A really lovely book about a family just dealing with life’s relationships (Marie, children mainly). Understated, better than McDermott’s book Someone from April.
Category: Best of 2014
All My Puny Stories – Miriam Toews
This is a book about suicide and so it is hard to be perfectly objective but – this is her best book since A Complicated Kindness. Some back story: Toews wrote Swing Low, a non-fiction account of the suicidal death of her father. In AMPS (words taken from a Coleridge poem), the story is fiction but heavily influenced by the suicidal death of Toews’ sister in 2010.
Now for the comments: this is a heart-breaking story, that captures perfectly the inherent conflict between two sisters who love each other, but conflict because one wants to die and the other who wants her sister to live. The inevitability of the progression to the suicide is frightening, despite great efforts by many individuals in addition to the sisters. And finally, the picture of the psych staff is unflattering: indifference and ineffectiveness. Save up your energy for this but it is brilliant writing.
Cataract City by Craig Davidson
This is a real testosterone-filled guy book starting with two 12 year old boys lost in the woods and then progressing to: wrestling, pit bull dog fighting, bare knuckle fighting between men, greyhound dog racing and finally another “lost in the woods” episode. Ultimately the book is about friendship and loyalty. This was a Giller nominee.
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage – Ann Patchett
This is an excellent collection of essays, non-fiction writings in part to pay the bills before and during her subsequent life as a fiction writer. The writing is very insightful, covering important and topical issues like censorship (her brilliant book Truth And Beauty was removed from a University recommended reading list because the book was too graphic in describing drug use, for example). Everything by Patchett is a ‘must read”.The Weird Sisters – Eleanor Brown
This is a magnificent story about 3 sisters reunited in Ohio because of a parental health issue. The book is dominated by Shakespearean quotes and references: the names of the 3 sisters are Rosalind (Rose), Bianca (Bean) and Cordelia (Cordy). The story is about sister relationships and all three are fuck-ups in their own unique fashion. And may I mention that everyone loves to read in this story. Finally, the book is written in an interesting collective voice of all thee sisters (We …). This is a must-read book.
What David Read 