at the school change the lives of all those present.  The reader will encounter action, suspense, humour, and romance.

 

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Another example of excellent historical fiction is this book set in June of 1954.  Emmett Watson, 18, arrives home after serving a sentence in a juvenile reformatory.  Since he and his eight-year-old brother Billy are orphans, they decide to leave their Nebraska home and set out for California in Emmett’s 1948 Studebaker to begin a new life.  Before they can leave, two of Emmett’s fellow inmates arrive with alternate travel plans.  Instead of heading west, the Watsons have to make a detour to New York City and not always in Emmett’s car.  The novel has something for everyone:  memorable characters, suspense, humour, and pathos. 

 

The Mystery of Right and Wrong by Wayne Johnston

This book, by another of my favourite Canadian writers, begins with Wade Jackson, a young man from a Newfoundland outport, falling in love with Rachel van Hout.  The smitten man travels to South Africa with Rachel and her parents and three sisters.  As more and more family secrets are revealed, Wade comes to realize that the van Hout family is very dysfunctional.  Though the novel’s pace is sometimes slow and sections are confusing, all is eventually made clear.  The villainy of one of the characters is almost unbelievable, but then the Author’s Note at the end delivers a gut punch. 

 

Undersong by Kathleen Winter

This is a fictionalized account of the life of Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of the famous poet William Wordsworth.  Though the book will have particular appeal to lovers of English literature, I recommend it to everyone.  It focuses on Dorothy’s relationship with her brother and with James Dixon, the gardener/handyman for the Wordsworth household, and examines how women, especially those of a certain age, are often rendered invisible.  The complexity of the character development is amazing.  Were I to rank the books I read this past year, this one would definitely be at the top. 

 

The Creak on the Stairs and Girls Who Lie by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention at least one mystery title, so for mystery lovers I’m recommending two.  This Icelandic author has written two books in a series she is calling Forbidden Iceland.  Elma, the protagonist, is recovering from a failed long-term relationship and has grudgingly returned to her hometown where she has taken a job with the police department.  In both books, Elma is soon investigating murders.  These police procedurals have multi-layered, intricate plotting and engaging characters with interesting backstories.

 

Complete reviews of all these books and many more can be found on my blog at https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/.

                                     Hopefully, Santa will bring you all the books you want. 

                                                    Happy holidays!  Happy reading!

 

Review of THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY by Amor Towles

 4 Stars

Readers expecting another A Gentleman in Moscow will receive a surprise because this book is very different in terms of style.  But just like Towles’ previous book, it is a great read.

The novel covers ten days in June of 1954.  Emmett Watson, 18, arrives home after serving a sentence in a juvenile reformatory.  Since he and his eight-year-old brother Billy are orphans, they decide to leave their Nebraska home and set out for California in Emmett’s 1948 Studebaker to begin a new life.  Before they can leave, two of Emmett’s fellow inmates, Duchess and Woolly, arrive with alternate travel plans.  Instead of heading west, the Watsons have to make a detour to New York City and not always in Emmett’s car. 

The book is narrated from multiple perspectives, most in the third person.  Only Duchess’ chapters and those of Sally, a neighbour of the Watsons, are in first person.  Often the same event is seen from the viewpoint of more than one character.  Characters also reveal their opinions of others; for instance Duchess admires Emmett’s integrity and Woolly is well aware of Duchess’s tendency to exaggerate:  “For when it came to telling stories, Duchess was a bit of a Paul Bunyan, for whom the snow was always ten feet deep, and the river as wide as the sea.”

This structure allows all characters to be fully realized.  Emmett emerges as a decent young man who loves his brother and is determined to make a better life for both of them.  Billy is an endearing child, trusting and precocious but naïve.  Sally is stubborn and independent.  Woolly is kind and has a childlike sense of wonder.  Duchess is a charismatic charmer, described by one man as “one of the most entertaining shit slingers whom I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet,” but he is selfish and manipulative.  Because detailed backstories are provided for everyone, the reader comes to understand characters’ motivations and see that all are flawed.  No one is totally perfect or imperfect.  My one complaint about the characters is that they often seem older than their biological ages. 

