{"id":820,"date":"2008-12-17T01:41:18","date_gmt":"2008-12-17T01:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookse.wordpress.com\/?p=820"},"modified":"2017-09-27T17:00:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T21:00:26","slug":"my-best-reads-of-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2008\/12\/17\/my-best-reads-of-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"My Best Reads of 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” padding_right=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=””][fusion_imageframe image_id=”20947″ style_type=”none” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”none” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” alt=”” link=”http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Header-2-1-e1493098728843.jpg[\/fusion_imageframe][fusion_title margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” size=”1″ content_align=”center” style_type=”underline solid” sep_color=””]<\/p>\n

My Favorite Reads of 2008<\/p>\n

[\/fusion_title][fusion_text]<\/p>\n

I have a hard time whittling down my list of favorite books of the year\u00a0to a mere ten, twenty, or even thirty.\u00a0Nevertheless, I will attempt in this post to remember my ten favorite books I found this year (though only one was published this year).\u00a0Here they are, presented in alphabetical order because if I tried to rank them there would be two problems: first, many of the books would tie for first, second, or third, and I’d probably never get to number four; second, I think I’d put The Ghost Writer <\/em>on top, but then I’d feel very wrong because I couldn’t honestly say it is better than Revolutionary Road<\/em>, just that today I’m in the mood to reread The Ghost Writer<\/em>.\u00a0So here they are with links to the original review in the title.<\/p>\n

