Bibliography, December 2008

Books bought / received (15)
B. Bryson, Made in America
L. Cohen, The Favourite Game
J. Darwin, After Tamerlane
M. Druon, Le Roi de fer
M. Druon, La Reine étranglée
M. Druon, Les Poisons de la Couronne
M. Druon, La Loi des mâles
M. Druon, La Louve de France
M. Druon, Le Lis et le Lion
M. Druon, Quand un roi perd la France
R. Gildea, Children of the Revolution
R. Kapuscinski, Shah of Shahs
H. Rasky, The Song of Leonard Cohen
F. Wheen, How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered the world
A. Wheatcroft, The enemy at the gate

Books read (13)
M. Bywater, Big Babies
B. Chatwin, The Black Hill
L. Cohen, The Favourite Game
A. Enwright, The Gathering
W. Goldman, The princess bride
M. Hamid, The reluctant fundamentalist
S. Jordison, The Joy of Sects
D. Lessing, The Golden Notebook
A. Powell, At Lady Molly's
A. Powell, Casanova's Chinese restaurant
A. Powell, The Kindly Ones 
H. Rasky, The Song of Leonard Cohen
J. Tiptree, Her smoke rose up forever

December has been a good month. Christmas has not been too overbooked - coming away with less than twenty acquisitions is good work - and I've read some crackers, with one major exception - Bywater was terrible, bile-strewn, illogical ranting drivel. Do not read it. Ever.

I wanted BOTM to be Powell, and Casanova's Chinese restaurant almost made it. It's well constructed, without the disjointedness of the early volumes, or the slightly clumsy deliberate structural contrast that marr The Kindly ones. However, it was eclipsed by Chatwin's surprising novel (For a man who made his reputation as a travel writer and student of nomads, the last novel I would have expected was a tour de force of a claustrophobic setting of the lives of a pair of twins in rural Wales), and especially by the Golden Notebook.

Now, I really didn't want to like Lessing's masterwork. It's been sitting reproachfully on my shelves for a year because it is a) long, b) about communism c) and femminism, and d) structured in what can only be described as experimental. It is however also excellently written, gripping, and insightful. For an 'old red' as Lessing describes herself in the preface, it's an unflinching examination of the bankruptcy of the party during and especially after Stalin, but it's great strength is how it deals with the main protagonist and her disordered, fractured mind - hence the notebooks. It took me many days, but it's worth it.

As a final postscript, I should probably cover off the year in this post as well. As the Whitbread (sorry Costa), I've split this up, though more simply - into fact and fiction.

• Novel of my year was V. Nabokov, Lolita which was as good as it is controversial and the first half is probably as close to perfection as writing gets
• I had real trouble with factual between several great books, but in the end, J. Berendt, Midnight in the garden of Good and Evil edges out D.Brown, Bury my heart at Wounded Knee. Both American, and both with some similarities, but the quality, detail and warmth of Berendt's book make me to long to visit and to reread.