Author Book Choices
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This month, we're doing a round up of our author book choices from 2012.
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
Chosen by Suzanne Berne. Here is another slender novel that contains between its covers almost more of a world than one can bear. Set in 18th century Germany, its the story of a brilliant philosophy student named Friedrich von Hardenberg, later to become the Romantic poet Novalis, who falls madly in love with a rather stupid and not particularly attractive12-year-old girl. And yet this ridiculous love affair is heartbreaking, mostly because there is not a word, not a detail in this book that isnt infused with sympathy, wit, and restraint. From the epigraph, which quotes Novalis himselfNovels arise out of the shortcomings of historyto the final page, which describes Hardenbergs death, at 29, in three brief sentences, Fitzgerald never loses sight of the balance between absurdity and beauty in human yearning.
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Chose by Zadie Smith. Whats the one book that everyone should read? "Chairman Mao thought everyone should read the same book. I'd advise people to read Pale Fire by Nabokov. Just because its such a beautiful and mysterious book that you can read over and over and get new things from. Its also both a poem and a novel, so it's kind of a two-for-one deal for the modern girl with not much time on her hands"
Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins
Chosen by Chris Coake. I have a bias about this one, since Claire was my student for a while at the University of Nevada, and went on to receive her MFA in creative writing from my alma mater, Ohio State University. My bias is irrelevant, however, since so many critics and readers have agreed with me about Claire's brilliance since the release of her beautiful, tough, compelling debut collection of short stories--all set in the beautiful, tough, compelling Nevada landscape. Claire's going to be a major figure in American literature, and soon.
The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville
Recommended by my sister-in-law. I liked Kate Greville's earlier novels about the beginning of the Australian colonies, but this modern one I really loved, as it has a certain optimism, and made me laugh out loud several times.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Chosen by Anna Funder.This is a very beautifully observed, and gloriously structured novel that does a brave thing, in taking an ostensibly prickly main character as its centre. It's a prismatic and intimate portrait of contemporary America.
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