\n

\"TheThe Ghost Writer<\/em><\/a>, by Philip Roth:\u00a0This is the book that got me addicted to Philip Roth, and I think it might still be my favorite, though it was difficult to choose between this one and American Pastoral<\/em> <\/a>(which was definitely one of the best books I read this year, as were many other Roth books, but I figured I could lump all of the Roth I read this year here with The Ghost Writer<\/em>).\u00a0“Roth\u2019s writing alone is so precise and so simple that experiencing just the diction, let alone the pain and wry humor,\u00a0of one sentence after another left me giddy.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"FirstFirst Love<\/em><\/a>, by Ivan Turgenev:\u00a0I hadn’t read anything by Turgenev before this one (haven’t read anything since — yet) but I’m glad I finally got over my fear of this particular Russian.\u00a0I remember that I read this one during one day’s commute.\u00a0“Despite the train noises and the people coming and going, First Love<\/em> really affected me with its powerful depiction of innocent love teamed up with overwhelming passion and a desire to be a martyr according to the whims of the one you love.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"housekeeping\"Housekeeping<\/em><\/a>, by Marilynne Robinson:\u00a0Robinson was the only woman besides Toni Morrison to have a book considered the best book of the last 25 years by an American novelist by The New York Times<\/em>.\u00a0This was that book. “Robinson\u2019s tone thoughout strikes the right\u00a0note for me. Somehow she injects into her prose the atmosphere of Fingerbone, with its foggy lake, along with the transiency of the characters.\u00a0Though the town remains in place, it always seems to be drifting away into the past. At the same time, the\u00a0past does not disappear — the lake remains, and somewhere down there is a\u00a0wrecked train and car.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"life-and-times-of-michael-k\"Life and Times of Michael K<\/em><\/a>, by J.M. Coetzee: I’ve read only three books by Coetzee: Disgrace<\/em>, Waiting for the Barbarians<\/em>, and this one.\u00a0Though the one I hear least about,\u00a0Life and Times of Michael K<\/em>\u00a0is my favorite.\u00a0And I think\u00a0Coetzee’s writing\u00a0absolutely spoiled my reading of Knut Hamsun’s Hunger<\/em>.\u00a0“I\u2019m not sure how it happens, but while reading this book –\u00a0this book about war and about one man\u2019s physical decline as he attempts to become invisible — during the day I looked around me and saw so many wonderful things.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"Liquidation\"Liquidation<\/em><\/a>, by Imre Kert\u00e9sz:\u00a0Of the three Kert\u00e9sz books about Auschwitz and the years since, this one\u00a0about the suicide of a child born in the concentration camp is still my favorite. Favorite is such a strange word in this context; perhaps it’s better to say this one presented things in a way that, more than the others, made me reconsider what I thought I already knew and made me realize just how unknowable this whole thing is.\u00a0“Despite the miracle of B.\u2019s birth, years later he commits suicide. That is where the book begins.\u00a0But for what reasons did B. commit suicide? That is\u00a0where the book goes.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"TheThe Loved One<\/em><\/a>, by Evelyn Waugh:\u00a0Despite this book being most recent in my memory, I’m confident it will outlast many others I read this year — or in many years to come. The cover may be the best clue as to the darkly comic\u00a0tone Waugh strikes in this hilarious book about two Englishmen who move to Southern California. Pets and Hollywood — this novel is endlessly entertaining!\u00a0“To get right to it, this is one of the funniest books I\u2019ve ever read, and one of the best.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"Netherland\"Netherland<\/em><\/a>, by Joseph O’Neill:\u00a0 I’m in good company including this as one of the year’s best — both the New York Times Book Review and James Woods of the New Yorker included it in their list too (James Woods called this year’s Booker committee middle-brow,\u00a0which brought back bad memories and reminded me that\u00a0this is my only pick from this year’s Booker longlist).\u00a0I still stand by this: “An interesting and entertaining (and pleasantly detailed) rumination on cricket in the United States, a contemporary\u00a0variation on\u00a0The Great Gatsby<\/em>,\u00a0probably the most convincing and nuanced post-9\/11 novel I\u2019ve read, Joseph O\u2019Neill\u2019s Netherland<\/em> (2008) is the best new book I\u2019ve read in the last few years.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"revolutionary-road\"Revolutionary Road<\/em><\/a>, by Richard Yates:\u00a0My find of the year (I’d already found Roth).\u00a0How did I make it this far in my life without having someone tell me to read this?\u00a0This one will last this year’s top ten list to be on my all-time top ten list.\u00a0“Yates\u2019s writing is a reward in and of itself. His ability to make the reader and characters intimates is masterful. I felt their pain, not because I was recalling my own experience but because I felt like I was there, in their room.\u00a0When they shouted, it hurt my ears and made my breathing shallow, my shoulders tense. I also felt hope at the sight of an unexpected smile.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"the-sea-the-sea-2\"The Sea, the Sea<\/em><\/a>, by Iris Murdoch:\u00a0My first venture into the beauty and terror of Iris Murdoch’s prose, this book was purchased on a whim.\u00a0I also started it one night thinking, I’ll just see how the first pages are.\u00a0I didn’t stop.\u00a0“Even though I found the story implausible and the characters unlikeable, I found myself reading this book compulsively, often when I should have been doing something else.\u00a0It says a lot for Murdoch that I\u2019d gladly spend my time in this man\u2019s head.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"The-Virgin-Suicides\"The Virgin Suicides<\/em><\/a>, by Jeffrey Eugenides:\u00a0My wife pointed me to this book, but since I didn’t like Eugenides’s Middlesex <\/em>(my thoughts here<\/a>) it sat on my shelf for about two years.\u00a0Finally, I pulled it out this summer and was astounded by its quality in both form and substance.\u00a0“Telling the story from the first person plural, a group of middle-aged men who,\u00a0when adolescents, were\u00a0neighbors of\u00a0the Lisbons during the ‘year of the suicides’ and have never been able to get over the deaths.\u00a0In fact, they\u2019ve been obsessed, collecting ‘exhibits’ such as photos, shoes, retainers, anything they can get their hands on.\u00a0Through the years they\u2019ve interviewed everyone who can give them any details into the girls\u2019 lives, including the poor parents.\u00a0This book is their reflection, their\u00a0report (though, don\u2019t be frightened, it does not read at all like a report).”<\/p>\n

\n

This forced me to leave out Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy<\/em><\/a>, J.G. Farrell’s\u00a0The Seige of Krishnapur<\/em><\/a>, and Graham Greene’s\u00a0The Quiet American<\/em><\/a>, all books that I found delightful and highly recommend. It always says something when I finish a book and want to read whatever else the author wrote — all of these books created that desire in me.<\/p>\n

There were a few books that I revisited in 2008 and reviewed on the blog. They are as good as many of the books I found this year.<\/p>\n