I must have missed The Road. Read that recently. Didn’t like it.
A lot of contemporary fiction just has a sameness to it that I find repetitive. And boy was The Road repetitive. It had some things to recommend it but I don’t follow the hype. I ranted about it at length, but I’ll spare you.
Was Station Eleven on this list and I missed it? If not that’s a huge oversight.
I was on the lookout for that one too because I recently read it and hated it.
I read the whole thing, but multigenerational sagas can be really loooong.
I almost didn’t read The Gold Fnch because I hated The Little Friend so much, but I liked it pretty well. Not as well as The Secret History which I loved.
Hamnet is another one I really liked. I read H is for Hawk around the same time, but, damn, if I can remember it.
Edit: Warmth of Other Suns is a must-read. Powerful and beautifully poignant
Of the books shown at the linked site, without having to click any further links, the ones I’ve read are
I really liked Station Eleven, but the HBO mini series made some very strong changes particularly with characterization that made for better storytelling. After watching the series first, I was disappointed that one of the best characters and their arc were barely mentioned in the book. I didn’t particularly care for the book’s emphasis on Arthur and his rich and famous actor problems when the Jeevan character was so much more compelling in the TV series.
But the book captured something powerful that the series didn’t, which was a longing for the past that was so intense it made me feel grateful for every bit of now. Especially in the context of our uncertain future, it is hard to shake the feeling of how fleeting is all is, and how nothing is promised. It’s how I imagine dying must feel. From my perspective, the book is about death.
The TV series has powerful themes as well, but different ones. They are about different things.
For anyone considering either, though, if you only do one Station Eleven, do the TV series. It’s one of the weirdest, coolest things I have ever seen on film. The less you know about it beforehand, the better.
I first heard of Cormac McCarthy from a college writing professor in like 1995. He gave us an excerpt from Blood Meridian–describing the desert’s hollow echoing like drums–as an example of excellent prose to analyze. I didn’t read anything by him until four or five years later, when I picked up Blood Meridian and a few others. He absolutely worked for me, an author I struggled with in great pleasure.
But The Road was different.
I was visiting my girlfriend’s parents, and saw The Road sitting around their house and picked it up, figuring I’d read a chapter or two before bed.
I finished it at 3 am. It grabbed me and didn’t let go.
I’m not sure why it had that effect on me–it’s rare that a book does that, but not unheard of. But it remains my favorite of McCarthy’s books, and probably my favorite post-apocalyptic novel of all time (with the possible exception of the Broken Earth trilogy).
I can respect what it feels like to be so moved by a book.
I had a lot of issues with it, and I don’t want to tear down something you love, but I think my fundamental problem with the book is that its central POV is nihilism and I’m an existentialist. Which also explains why I’m more drawn to Station Eleven.
This is fascinating, because that’s exactly the reason I don’t love the book or the movie of No Country for Old Men, but I found The Road to be different, especially with the “carrying the fire” thing he keeps saying to his son. But we all get struck differently by our reads…
The part I found compelling, and which kept me reading, was the relationship between the man and his son, and how futile our efforts as parents often are at protecting our children. I can see how that’s a very compelling theme of the book. We do the best we can in our woefully inadequate way because we are all that they have, and we just have to hope it’s enough.
That’s real.
I just can’t help but think I would have been the wife in that specific situation - only using all three bullets. There was no compelling reason for them to want to be alive. I think the protagonist might have managed to figure out something in those weeks and weeks of walking, but nothing the novel offered was really sufficient for me to believe any of this was worthwhile.
My minister friend read it after I did and liked it a lot. He said it reminded him of the part in Revelation where people want to die, but are unable to.
My immediate thought was, “Been there. That’s called major depressive disorder,” and I guess I really didn’t feel like revisiting it.
Here are my thoughts on the ones I’ve read from that list:
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus – Belongs.
In Love by Amy Bloom – Doesn’t belong, it was an audacious subject matter but the writing wasn’t exceptional enough for inclusion on this list.
Woke Racism by John McWhorter – Belongs, and I’m thrilled to see that a book so out of sync with prevailing political ideology made the list!
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker - Belongs
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata – Any other book by Sayaka Murata would have belonged, but not this one.
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa – Doesn’t belong, not memorable enough
Educated by Tara Westover - Belongs
The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt - Belongs
The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis – Belongs
What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton - Belongs
Dark Money by Jane Mayer - Belongs
Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil - Belongs
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi – Doesn’t belong. This book skeeved me out; the author was dying and spent his last moments working and writing a book rather than enjoying time with his friends and family. I know a lot of other people loved it, though.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates - Belongs
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer – Doesn’t belong, the book was unexceptional
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert - Belongs
Lost Girls by Robert Kolker – Belongs
Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon - Belongs
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver - Belongs
The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermott - Belongs
Swamplandia! By Karen Russell – Nope. I’d approve of any of Russell’s short story collections being included here, but her full-length novel was pretty awful.
