Favorite Books of the Year, part 1: Thoughts on Serena and There Will Be Blood
Wow, it's already that time of year. As I haven't been a very good blogger over the last few months, I thought I'd post about some of the books I most loved this year. Of course, these aren't necessarily my "Best Books of 2010" because most of them were written in years past -- these are just "Best Books Tom Happened to Read in 2010."
Before getting to that, in case anyone's curious, here's what I've been spending my time on during the last few months, since The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers was published:
--Writing, putting aside with discouragement, then picking back up again with renewed excitement, and writing the living hell out of, my upcoming third novel, The Revisionists, which will be published in fall of 2011.
--Putting the finishing touches on what I think is a young adult novel crossed with a murder mystery, called Fast Food Noir.
--Experimenting with the fine art of screenwriting by turning my first novel, The Last Town on Earth, into a screenplay. No, there is no film deal to report as yet, but it's been fun to write in a different form.
--Writing some short stories during breaks in my longer works.
--Visiting some institutes of higher learning that have assigned Last Town to their incoming freshmen.
--Helping plan and throw the Decatur Book Festival, the coolest book festival in the country.
--Performing copious amounts of research, and doing a not insignificant amount of writing, for what I think will be my fourth novel, about which I'm not divulging anything quite yet, other than to say that I love it.
But back to my Best Books of 2010. Ever since graduating college in 1996, I've written down the name of every book I read, and if I found it especially wonderful, I've put an asterik beside it. This is ridiculously anal, I know, but now that I've been doing it for 14 years I don't dare stop. Also, this way, when someone asks me to recommend a great read, all I have to do is look up the asteriked titles and name one. (This is also why, when I'm giving a lecture and someone asks me to name my favorite writers or books, I completely blank out and mutter something unintelligible -- if only I carried the list with me!)
Anyway. As I look over which books I've asteriked this year, I see:
Serena by Ron Rash. An astonishing book. It earned a spot on many real critics' Best of 2009 lists, and deservedly so, but I didn't get around to reading it until this year. I have a great fondness for the western Carolina mountains, which comprise the setting of this amazing and beautiful book. It's set during the Great Depression, in a logging community, thus it has a weird kinship with both of my first two novels. I will admit with shame that Mr. Rash does a much finer job of describing the depredations and arduous beauty of being a logger in the early 20th century than I did in The Last Town on Earth. His book also won raves for its unique spin on the MacBeth story (the first Shakespeare play I really loved, back in sophomore year of high school); here, playing the role of Lady MacBeth is Serena, the bride of a young timber baron. To call her ruthless is an understatement. Indeed, one of things I admired most about this book, in addition to its poetic language, its unashamed use of a great plot to power the narrative, and its fine dialogue, is the way Mr. Rash dared to imagine such a horrifically evil character.
I found myself reminded of the film There Will Be Blood by P.T. Anderson. I thought that movie was very well made but it didn't quite move me the way it did many critics. What I particularly didn't buy was its treatment, at the end, of the oil tycoon played by Daniel Day-Lewis. Always driven (and blinded) by greed, to the point of ignoring his suffering son (which totally broke my heart), he is shown at film's end to be an empty, lonely, broken man. This struck me as too much the liberal fantasy, that all those super-rich tycoons are, at heart, empty and miserable people. It seems to me that what would be really terrifying, what would truly shock us as viewers (or readers), is to imagine a character like that -- cutthroat, bloodthirsty, trampling other people according to profit-minded whim -- as being not empty and sad but triumphant and quite pleased with himself. Retiring to luxury, with a trophy spouse, laughing at the rest of us. Isn't THAT the really horrible truth, that such people get away with it? And live happily ever after? In Serena, Ron Rash dared to imagine such a vengeful creature, with zero attempts to pyschoanalyze her or make her palatable to our sensibilities. That took guts, and it's part of what makes his book so brilliant and disturbing.
More on my faves from 2010 in the days ahead...
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Before getting to that, in case anyone's curious, here's what I've been spending my time on during the last few months, since The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers was published:
--Writing, putting aside with discouragement, then picking back up again with renewed excitement, and writing the living hell out of, my upcoming third novel, The Revisionists, which will be published in fall of 2011.
--Putting the finishing touches on what I think is a young adult novel crossed with a murder mystery, called Fast Food Noir.
--Experimenting with the fine art of screenwriting by turning my first novel, The Last Town on Earth, into a screenplay. No, there is no film deal to report as yet, but it's been fun to write in a different form.
--Writing some short stories during breaks in my longer works.
--Visiting some institutes of higher learning that have assigned Last Town to their incoming freshmen.
--Helping plan and throw the Decatur Book Festival, the coolest book festival in the country.
--Performing copious amounts of research, and doing a not insignificant amount of writing, for what I think will be my fourth novel, about which I'm not divulging anything quite yet, other than to say that I love it.
But back to my Best Books of 2010. Ever since graduating college in 1996, I've written down the name of every book I read, and if I found it especially wonderful, I've put an asterik beside it. This is ridiculously anal, I know, but now that I've been doing it for 14 years I don't dare stop. Also, this way, when someone asks me to recommend a great read, all I have to do is look up the asteriked titles and name one. (This is also why, when I'm giving a lecture and someone asks me to name my favorite writers or books, I completely blank out and mutter something unintelligible -- if only I carried the list with me!)
Anyway. As I look over which books I've asteriked this year, I see:
Serena by Ron Rash. An astonishing book. It earned a spot on many real critics' Best of 2009 lists, and deservedly so, but I didn't get around to reading it until this year. I have a great fondness for the western Carolina mountains, which comprise the setting of this amazing and beautiful book. It's set during the Great Depression, in a logging community, thus it has a weird kinship with both of my first two novels. I will admit with shame that Mr. Rash does a much finer job of describing the depredations and arduous beauty of being a logger in the early 20th century than I did in The Last Town on Earth. His book also won raves for its unique spin on the MacBeth story (the first Shakespeare play I really loved, back in sophomore year of high school); here, playing the role of Lady MacBeth is Serena, the bride of a young timber baron. To call her ruthless is an understatement. Indeed, one of things I admired most about this book, in addition to its poetic language, its unashamed use of a great plot to power the narrative, and its fine dialogue, is the way Mr. Rash dared to imagine such a horrifically evil character.
I found myself reminded of the film There Will Be Blood by P.T. Anderson. I thought that movie was very well made but it didn't quite move me the way it did many critics. What I particularly didn't buy was its treatment, at the end, of the oil tycoon played by Daniel Day-Lewis. Always driven (and blinded) by greed, to the point of ignoring his suffering son (which totally broke my heart), he is shown at film's end to be an empty, lonely, broken man. This struck me as too much the liberal fantasy, that all those super-rich tycoons are, at heart, empty and miserable people. It seems to me that what would be really terrifying, what would truly shock us as viewers (or readers), is to imagine a character like that -- cutthroat, bloodthirsty, trampling other people according to profit-minded whim -- as being not empty and sad but triumphant and quite pleased with himself. Retiring to luxury, with a trophy spouse, laughing at the rest of us. Isn't THAT the really horrible truth, that such people get away with it? And live happily ever after? In Serena, Ron Rash dared to imagine such a vengeful creature, with zero attempts to pyschoanalyze her or make her palatable to our sensibilities. That took guts, and it's part of what makes his book so brilliant and disturbing.
More on my faves from 2010 in the days ahead...
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