****Look at Us, by T.L. Toma

 Look at Us is about a couple who are well-educated, have good jobs, and live in NYC with their two children and au pair. The parents live life on the surface and lack depth. They are in a crisis, albeit a quiet, unassuming one that goes unrecognized by friends and colleagues.  Toma uses his characters to illustrate the darkly held secrets hidden behind closed doors. From racial and culturally charged thoughts to predatory sexual behavior, Toma brings to light a chilling reality that is unsettling.

 

This book is not for the light-hearted. While it is not filled with physical violence, there is an underlying sense of psychological violence that keeps the reader engaged and horrified by the actions of its protagonists. The protagonists’ lives are experienced from a distance by both their peers and the reader, which creates a palpable tension. Toma’s writing style is fluid and, despite the subject matter, often beautiful.

 

Curl by T.O. Bobe

A brilliant novel, Curl evokes universal feelings of love and loneliness through the world of Mr. Gica, the greatest and fastest barber in the world. A quick and thought-provoking novella filled with prose, poetry and humor through the author’s imaginative storytelling.

****The Widow by Georges Simenon

 

This was my first novel, of memory, from Georges Simenon’s vast collection. It did not disappoint. Think of Zola’s, Therese Raquin, or Camus’, The Stranger, and you will find apt comparisons. Simenon’s narrative is tense. It builds gradually and feels like it will fracture at any moment but does not until the last pages. His technique is concise. He uses words sparingly, but eloquently and the reader is effectively mesmerized. I truly enjoyed, The Widow and look forward to exploring many more novels by this prolific writer.

 

****Eleven Sooty Dreams by Manuela Draeger

 

I am not a fan of dystopian novels (the author defines his work as post - exotic literature, which I'm not disputing; I am merely indicating how my brain processed this novel). Despite all the horrific novels I've read, this genre makes me feel an indefinable interior darkness that is difficult to comprehend. Nonetheless, I am intrigued by Draeger's  (pseudonym for Antoine Volodine) novel. It is interspersed with beautiful prose, creative folktales, horrific scenes and, dare I say, some very dark humor. His command of the written word is exquisitely complex and tormented. Volodine states that the meaning of post - exotic literature is found, “not in the book’s pages but in the dreams people will have after reading it”. I have little doubt Volodine will infiltrate my dreams for days to come.

The novel's hunting idée fixe:

"You are burning. I go to you. In this moment, we are with you. We are all moving toward you. We are exchanging our last breath. Your memory trickles from your eyes. My memories are yours."

****Ere the Cock Crows by Jens Bjørneboe

LibraryThing.com Early Review Norwegian Literature

Three childhood friends. One is a doctor performing “medical” experiments in a Nazi prison camp, the second is the commandant of the camp and the third is a Jewish prisoner in the camp. The prisoner has been fattened up, literally, and the time to begin “medical” experiments on him has arrived. What will the men do? “Ere the cock crows.” (Reference: Jesus says to Paul, “Before the cock crows you will deny me three times.”)  A shocking and melancholy narrative unravels as we meet those involved directly and indirectly. Bjørnbee focuses on the issue of morality, how each character  handles his conscience, or lack thereof, during this very complex and abhorrent time in history. A powerful novel by a talented author.

A side note regarding this publication. This book needs a good edit. There are numerous misspelled words and words that are missing or do not belong whatsoever. It is truly distracting and unfortunate.

****Seven by Farzana Doctor

 LibraryThing Early Review

A well written novel that covers contemporary Khatna (female genital cutting) among the Indian Bohras.  The author handles her subject matter with sensitivity while developing a story with depth and an understanding of the complex issues related to this archaic practice.

*****Love Like Water, Love Like Fire by Mikhail Iossel

 LibraryThing Early Review

Memory either confirms or refutes the very fact of our own existence.

 

Iossel portrays an often absurd and haunting life under Stalin’s rule. Having grown up as a Russian Jew in the Soviet Union, he pulls from his own life experience in this fictionalized autobiography. Ioseel uses the short story form to offer glimpses into various aspects of his life, but altogether it works as a novel.

 

I grew up during the United States Duck and Cover program when we greatly feared the Soviets. I had to laugh as an author of similar age was taught to fear and look down on what he believed would become Soviet America. Iossel seems to do this purposefully as a form of laugh-out-loud irony. Similarly, he illustrates the absurdities and fear of being a Soviet Jew. He does so magnificently with irony and sadness.

