Books

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.”—George R.R. Martin

During this challenging era in our country, I’d like to recommend a couple of literary novels that involve humor. I’m not talking about romantic comedies, which have their place but don’t interest me in the way that humorous literary fictions written by accomplished writers do.

Headlong, by Michael Frayn, is a farce. And it’s a romp. It offers some laughing aloud moments. It also provides lessons in 15th and 16th century Netherlandish art. Frayn is a brilliant writer and author of the well-known comedic play, Noises Off. He does not disappoint when he creates outlandish characters. His narrator in Headlong is reliable, despite the poor decisions he makes as he attempts to procure a painting he thinks is a long-lost Bruegel. The humor in Headlong makes excellent use of metaphor and hyperbole. Themes include greed, desire, and obsession, just as Bruegel’s paintings warned of temptation and obsession. Not everyone likes this book as much as I do. I chose it for my book club because I wanted to re-read it, having first read it a decade ago. I thought it would be fun to discuss. It was, but no one else in the group plans to read it again in 10 years. However, the friend who read it alongside me the first time around reread it as I did. And she plans to read it again with me a decade from now.

Milkman, by Anna Burns, won the Booker Price in 2018. Set in Belfast in the late 1970s, the story involves themes of social pressure, violence, and survival. And, while there wasn’t much funny about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Burns inserted some excellent subtle humor (dark humor and euphemisms, mostly) into her novel. Her main character is a teenage girl who refers to no one in her life by their given name but rather in terms of their relationship with her, e.g., “first brother”, “second sister”, “maybe boyfriend”. She herself is “middle sister”. I read this book in 2019 and again in 2023. It’s that good.

As long as we are reading, why not consider some recent novels that focus on the female experience? Milkman certainly fits into this category, but the books I will discuss next do not involve humor. Nor are they about dysfunctional families or abusive childhoods or recovering from addictions; they are each unique stories focusing on the perspectives of women.

I recently read Sarah Jayne Phillips’ Nightwatch, a literary historical fiction which takes place in West Virginia during and after the Civil War. Winner of a Pulitzer in 2024, Phillips explores themes of trauma, survival, and healing through her telling of the plight of a 12- year-old girl and her mother. The story is rich in history, but while it involves men, it is told from the perspectives of the women. A different take on that war and its aftermath.

I am currently reading this author’s memoir, a compilation of essays looking at her experience growing up in West Virginia and subsequently becoming a writer. I will write another post, soon, about memoirs I recommend (as a person who reads few of them).

In the meantime, I can recommend a few more books written in recent years that focus on the female experience:

1. Hamnet, which tells the story of William Shakespeare’s wife and the loss of their son (from her perspective; after all, she was there and her husband was not). This is a beautifully written book by an author I follow. I was just a few weeks into taking a memoir writing class, in 2021, when I read the death scene in this story and realized that if Maggie O’Farrell, who has not lost a child, could write such a scene, then maybe I could too (despite being new to creative writing at the time). I put the book down, opened my computer, and wrote the prologue to what become my memoir, These Dreams of You. I hadn’t planned on writing a memoir about Colleen and me; I was working on stories from my growing up years, in suburbia in the middle of the 20th century. My pivot to writing the story I did was inspired by a novel. Reading offers us so much.

2. Last summer, I read Stone Yard Devotional, by Charlotte Wood. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize the year before, this is a fiction that reads a bit like a memoir. Wood is Australian and writes about a woman who leaves her marriage and career to live in a clustered convent in the Monaro Plains, the area where she grew up. Through the narrator’s journal entries, the book explores themes of despair, personal choice, and spiritual struggle. The narrator is not a Catholic; she is simply looking for a quiet place to reflect. Things happen; this is not just a meditation. It’s worth a read. I like a unique story.

3. Next up for me last summer was The Safekeep, by Yael van der Wouden. This debut novel was also shortlisted for the 2024 Booker. A historical fiction, the story takes place in a rural area of the Netherlands in 1961, 16 years after WWII ended. It is an atmospheric, often tense, tale of hidden secrets, desire, and the aftermath of war. This story is expertly written, and I enjoyed listening to it just a month after reading it. I recommend it highly.

4. Last summer, I also read Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore. A contemporary fiction that is also speculative in nature, this novel concerns itself with climate change and asks what happens when the seas rise and endanger the world’s seed bank. The venue for the seeds is on an island between Tanzania and Antarctica, as opposed to its real location on a Norwegian island close to the north pole. Our main character is a woman who mysteriously washes ashore. Severely injured from a boat wreck, she is nursed back to health by the family that lives on the island--caretakers, if you will, who share the archipelago with scientists. A lot happens. It’s a good read, as are all of McConaghy’s books.

I will end here, for now. Next up will be a post about memoirs and perhaps a short foray into time travel.

What have you read in the past year that you recommend, and why?