Billy is obsessed with a book compiling stories of heroes and adventurers, some real and some mythical.  These stories are referenced often.  What is emphasized is that each of the characters in the novel sets out on a journey with a personal agenda.  Emmett wants to go to Texas but Billy convinces him to go to California because he wants to find someone.  Duchess and Woolly want to go to the summer home of Woolly’s family in the Adirondacks, though their specific reasons for that visit are different.

Billy’s book combines stories “of the greatest minds of the scientific age,” like Galileo, da Vinci and Edison, and legends of “mythical heroes” like Hercules, Theseus, and Jason, to suggest “That shoulder to shoulder they traveled through the realms of the known and the unknown making the most of their intelligence and courage, yes, but also sorcery and enchantment and the occasional intervention of the gods.”  Like legendary travellers and real-life discoverers, Billy and Emmett encounter obstacles, and both dangerous people and people who are genuinely kind.  They are sometimes taken off course.  They both learn lessons along the way.

The point seems to be that life is a journey, but people get to make choices about where they want to go:  “Maybe, just maybe what [God] requires of us, what He expects of us, what He hopes for us is that . . . we will go out into the world and find [our missions] for ourselves.”  Everyone can be a hero or adventurer.  Emmett’s father quotes Emerson to encourage his son to choose his own path “and in so doing discover that which he alone was capable of.”  We can determine our fates:  “For only when you have seen that you are truly forsaken will you embrace the fact that what happens next rests in your hands, and your hands alone.”  This lesson Billy takes to heart.  One elderly man chooses to follow in Ulysses’ footsteps (in both the literal sense and in the sense outlined in Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses”). 

There is something for every reader.  There is suspense when they face life-threatening danger.  There is pathos in the troubled histories of so many of the characters.  There is humour:  “On the shelf above the fish was a recent photo of four men having just finished a round of golf.  Luckily it was in color, so you could take note of all the clothes you would never want to wear.”  I loved the literary allusions:  a Walt Whitman impersonator is described so that “with the floppy hat on his head and his milky blue eyes, he was every bit the song of himself.”

The more I think about the novel, the more I find noteworthy.  A re-reading would not be amiss.  This is magical storytelling.  Though the book has almost 600 pages, it does not feel lengthy in the least.  

Review of WAVE FORMS AND DOOM SCROLLS by Daniel Scott Tysdal

 2 Stars

This short story collection was not for me.  It irritated me in so many ways. 

It is not hyperbole to state that the ten short stories are all over the place.  For example, one is about a teenaged fantasist whose intentions are misinterpreted; one consists of waveforms of cinematic scenes; one is about a Holocaust amusement park; and another is an homage to the humanities building at a university. 

In one of the stories “The Poem” there’s an editor who pans a poem by commenting, “’it’s like the main point is to make you feel stupid. . . . If you’ve got something to say, just say it!’”  This is the way I felt much of the time.  The author seems to want to impress the reader.  There are allusions to obscure films like “Varda’s The Gleaners and I” and “Ergüven’s Mustang” and “Tarkovsky’s The Mirror” and Kiarostami’s Close-Up.”  It may just be a layout issue, but it seems that at the beginning of "Doom Scrolls" a character from Shakespeare’s As You Like It is given a bastardized version of a quotation from A Midsummer Night’s Dream though it is identified as coming from Macbeth?  I guess it’s been too long since I earned my degrees in literature! 

When I taught creative writing, I would encourage students not to use trite similes and metaphors, but this author seems to go out of his way to be “creative.”  The results are sometimes bizarre:  “Those emails were the equivalent of trying to quench a baby Gargantua’s thirst for the milk of seventeen thousand, nine hundred and thirteen cows with a SlimFast 3-2-1 Plan Low Carb Diet Ready-to-Drink Shake” and “This feeling sickened the stomach of every cell in me from head to toe.”   Similes are piled on similes:  “Each time he said it, his eyes widened, as though he had been struck by the name of the thief in a heist flick, by the missing variable of a formula he’d wrestled for years, by the weight of missing years certain amnesiacs must feel while peeling page by page through piles of old photo albums and old diaries and old correspondence from strangers whose status as acquaintance or true friend remains as indeterminate and indefinable as your own reflected face would be if you spent a lifetime staring at the sun.”