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - Belongs
One Day by David Nicholls – Doesn’t belong, but to be fair, I have a tendency to not like romances.
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld – Almost, but not quite. This book started out strong, but at it went on, it got so boring that I abandoned it. If the middle and end were as strong as the beginning, I’d say it belonged on here.
The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow - Belongs
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely - Belongs
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan - Belongs
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell – Nope, this one was tedious
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - Belongs
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld - Belongs
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner - Belongs
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls - Belongs
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon – Nope, overrated
The Effect of Living Backwards by Heidi Julavits – Belongs, and I am so thrilled to see this novel made the list! It was not particularly well-known or well-received, but I think it’s excellent.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - Belongs
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson – Nope. I know a lot of people loved this book, but I found it boring enough that I quit about a hundred pages in.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides – Nope. Loved that the author tackled such a taboo subject matter, but I found the book long-winded and boring.
The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan – Belongs
And if I could choose just one book that didn’t make the list to add in, I’d choose The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.
This is one of the few of his I haven’t gotten to, that’s disappointing. Did you like his others?
This always felt simplistic to me, and I’m not surprised he probably manipulated data. But entertaining!
McCarthy is one of my favorite writers. Absolutely brilliant, a true genius—but, man, he can be depressing. Life is relentlessly brutish and uncaring, and random in how it metes out either cruelty or comfort. Don’t read McCarthy as a pick-me-up.
But my love of his work is not because I’m in agreement (or at least complete agreement) with his worldview, it’s because of how compelling his vision and his voice is. The man could write wonderful, powerful prose. It can overwhelm me.
Anyway, if The Road put someone off McCarthy, I’m not sure I’d recommend anything else he’s written. But I guess I can’t resist mentioning Blood Meridian for anyone who hasn’t read him yet. Truly a masterpiece. But don’t read it if you need inspiration and motivation for a brighter future. McCarthy doesn’t rule out such a possibility, but he’d likely have told you not to count on it.
I’ve been recommended Blood Meridian many times by my writer friends. Maybe once I get through this gauntlet at work, I’ll take a look. He does write beautiful prose.
I never read any other books by David Mitchell. I hadn’t heard that Ariely probably manipulated data. But yes, like you said, the reason I think this book belongs on the list is because of how entertaining it is. Many experts who write books don’t have a good understanding of how to make their content entertaining and accessible to a layperson, but Ariely does a great job at turning academic subjects into leisurely bedtime reading.
A Visit from the Goon Squad, 9/10. I decided to start reading books listed on the page, not with the intent of finishing, but with the intent of starting. This book took a little while to get up to speed for me, but once it did, it crashed into me and I was moved and delighted.
But beyond that, also very clever. Bonus points for the spot-on parody of a David Foster Wallace essay in one chapter.
I was just browsing the list, and came across a book I finished less than a week ago without even knowing it would be on a list: An American Spy, Olen Steinhauer, 4/10. This is the third of his “Tourist” series, and it marks a dramatic transition from standard but entertaining spy fare to realpolitik and a bunch of shifting viewpoints I really did not enjoy it much, although I wanted to find out what happens to the main character, Milo Weaver. What is the price to find it on the list.
That last sentence should have read “what a surprise”, but I was too late to edit it.
And I keep finding books that I have already read, but missed on my first scan. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, 7/10. Read this one in book club when it first came out, and remembered quite enjoying it, though feeling like it may have dragged on a tiny bit.
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein, 1/10. There are a lot of Peter Aykroyd books I have enjoyed, but this is absolutely not one of them. I read this immediately after reading the original Frankenstein, and I fucking hated it.
Cloud Atlas, 10/10.
Pachinko. Some parts were very moving, some of it was boring/too long. It’s an intense multigenerational story running from 1910 to 1989, of a Korean family that ends up in Japan trying to survive as permanent undesirables/expatriates. It felt important, but I didn’t love it. 6/10.
Another day. Another list of books, although these ones I have heard of, even read some of them.
Snow, Orhan Pamuk (2002). Depressing, funny, similar to those Russian novels making fun of government and orthodoxy, but rural Islamic vs modernist Turkey instead. Recommended, but it could’ve been a little shorter.