This is the time of year for retrospectives. Everything from films of the year, best
theatrical productions, best music releases, best art exhibitions, and not
forgetting the many creative artists who have passed away over the past twelve months.
It has been quite a year in so many ways.
So just before December’s weekend supplements publish
recommendations by a mix of academics, poets, artists and famous citizens about
all kinds of books they have read and recommend, let me list a few good ones
that have kept me going in 2016.
Such was the emphasis of reviews in two national
broadsheets at the start of the year that I simply had to order a copy of “The Noise of Time.”
Written by the winner of the Man Booker Prize
in 2011, Julian Barnes, this is a fictional account of the life of the great Russian
composer Shostakovich and his survival under the despotism of Stalin.
This novel paints a different image of the
musical genius than the somewhat more jovial man in Sara Quigley‘s prize-winning
novel about the awful siege of Leningrad, “The
Conductor.”
The impact of tyranny,
however, is brilliantly articulated by both authors.
One reviewer[i] summarised Barnes’s new
book as
“...structured
in three parts that come together like a broken chord. It is a simple but brilliant device.... Out
of the rubble comes a life; out of the noise comes music.”
Another reviewer[ii] described it with no
equivocation whatsoever as
“a masterpiece
of biographical fiction.”
One fascinating non-fiction book to catch my attention
this year was “Lingo” by the Dutch
journalist and multi-linguist Gaston Dorren.
In a year when European integration has been the topic of intensive
debate, this humorous book reminds us of our inextricable cultural connections
by examining fifty or more European languages and dialects.
Full of amusing anecdotes, Dorren observes all
kinds of linguistic parallels, including examples of words which English has
borrowed from many of its European neighbours.
Never does a year pass in the modern era without
something original and brilliant coming out of the north-west of our
continent. Among others, let me mention
two "Nordic" novels. One represents the
tried and tested genre of crime fiction, noir being the word, so consistently
portrayed by their authors; whereas the other book is a total contrast being funny.
The former is a scary and unnerving story set in a remote
part of Iceland. It is titled “I remember you” and written by Yrsa
Sigurdardottir. The latter is a moving
testament to ageing called “Hitman Anders”
by Jonas Jonasson. This is his
follow-up to the hilarious and best-selling novel “The Hundred-year-old Man who Climbed out of the Window and
Disappeared.”
Another gripping novel in a similar vein, in terms of
empathy with issues of ageing, was given to me by a friend at no cost thanks to
the generosity of the year’s World Book Night in April. This beautiful story, “Last bus to Coffeeville,” is set in the United States. Its author is J Paul Henderson.
Closer to home the next crime thriller novel and a winner of Los Angeles
Book Prize for fiction was recommended to me by my bibliophile wife. “The
Twelve” by Stuart Neville is a page-turning tale set in a bleakly realistic
Northern Ireland suffering the appalling and violent excesses of the so-called
Troubles.
Ulster noir feels even more
unsettling than its Scandi-equivalent, in this case probably because Neville is
fictionalising events against the reality of recent history.
A special mention has to go to the Irish Times journalist
and commentator Fintan O’Toole.
I
finally got around to buying his non-fiction book, published a couple of years
ago, and which was inspired by the encyclopaedic “A History of the World in 100 objects” by Neil McGregor.
O’Toole’s diligent
research and knowledge have resulted in the very impressive “A History of Ireland in 100 Objects.” These companion pieces are two desirable
objects in their own rite.
The best novel I have read in 2016 is “Alone in Berlin” by Hans Fallada.
Originally published in 1947[iii], it was not translated
and published in English until 1975.
In
some ways, the harrowing narrative parallels the Julian Barnes story about
surviving Soviet tyranny.
Fallada, like
Barnes, bases the story on a real-life events, namely that of a German couple (nondescript compared to the Shostakovich protrayed by Barnes)
trying to stand up to and resist the domestic impacts of Nazi horrors.
Taken together, such novels illustrate both the
meaningless of labels like right and left to describe authoritarianism; and also that evil flourishes
only when good men sit back and do nothing.
Finally, having begun by setting an objective to present
a selection of books that I have read before the professionals publish their
lists in December's weekend supplements, I see that the papers I buy on
Saturday[iv] and Sunday[v] have already - on this final weekend
of November - embarked on that process. And, in very thorough style too.
Even if there’s no way I can pip them, I might as well try and join them.
©Michael McSorley 2016
[i]
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst The Times Saturday Review 16 Jan 2016
[ii]
Alex Preston The Observer New Review 17 Jan 2016
[iii]
James Buchan The Guardian 7 March 2009 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/07/alone-in-berlin-hans-fallada
[iv] The
Times, 26 November 2016 Saturday Review Books of the Year pp 5-18
[v]
Observer New Review 27 November 2016 Books of the Year pp34-38
