Novel reads
Literary critic lists 2001's top five
by Zak Salih / senior writer
courtesy of KNOPF
|
Oskar Schindler. David Letterman. The New York Times. What do
they have in common, you ask? Why, they all have lists. Ah, yes.
Lists. As 2001, with all its triumphs and tragedies, folds to a
close, newspapers and magazines are stuffed with lists like a Christmas
stocking. Best Movies of the Year, important Historic Events, best
Songs of the Year and even The Celebrities We Saw This Year That
We Could Do Without — the list (no pun intended) goes on and
on. While some of them are credible, others ridiculous and others
still revered like ancient deities, almost all of the "Year's
Best" lists are entertaining to read.
Well, my fellow readers, it appears that yours truly has caught
list-fever as well. I've decided to provide a list of the five best
books of 2001. I am almost certain that the books I've mentioned
below, in no particular order, will get boos and hisses from the
global community of literary critics. Some of them are not the epitome
of what classic literature should be. I've chosen these books because
of their curiosity, ingenuity and style. And hey, I think they're
pretty entertaining reads, too. The books I've chosen may raise
a few eyebrows or incite a few frowns, but it's a truthful list.
Hopefully, the selections are as honored to be there as I am to
have read them.
1. "The Dying Animal" by Philip Roth — Short
and sweet, this book is more of a novella than a novel, but for
my first outing with Roth, it was filling and finished far too quickly
(think of it as a gourmet Big Mac). "Animal" is the third
in a trilogy of books concerning college professor David Kepesh's
exploration of the sexual world; this third concerns his reflection
on an affair with a 24-year-old Cuban student. Sexually explicit
as it is, Roth also is explicit in his description of Kepesh's rumination
on sexual longing and the bitter residue of the relationship that
has turned him into Keats' "dying animal."
2. "Fury" by Salman Rushdie — I reviewed
this book earlier in the fall and what I said then is still true.
Rushdie's tongue-in-cheek satire features another professor, this
one an expatriate from India who tries to escape his Harry Potter-esque
creation in, of all places, New York City. There are passages in
this novel that flow like water and reverberate as loudly as violent
surf. Whether it's the Elian Gonzalez fiasco, the convoluted 2000
Presidential election ("Gush versus Bore"), or the chaos
of urban existence, Rushdie adeptly handles "The City That
Never Sleeps" and describes it as truthfully as any contemporary
American writer could.
courtesy of RANDOM HOUSE
|
3. "The Fourth Hand" by John Irving — In
the afterward to "The Fourth Hand," Irving says the nucleus
for the novel was sparked after he saw the first successful hand
transplant on the evening news. The result is the farcical story
of Patrick Wallingford, a television journalist whose hand is lost
after a lion eats it. After receiving a donor hand by the recently
deceased Mr. Clausen, Clausen's wife pines for a baby with Wallingford.
What follows is an awkward, fantastical love story, peppered with
chapters on Wallingford's womanizing misadventures. Though it may
not be Irving at his best, it is Irving nonetheless, which is all
the incentive needed to read "The Fourth Hand."
4. "Dogwalker" by Arthur Bradford — Apartments
are visited by men with faces like cats and littered with deformed
puppies. A yellow slug "the size of a large loaf of bread"
that middle-aged losers find in a glove compartment and try to sell
for quick cash. Haircuts at "The Texas School for the Blind"
that end with the scissors in a student's leg. Bill McQuill, who
happens to fall asleep on railroad tracks and ends up in two pieces,
one of which can't stop talking. A game that involves carving your
initials into an apple held in someone's mouth — with a chainsaw.
A story that begins: "No doubt you'll think I'm strange when
I tell you I've been making love with my girlfriend's dog. But that
is not my most unsettling secret." These are Bradford's stories
centered on Man's Best Friend. It is a crisp collection that, despite
its weirdness, is amazingly intriguing and wildly entertaining.
5. "The Body Artist" by Don DeLillo — "Artist"
is confusing, convoluted and probably won't make a lot of sense
to anyone (it didn't to me). It is, however, a wonderfully written
novella about death, relationships and love as told through Lauren
Hartke, who lives in a secluded beach house after the death of her
husband and discovers a mysterious stranger living with her. At
times, the story reads like one giant metaphor, but it doesn't detract
from the beauty of DeLillo's prose, as powerful as ever and beautiful
enough to prompt reading out loud.
|