 

Iossel’s perspective is unique, somewhat funny and horrifying. If you liked Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence and the tension in Ravel’s Bolero (referring to Iossel’s short story, Moscow Windows), you will enjoy this novel as it is superbly written.

 

2021 Books Read 01/01/2021-12/31/2021

*****The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World, by Laura Messina, 2020, Italian Literature 

*****In the Shawdow of Young Girls in Flower, by Marcel Proust, 1920, French Literature

****The Sentence, by Louise Erdich, 2021, American Indian Literature 

*****Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, by Elizabeth Taylor, 1971, British Literature

****The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles,  2021, American Literature 

***The Impudent Ones, by Marguerite Duras, 1943, French  Literature 

****This Tender Land,  by William Kent Krueger,  2019, American Literature 

*****To Be a Man, by Nicole Krauss, 2021 American Literature 

***Things We Lost to the Water, by Eric Nguyen, 2021, American Literature 

****Look at Us, by T.L. Toma, 2021, American Literature 

****The Days of Abandonment, by Elena Ferrante, 2005, Italian Literature

*****The Makioka Sisters, by Junichiro Tanizaki, 1957, Japanese Literature 

***Bewilderment,  by Richard Powers, 2021 American Literature 

****This Mournable Body, by Tsitsi Dangarembga,  2018, ZimbabweanLiterature

****Department of Speculation,  by Jenny Offill, 2014, American Literature 

*****Curl, by T.O. Bobe, 2019, Romanian Literature 

***Madonna in a Fur Coat, by Sabahattin Ali, 1943, Turkish Literature 

*****Sugar Street, by Naguib Mahfouz, 1957, Arabic Literature 

****Intimacies, by Katie  Kitamura, 2021, American Literature 

*****The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai, 2018, American Literature

*****Palace of Desire, by Naguib Mahfouz, 1957, Arabic Literature

****Brooklyn, by Colm Toíbín, 2009, Irish Literature 

*****The Death of Vivek Oji, by Akwaeke Emeze, 2020, Nigerian Literature 

****The Arrangements by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,  2016, Nigerian Literature 

**** The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, 1984, Mexican - American literature

****The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah, 2021, American Fiction

***Diary of a Rapist,  by Evan S. Connell, 1966, American Literature 

*****The Engagement, by Georges Simenon, 1933, French Literature 

*****Notes on Grief, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2021, Nigerian Literature

*****Palace Walk,  by Naguib Mahfouz, 1956, Arabic Literature 

****Whereabouts, by Jhumpa Lahari, 2021, American Literature

****Small Country: A Novel, by Gaël Faye, 2016, French-Rwandan Literature 

*****Some New Ambush,  by Cary Davies, 2007, Welsh Literature 

****Great Grandma Webster, by Caroline Blackwood,  1977, Anglo-Irish Literature 

*****The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Cesares, 1940, Argentinian Literature

***In Watermelon Sugar, by Richard Brautigan, 1968, American Literature 

****Artemisia, by Alexandra Lapierre, 1998, French Literature

*****Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardino Evaristo, 2019, British Literature

*****Variations on the body, by Maria Ospina, 2021, Columbian Literature 

***Heaven, A Novel, by Mieko Kawakami,  2⁰9, Japanese Literature 

*****Like a Sword Wound, Ottomon Quartet, Book 1, by Ahmet Altan, 1997, Turkish Literature

****The Widow, by Georges Simenon, 1942, Belgian Literature

**Miao Dao, by Joyce Carol Oates, 2018, American Fiction 

****Of Women and Salt, by Gabriela Garcia, 2021, American Literature 

****The Night Watchman,  by Louise Erdich, 2020, American Indian Literature 

****Offshore, by Penelope Fitzgerald,  1979, British Literature 

****Eleven Sooty Dreams, by Manuela Draeger, 2019, French Literature 

****Three Women, by Lisa Taddeo, 2019, American Biography 

*****Narcisse on a Tightrope, by Olivier Targowla, 1989, French Literature

****Ere the Cock Crows, by Jens Bjørneboe, 1952, Norwegian Literature 

****Seven, by Farzana Doctor, 2020, Canadian Fiction

*****Love Like Water, Love Like Fire, by Mikhail Iossel,  2021, Russian Literature 

****The Sonderberg Case, by Elie Wiesel, 2008, Romanian-American Literature

*****A Dance to the Music of Time: 3rd Movement,  by Anthony  Powell,  1960's, British Literature 

***The Silent Patient,  by Alex Michaelides, 2019, American Mystery 

***The Consequences of Love, by Sulaiman S.M.Y. Addonia, 2008, African Literature 

