J. Baldwin, Giovanni's room (1956)
C. McCarthy, Blood Meridian (1985)
C. Blattman, Why we fight (2022)
M. Fenton, Dr Challoner's Grammar School: the first 400 years (2022)
P. Fleming, News from Tartary (1935)
E. Maillart, Forbidden journey (1937)
A. Munro, The view from castle rock (2006)
P. Perry, The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (2019)
J. Vincent, Beyond measure (2022)
C. McCarthy, Blood Meridian (1985)
C. Blattman, Why we fight (2022)
M. Fenton, Dr Challoner's Grammar School: the first 400 years (2022)
P. Fleming, News from Tartary (1935)
E. Maillart, Forbidden journey (1937)
A. Munro, The view from castle rock (2006)
P. Perry, The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (2019)
J. Vincent, Beyond measure (2022)
Some absolute crackers here. Giovanni's room is the best adult novel I have read all year; Morris' biography of Roosevelt an even better read (Morris had the advantage of his subject). Vincent and Munro were also stellar. I am glad Alice Munro won the Nobel. She was a marvel and this is no exception, while Vincent has done a lovely book on measurement and stats. I also read Maillart and (reread) Fleming's parallel narratives of their journey through 'Tartary' in the 30s. In any other month, I'd have talked extensively on those. But ...
Firstly, Baldwin. I'm glad I read the introduction to Giovanni's room first. It highlights what an extraordinarily brave piece of writing it is, not just about sexuality, but for a black author to write about white Americans in the 50s. That's easily forgotten now, but I think relevant. And it's easily forgotten because the work itself is so good. It's highly effective as communicating both place and context very economically. The layering of characters on top of that seems therefore entirely natural. Despite this, it's not an easy read, because it's so painful. I found it excruciating to read, but I'm very glad I did.
If Baldwin was writing a life lived in the shadows, Morris emphatically was not. Technically, this volume only goes up to Roosevelt's accession to the Presidency, but I don't think much changes. It's an extraordinary life (I took great sheaves of notes) and Roosevelt was aware he was living it at the time (a large number of those notes are quotations from the man himself). I always think authors get a boost if their subject is good - and there are few better - but they do choose them, so I think it's allowed. Morris is good though. It's very long, at over 700 pages, but it flew by. And the sheer volume of excellent copy, much by the protagonist, is marshalled expertly. I would love to (and will) read the counter argument to some of the stories here, but I don't think any revisionism will completely overcome the sheer force of personality. I've bought volumes 2 and 3 already.
