Fiction.
If you go strictly by star ratings, I ended up with nine absolute five-star books, and three that hovered right on the edge.
The year began with McCarthy, and what a beginning that was. From there, I moved on to Proust, though the entire series yielded just one full five-star read for me. Two books centred on death—by Gospodinov and Yiyun Li—also made it into this top tier. Solenoid, a reread of what I still believe to be the greatest work of this century, easily retained its five stars. A return to the classic Blindness, and a book I took forever to finish, Light Years, both fully earned their place here as well.
The Crossing – Cormac Mccarthy – 5 stars
All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy – 5 stars
Light Years – James Salter – 5 stars
Death and the Gardener – Georgi Gospodinov – 5 stars
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis – Jose Saramago – 5 stars
Solenoid – Mircea Cărtărescu – 5 stars
Blindness – Jose Saramago – 5 stars
Things in Nature Merely Grow – Yiyun Li – 5 stars
Time Regained – Marcel Proust – 5 stars
The Idiot was one of the most meandering books I invested in this year—and by the end of it, I loved it. The sci-fi thriller Authority, along with the rest of the series, impressed me with its writing and sustained an intriguing narrative throughout.
I had never read the print version of the now-iconic film No Country for Old Men, and that turned out to be another win—yet another McCarthy proving why he’s McCarthy.
Idiot – Elif Batuman – 4.5 stars
Authority – Jeff Vandermeer – 4.5 stars.
No Country For Old Men – Cormac McCarthy – 4.5 stars
It’s fascinating to look back and realise how many series ended up on my list this year—Proust, McCarthy, VanderMeer, Alexis, Robert Galbraith (aka Rowling), Solvej Balle, James Herbert, and the Mr-Series, Knausgaard. A surprising number of these fall under thrillers or speculative fiction, and no year seems to pass without Tchaikovskyshowing up somewhere.
A standout here is We Do Not Part, which narrowly missed out on a five-star rating. Hession’s Ghost Mountain and Everett’s The Trees were simply fun reads. ആനോ was a solid entry, and I was pleasantly surprised by the strength of the writing in Peruvazhiyambalam. The Stranger needs no introduction, and The Virgin Suicides was solid as well—it had been sitting on my TBR list forever. Tender Is the Flesh was the only truly off-beat book in this group, but it, too, held up well.
Within a Budding Grove – Marcel Proust – 4 stars
Under the Eye of the Big Bird – Hiromi Kawakami – 4 stars
Acceptance – Jeff Vandermeer – 4 stars
The Fugitive – Marcel Proust – 4 stars
Pastoral – Andre Alexis – 4 stars
School of Night – Knausgaard – 4 stars
Peruvazhiyambalam – Padmarajan – 4 stars
The Stranger – Albert Camus – 4 stars
Cities of the Plain – Cormac McCarthy – 4 stars
The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides – 4 stars
Swan’s Way – Marcel Proust – 4 stars
A Month in the Country – J.L.Carr – 4 stars
The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith – 4 stars
Shroud – Adrian Tchaikovsky – 4 stars
On the Calculation of Volume – 1 – Solvej Balle – 4 stars
Rats – James Herbert – 4 stars
Lair – James Herbert – 4 stars
Tender Is the Flesh – Agustina Bazterrica – 4 stars
ആനോ – GR Indugopan – 4 stars
We do not Part – Han Kang – 4 stars
If You Kept a Record of Sins –Andrea Bajani – 4 stars
Spring – Knausgaard – 4 stars
The Guermantes Way – Proust – 4 stars
Annihilation – Jeff Vandermeer – 4 stars
The Trees – Percival Everrett – 4 stars
Ghost Mountain – Ronan Hession – 4 stars
Non Fiction
Three non-fiction works made it into my five-star list—three important books, I’d say. I also spent time reading more of Eliot’s poetry, along with essays and related work.
Early Indians – Tony Joseph – 5 stars
Empire of Pain – Patrick Radden Keefe – 5 stars
The Wasteland: A Biography of a Poem – Matthew Hollis – 5 stars
The Burnout Society – Byung-Chul Han – 4 stars
Kremlin Winter – Robert Service – 4 stars
On James Baldwin – Colm Toibin – 4 stars
Montaigne- Stefan Zweig 4 stars
The Psychology of Secrets – Andrew Gold – 4 stars
Memoirs
In memoirs too, I had a few solid reads this year. Vakku was a unique work in Malayalam; although I’m not particularly fond of his poetry, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I’ve written about the other memoirs elsewhere. I also attempted to read Tash’s novel South, but couldn’t make any real progress with it.
Purappettupoya Vakku – T P Rajeevan – 5 stars
Careless People – Sarah Wynn-Williams – 4.5 stars
Shattered – Hanif Kureishi – 4.5 stars
Mother Mary Comes to Me – Arundhati Roy – 4.5 stars
Strangers on a Pier – Tash Aw – 4 stars
Story Collections
Lem’s sci-fi stories were a standout this year. Some of them feel dated, but the writing remains solid, and it’s hard not to wish that the Iron Curtain hadn’t limited his reach—he might well have become a living legend otherwise. Rejection was a fun read, mocking the kind of politically correct online activism we encounter every day; there wasn’t any deeper reason for rating it highly. Schweblin’s short-story collection had at least two absolute standouts.
Truth and Other Stories – Stanislaw Lem – 4 stars
Rejection – Tony Tulathimutte – 4 stars
Good and Evil and other stories – Samanta Schweblin – 4 stars
Manga/Graphic Novels
I’d been meaning to read Blankets forever. I’d read Habibi back in the early 2010s and loved it. I’m currently reading Husband, Part 2.
Daytripper – Fabio Moon , Gabriel Ba – 5 stars
My Brother’s Husband 1 – Gengoroh Tagame – 5 stars
Blankets – Craig Thompson – 5 stars