***I Remember You,  by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, 2012, Icelandic Fiction

****The Perfect Nanny, by Leela Shimano, 2016, French Literature 

*****Garden by the Sea, by Mercè Rodorea, 1967, Catalanian Literature 

****A Burning, by Megha Majumdar, 2020, Indian Literature 

***Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall,  by Ishiguro Kazuo, 2009, British Literature 

****Dinner at the Center of the Earth, by Nathan Englander, 2017, Jewish  American Literature 

*****Such Small Hands, by Andres Barbs, 2017, Spanish Literature 

****Hunger, A Novella and Stories, by, Lan Samantha Chang,  2000, Chinese-American Literature

***Libertie, by Kaitlyn Greenidge, 2020, American Fiction

****Lie With Me, by Philippe Besson, 2017, French Literature

****Autumn,  by Karl Ove Knausgård, 2015, Norwegian Literature 

*****Die, My Love, by Arianna Harwicz, 2017, Argentinean Literature 

****Codex 1962: A Trilogy,  by Sjón, 2018, Icelandic Literature

****Burnt Sugar, by Avni Doshi, 2021 Indian American Literature 

****Straight From the Horses Mouth, by Maryse Alaoui, 2020, Moroccan Literature 

****Infinite Country, by Patricia Engel, 2021, American-Columbian Literature 

*****Wild Swans,  Three Daughters of China,  by Jung Chang, 1991, Chinese Memoir 

***Creatures of Passage, by Morowa Yejide, 2021, American Literature

****Deacon King Kong,  by James McBride, 2020, American Literature 

*****The Agony and the Ecstasy, A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo, by Irving Stone, 1961, Biography

****Tokyo Ueno Station, by Miri Yú, 2020, Japanese Literature

*****Pew, by Catherine Lacey, 2020, American Literature

Books Read 8/1/2020-12/31/2020

****Breasts and Eggs, by Mieko Kawakami, 2020 Japanese Literature 

****Follow Me to Ground,  by  Sue Rainsford, 2020, Irish Literature 

*****Flowers of Mold, by Seong-na Ha, 2019, Korean Literature 

***Better Luck Next Time, by Julia Claiborne Johnson, 2021, American Fiction 

****Hamlet, by Maggie O'Farrell, 2020, Irish-British Literature 

*****Rag: Stories,  by Maryse Meijer,  2019, American Literature 

***The Exiles, by Kristina Baker Kline, 2020, American Fiction

****Lust for Life, by Irving Stone, 1934, Biography

*****Young Adam, by Alexander Trocchi, 1954 Scottish Literature 

**Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, 2020, Mexican Canadian Fiction

****Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart, Scottish Literature,  2020

****The North Water, by Ian McGuire, 2016, English Literature 

****Strange Weather in Tokyo: A Novel, by Hiromi Kawakami, 2012, Japanese Literature

****Bless Me, Ultimate, by Rudolfo Anaya, 1972, Chicano Literature

*****Nervous Conditions, by Tsitsi Dangarembga, 1988, Zimbabwean Literature

*****The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante, 2020, Italian Literature 

****Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata, 2016,  Japanese Literature 

***Bass Rock, by Evie Wyld, 2020, English Fiction

****Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfegh, 2015, American Literature

****Fruit Rot, by James R. Gapinski, 2020, American Literature 

*****Death in Her Hands, by Ottessa Moshfegh, 2020, American Literature 

***The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes, 2019, Historical Fiction 

***The Book of Rosy, A Mother's Story of Separation at the Border, by Rosayra Pablo Cruz, 2020, Guatemalan Memoir 

****Actress: A Novel, by Anne Enright,  2020, Irish Literature 

***Kintu, by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, 2014, Ugandan Literature 

****The Theory of Flight, by Siphiwe Ndlovu, 2019, African Literature 

*****The Vagrants, by Yiyun Li, 2009, Chinese Literature 

****His Only Wife, by Peace Adzo Medie, 2020, African Literature 

****Necessary Lies, by Diane Chamberlain, 2013, American Fiction

****The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Ndlovu

 LibraryThing.com Early Review 

Ndlovu combines her skills as a Zimbabwean filmmaker and writer to tell a generational story depicting extreme loss and love.  She incorporates her childhood experiences, general history and the HIV epidemic to illustrate how seemingly disparate events are interrelated. Ndlovu reveals how our choices determine not only the course of our own personal history, but the histories of those around us and beyond – the domino effect. This is a complex and unique work of literature filled with engaging characters, depth and creative use of visual language. I suspect we will see much more from this talented artist.