Why do so many of the characters feel sensations in the same way:  “This smouldering travelled through his hand, up his arm to his shoulder, rising from his neck into his ears, which pulsed with sound, as though a winged-thing’s egg laid there long ago had finally hatched” and “The depth of her skin grew palpable along her arms and neck and back.  The sensation made her feel like she was filling with a colony of summer-heated ants” and “she would be overcome by the buzzing up and down her arms of a hive of candle-bearing bees” and “I could feel this body birthing beneath my skin, maturing rapidly from the baby-sized ball of sickness in my gut to a full-fledged nervous system-distending force with a voice” and “Her mother’s strike spreads an electric shiver along the sixteen-year-old girl’s spine and arms, from her shoulders to the hands she clenches to shake it away, a rage-rich burn tightening in her heart and stomach as though the two rulers of her insides are doing battle or trying to fuse into a new, unsustainable organ.”

Lists go on and on:  “artists of every ilk – creative non-fiction activists, sober novelists, splatterers of house paints on massive canvases, Hollywood producers with major pull, cynical minimalist poets, guerrilla graffitist, post-country but pre-robotronic steel guitarists, YouTube creators, the composer of mainstream operatic opuses, and on and on and on.”  One character goes to the storage room of his apartment building, and for no reason, we are given a description of various storage cages:  “Some were empty except for a few weeping cans of interior paints with names like “Roman Ruins,” “Lemon Tart” and “Samba.”  Another cage contained nothing but a framed velvet canvas that tackily preserved the wide eyes, pointy breasts and almond skin of a local’s take on a tourist’s vision of a resort-pocked nation’s “fairer sex.”  Another was packed with the ghosts of recreations past – golf clubs, tennis racquets, croquet mallets, snorkel gear – while another confined “the replaced” – the replaced microwave, the replaced mini-fridge, the replaced speakers and amp.” 

Some passages just don’t make sense:  “By the length of its lines, its steady patience in ink, the affable interaction of its infinite internal shapes with the ‘will be,’ ‘was’ and ‘is’ of our saintly, sailing selves, the Poem expressed the manacle-smacking desire to free stuff from its silence, its impermanence, its pseudo-salves and mock healings, all the et ceteras of the sources of impossible vision.  It wanted to be the 12-step program to beauty, the thief who snuck truth into the pockets of the masses mobbed by the miserly vitality of ignorance and the inane.  The Poem wanted to un-break us.  It wanted to be the crazy cowboy who rode us in reverse and made us wild.”  Perhaps I’m just not intelligent enough to decipher the meaning. 

A pet peeve is an author unnecessarily inserting him/herself into stories.  In this collection, the author appears in “Year Zero” and “Dear Adolf” and is undoubtedly the narrator in “Wave Forms.”  He teaches at the University of Toronto Scarborough and so ends this collection with “Humanity’s Wing” which focuses on the humanities building at that university, and it’s not difficult to determine which professor represents him. 

As I said at the beginning, these stories left me unimpressed and uninspired.  Perhaps they’re just too esoteric for me.

Review of ANIMAL by Lisa Taddeo

 3 Stars

Though I understand the author’s intention, this book just didn’t work for me because it comes across as unrestrained in several ways.    

Joan drives from New York City to Los Angeles to track down Alice, a celebrity yoga instructor who has some mysterious connection to Joan’s past.  Her developing relationship with Alice serves as the catalyst for Joan’s slowly revealing the traumas which have left her “depraved.”  Joan describes her life as ending at the age of 10 when traumas occurred which defined the intervening 25+ years.  A recent event sends her over the edge:  a scorned lover recently shot himself in front of her while she was having dinner with another man.  Though she describes herself as a survivor, she is filled with a rage which has destroyed her human self so that her animal nature takes control.

