The setting – Mexico City in the early 90s. Monserat, a film editor, and her actor friend Tristan meet Abel, a film director whose last film was unreleased in 1961. Can merging of sound and visuals (runes) with silver nitrate film be a conduit for spells? Can an un-released film produce bad luck? Can a spell be undone? Moreno-Garcias’s latest horror book reminds me of her brilliant Mexican Gothic.
Category: Best of 2023
Happiness Falls – Angie Kim
Ostensibly, this is a missing person mystery: a father goes missing from a Korean-American family (wife, three children). What elevates this story is a unique point-of-view, emphasizing the family impact. Why do people do and say what they do? For a family in crisis, there are many discussions on cognitive psychology. What if suspicion falls on the youngest son who is non-verbal because of autism and Angelman Syndrome? Questions of loss, language and the expectations and assumptions regarding communication abound. Finally, the ending is somewhat enigmatic, as is real life.
Girlfriend On Mars – Deborah Willis
A chance discovery at an October Word Fest event, Ms. Willis has written a superb relationship book. Amber and Kevin have enjoyed/endured a 14-year relationship even though they have very different personalities. Secretly, she decides to enter a billionaire-funded competition to travel to Mars, and amazingly becomes one of 24 contestants on a reality show to choose two “winners”. How does Kevin cope with Amber’s decision to leave him for a one-way trip to Mars? What is Amber’s motivation? The story is in part funny with a satirical treatment of fame, billionaire-funded space travel together with a quest for love. Highly recommended.
Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
This fascinating book is a retelling of the classic Dickens’ David Copperfield, transposed to contemporary times in rural Appalachia. Demon/Damon has a teenage single mother who subsequently dies. Thus, the story contains crushing poverty, mean-spirited foster care and an indifferent social services system. Most compelling, however, is the descent into addictions prompted by the (mis)use of oxycontin. The perils of Demon’s journey to maturity are profound, given his perception of his own invisibility. Highly recommended.
The Double Life of Benson Yu – Kevin Chong
The author of the prescient The Plague has now written an inventive story of metafiction. The narrator/author creates a fictional version of himself as 12-year-old Benny living in 1980s Vancouver Chinatown. Accordingly, there is a blend of reality and invention. What if the author loses control of the narrative? Consequently, the story is often confusing because of two timelines, and thus can be frustrating. Some complex themes of child sexual abuse and suicidal ideation abound. This original story is deservedly on the Giller long-list.
Crook Manifesto – Colson Whitehead
This is the second book (first is Harlem Shuffle) of what will be a trilogy about life in the east side of New York City (Harlem). As always, context is everything in the 1970s: progressive chaos and disintegration of the city, profound police corruption, blaxploitation movies, arson and bent politicians. Whitehead’s writing is sublime: “It was a glorious June morning. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the ambulances were screaming, and the daylight falling on last night’s crime scenes made the blood twinkle like dew in a green heaven”. The exploits of Ray Carney, furniture store owner and occasional fence, continue in a shady system. Highly recommended.
The Paris Bookseller – Kerri Maher
The cover of this book of historical fiction/fact has the phrase: “a love letter to bookstores and libraries” – enough said! This is the story of Sylvia Beach, an American who opens an English language bookstore in Paris in 1920, called Shakespeare And Company. Ms. Beach acquires fame and notoriety by publishing James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1922. Insight into her motivations and candid descriptions of the many writers who frequent her store makes this a treasure to read.
The Librarianist – Patrick De Witt
Although this story unfolds in Portland, there is little sense of place. Instead, this is an account of people and their often-complicated relationships. In 2005, Bob is a 71-year-old retired librarian. A chance encounter with an elderly confused woman leads him to volunteer at a Senior’s Centre, where the residents are “challenged by subdued disappointment”. Bob’s backstory over 60 years is presented with humour and pathos, an ordinary life of an introvert. De Witt’s writing is brilliant – highly recommended.
Snow Road Station – Elizabeth Hay
Predictably, Ms. Hay has written another superb short novel. There are many relationships in a coming-of-middle-age story: intense complicated friendships abound. On page 214: “They were lovers the way some people are Sunday painters – not fulltime, not exclusively, but companionably and gratefully”. And there is an exquisite description of place; Snow Road Station is a barely discernable dot in an Ontario map, but there are wonderful descriptions of the changing seasons, a wedding, and harvesting sap. In short, tour-de-force writing.
What David Read 