Issue 44 / May 2012
2010: an independent review
Anna Goodall, Clerkenwell Tales bookshop, December 2010
This year the broadsheets' best of 2010 fiction lists were dominated by publishing's heavy hitters: Franzen and Roth garner the largest percentage vote, with quite a few giving nods to Carey and Amis; and everyone's decided that winning the Booker makes The Finkler Question a wonderful work after all, and appear to have forgotten Tom McCarthy's formerly much-hyped third novel C.
Whilst I think McCarthy's novel is flawed as a work of fiction, the early sections in particular are exquisitely written and the novel is full of exuberant intellectualism that makes it a book that stays in the mind, if not the heart; similarly Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room, which was also on the shortlist but now seems to have mostly dropped off the radar, is a brooding, harshly minimalist work - more a series of three linked short stories (leading some to question why it was on the shortlist at all). In fact, I think it's more helpful to think of them as short stories that just happen to feature the same nameless depressed narrator. The last story, "The Guardian", first published in The Paris Review, is immensely powerful, but it is the mysterious and sinister first, "The Follower" that perhaps steals the low-key show.
With Galgut in mind, novels as series of vignettes or loosely connected stories, novellas and short-story collections are where much of the year's most exciting fiction has been found:
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachmann (Quercus)
I picked up this debut novel by chance, somehow managed to get past the hideous cover, and discovered a beautifully-written, comic story of a failing newspaper in Rome. Weaving the paper's history betwixt the stories of those connected to it - like Lloyd Burko, the ageing foreign correspondent in desperate need of a story; Arthur Gopal, the depressed obits writer; and Ruby Zaga, a lonely copywriter obsessively calling a former intern - it's sharply observant about journalism and those who populate the profession. As subject material it has the potential to be hackneyed, but Rachmann's gift is to make the stories highly readable, unsentimental, moving and utterly absorbing. He has a real gift as a keenly accurate observer of the motivations and emotions of un-extraordinary people.
2010 saw the publication of two wonderful debut story collections by American writers: Chattering Stories by Louise Stern and Wells Tower's brutal and darkly funny collection Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned (both Granta). The two collections are extremely different: the former about silence, being dislocated from a chattering world - Stern herself is deaf as are many of her characters, though not all; the latter plugs into the violence and harsh absurdity of ordinary lives. Their similarity lies in the quality and technical assurance of the writing, and both authors' ability to create strange and complete worlds that leave the reader both inspired and unsettled.
Beside The Sea by Véronique Olmi, translated by Adriana Hunter (Pereine Press)
Has there been such a simply powerful evocation of female depression since The Bell Jar? Not that I know of. A woman takes her two sons to the seaside for a last holiday, and in the Beckett-like darkness finally disconnects from a disinterested and repetitive world. The character of the eldest boy, Stan, is particularly affecting - Olmi portrays him with the tight vulnerable strength of a naturally sweet child who is unable to be a child, always watching his mother intently, looking for signs he must read. Not exactly one for the festive fireside, but a must-read from an exciting new press.
Finally, I attended the BBC Short Story Competition award at the Free Word Centre a few weeks ago and picked up the anthology of shortlisted stories. It was here I very belatedly discovered Sarah Hall, whose last novel, How To Paint a Dead Man, (2009) was longlisted for the Booker. Her story "Butcher's Perfume", set in Carlisle, charts an unlikely friendship between Kathleen, a shy, slightly lonely girl, and Manda Slessor, the hard nut of the school and only daughter of the wild and locally powerful Slessor family. It's brilliant. I'm not quite certain why it didn't win the prize, and am now looking forward to trying Hall's full-length fictional work.
Meanwhile, at Clerkenwell Tales, our customers, unbeknownst to them, are compiling their own end-of-year fiction list in the run up to Christmas. Still flying off the shelves are David Nicholls's One Day and William Boyd's Any Human Heart - always popular, but now wildly so due to its dramatisation on the telly. Alone in Berlin, Hans Fallada's 1947 novel based on real events that explores the fear and paranoia gripping Berliners in a grim Second World War Germany has been a consistent favourite throughout the year, whilst New York author Gary Shteyngart's second offering, Super Sad True Love Story is a surprise hit with our customers - I hadn't expected the super-fast almost quease-inducing speed of dialogue and the surface internet drip of existence portrayed in Shteyngart's not-too-distant future to appeal to our regulars, but the novel is reaching a surprisingly wide demographic of readers. And still defying all shortlisted competition, in the sales department at least, the Booker-longlisted The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas is still selling well.
Overall, it's been a great year for the shop, highlights including Peter Carey popping in for a chat post-Booker ceremony, David Nicholls filming in the shop for Sky Arts, meeting Diana Athill, Patti Smith, Zadie Smith, David Vann, Posy Simmonds, and James Sherwood; Phill Jupitus telling us some hilarious (and rude) stories from breakfast radio at his recent reading at the shop, and Peter managing to finally meet his hero, Martin Amis, at the recent Mick Imlah event at UCL. I spotted one of my literary heroes, Alan Hollinghurst, from a distance at the same do, but couldn't quite pluck up the courage to say hello... maybe next year.
ACG
Clerkenwell Tales' Top Christmas Gifts:
Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky (Penguin) - the subtitle reads "Fifty Islands I Have Never Visited and Never Will' - a gorgeous armchair travel book that celebrates the unreachable and far-flung.
Some Like it Hot by Dan Aulier and Alison Castle (Taschen) - sumptuous gift edition with multiple glossy photos, celebrating (almost) everyone's favourite film.
Just My Type by Simon Garfield (Profile Books) - A witty journey through the history of fonts that is proving a major hit since its publication in October. We're also selling six limited-edition prints of fonts designed for the book at Clerkenwell Tales.
The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit (Bloomsbury) - a compendium of taste, a spectrum of flavour - Niki Segnit's culinary journey is this year's surprise foodie hit.
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (Penguin) - Paul Murray's second novel was longlisted for the Booker and is now shortlisted for the Costa. A sprawling comic novel set in a boarding school in Ireland, the novel is stealthily becoming a big seller.
Just Kids by Patti Smith (Bloomsbury) - The poet and performer's memoir of her time with legendary photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in late sixties' and seventies' New York is one of the books of the year. At the time of writing, we still have a few signed copies left.
Monday, 20 December, 2010
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