Joan is the narrator.  Periodically she directly addresses someone using the second person pronoun; the reader can guess the identity of this person being addressed, and the mystery is eventually clarified.  The problem is that, given the identity of her intended audience, what Joan reveals is almost too honest and borders on inappropriate because, though this is not Joan’s intention, what she tells would be traumatizing to the listener.

Joan is not a likeable character.  Initially, I had some sympathy for her, especially when she demonstrated some positive qualities like generosity, but her negative traits are so dominant that my sympathy waned.  She is devious and ruthless.  She uses her beauty and sexuality to manipulate everyone she meets.  One-night stands and affairs with married men are routine for her.  She sexualizes every interaction with men.  Even her memories of her parents are sexualized:  when she is sexually aroused, she thinks of her father, and she seems unusually focused on her mother’s breasts so that even when she has a gun pointed at her, she thinks of her mother’s enormous nipples.  She has few interests apart from sex; Joan spends her time not reading, listening to music, or even watching television, but drinking and taking pills.  She says, “There was no way to hear my story and still hate me.”  I didn’t hate her, but her despicable acts didn’t make me like her. 

The plot becomes increasingly far-fetched and unbelievable.  The lack of an investigation into one man’s death is totally unrealistic.  The book includes rapes, suicides, and murders.  The piling on of trauma, often graphically described, becomes almost pornographic.  In Joan’s opinion, men are always degenerates:  “All my life, all the men taking what they wanted and leaving when it was over.”  She despises men who are guilty of infidelity, yet she never experiences guilt for her role in infidelities?  The author becomes almost didactic as she stacks the deck to illustrate her theme. 

I can applaud the writer’s wanting to show the effects of trauma; however, I found the constant descriptions of men’s depravity excessive.  The plot becomes almost grotesque.  Also, I was unable to connect with the main character and so didn’t feel invested in the story.  Writing a book that has so many over-the-top elements is not the way to convince me of the relevance of its theme. 

Review of INTIMACIES by Katie Kitamura

 3 Stars

I came across this title on Barack Obama’s 2021 reading list and so decided to pick it up.  Perhaps my indifference comes from my reading the book while on a travelling vacation, but it left me underwhelmed. 

An unnamed protagonist is working as a translator at The Hague for the International Criminal Court.  In her professional life, she works at the trial of a West African former president charged with crimes against humanity.  In her personal life, she becomes involved with Adriaan, a Dutch man who turns out to be married.  She moves into his apartment while he goes to Lisbon to see his estranged wife to seek a divorce.

Though she performs her job very well, she seems utterly adrift.  She has a temporary contract at work and lives in a furnished apartment intended for temporary residence.  She is stuck between languages and cultures and is involved with a man who is himself adrift.  She spends her time observing and making as “little disturbance” as possible.

One of the themes is that of superficiality:  “people behave with such conscious and unconscious dishonesty all the time” and “our own behavior shifted according to whether or not we thought we were being seen.”

Another theme is that our perceptions of people are based on contexts that can change quickly:  “Every certainty can give way without notice.”  In her work, for instance, she is aware that tone and word choice while translating can affect the court’s perception of what was said and the person who spoke.  Her opinion of people changes often when she learns more details or sees people in a different setting.  For example, she has one impression of a friend’s brother but then when she sees him with a woman in a restaurant, she concludes, “I understood that Anton was attractive, a man with no small powers of fascination.”  She also notices how a comment causes a woman to change “her image of me.”

I found the book scattered; there are a number of scenes which are intended only to convey the theme in yet another way.  The main character attends an art exhibit and muses on the superiority of painting to photography in being able to capture more than one emotion.  Paintings have laying, “in effect a kind of temporal blurring, or simultaneity.” 

The writing style is dense.  Diction is complex; for instance, logorrheic is not a word used in ordinary conversation.  There are no chapter titles.  Quotation marks are eschewed, but comma splices abound.  I kept looking for a rationale for the grammatically non-traditional style. 

Other readers will probably find a great deal in this book, but it didn’t grab my attention and I just don’t care enough to give more thought to it. The characters are not interesting; the protagonist left me unmoved and the word milquetoast perfectly describes Adriaan.  If I became more intimate with Intimacies, perhaps my perception would change, but other more interesting books beckon.