100 Novels, Round 6

34 months since my last 100 novel recap. Longer-than-intended, but reflective of my actual reading habits in recent years. You’d think a global pandemic and year+ lockdown would be ideal for getting caught up on backlog, but not so much. I keep getting distracted by staying employed, maintaining healthy relationships, and house-hunting. Just kidding! I’ve just been playing video games for the last three years, and I make no apologies.

You’ll be unsurprised to learn that I’ve gotten even more serious about tracking and stats-crunching for what is now installment #6! The big shifts include a return to plays, a dip in short stories, and my first focused dive into 21^st century literature.

Demographics

Last round’s spotlight was on women authors and I maintained a strict minimum of a 1:1 ratio. So did I backslide when not consciously making that effort? Unfortunately, yes. Only 34 of the 100 novels from round six are written by women, better than most rounds, but still something to work on.

Ten new female favorites / recommendations, in no particular order:

1. James Tiptree Jr – Reclusive mastermind of sci-fi shorts often with feminist twists; assumed to be a man for most of her career.
2. Svetlana Alexievich – Nobel-prize-winning interviewer and oft-devastating chronicler of complex Soviet and post-Soviet issues.
3. Hanya Yanagihara – NYC fashion editor turned controversial best-seller; unafraid to tackle big scope, uncomfortable topics, and gay men.
4. Sally Rooney – A flagbearer for precocious, sincere, awkward, unsentimental Gen-Zers.
5. Namwali Serpell – Vastly ambitious Zambian up-and-comer; jubilantly mixing genres and influences.
6. Kim Soom – A voice for the long-suppressed testimonials of South Korean comfort women.
7. Sarah Pinsker – The best of the weirdly-prescient pre-pandemic prophets + bonus for making me actually resonate with musicians.
8. Duong Thu Huong – Vietnamese dissident with a knack for describing mouth-watering dishes I’ve never heard of, when not vividly depicting famine, poverty, war, avarice, and oppression.
9. Quarratulain Hyder – Under-sung Urdu writer whose broad canvas spans millenniums and bridges the Indian subcontinent’s diverse religions and cultures. 
10. Zoe Heller – An entertaining weaver of psychological drama with a touch of tabloid.

Countries

At least in terms of variety I was able to hit my ideal 1:1 ratio for US/UK vs international works. Here’s the breakdown by country:

USA: 37
UK: 13
Japan: 5
Canada, France, Germany: 4
Ireland: 3
India, South Africa, Spain: 2
Angola*, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus*, Brazil, Bulgaria*, Chile, Denmark*, Egypt, Ghana*, Greece, Italy, Kyrgyzstan*, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan*, Paraguay*, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Vietnam*, Zambia*: 1

Asterisks for the 10 new countries, which bring my lifetime total to 69. At 34, this is the most I’ve covered in a single round. Maybe the lockdown increased my motivation to see the world, if only on the page or in the imagination?

Time Periods

I mentioned a shift towards the 21^st century, accounting for ~1/3 of everything I read this round. The other end of the spectrum also had an uptick, albeit unplanned, with a record eight works dating earlier than 1800.

Conversely, this was my record low for 19^th and 20^th century literature, though the latter still dominates. I can’t help noticing that for both novels and plays, I’m rarely a big fan of super early ‘classics,’ though I still read them for education, context, and checking off lists. I find above-average success with recent works. One must be of one’s own time, etc., I suppose.

Adaptations

12 movie adaptations from this batch, but few notable standouts. The Piano Teacher and The Lost Honor of Katerina Blum (sorry, German literature!) are the only ones I might rank above their source material. The black-and-white Billy Budd and Black Rain movies are both strong in their own right.

Misc Observations

• I read more non-fiction than usual which I don’t list here. I made an exception for Secondhand Time, mostly to check off Belarus. Flagrant cheating.
• Started tracking length using vague categories: short (<250 pages), medium (250-450), and long (450+), partly because I realized this round features a conspicuous number of long reads.
• This might be the most genre fiction I’ve read in a round. As usual, sci-fi is my go-to genre.
• For the first time audiobooks accounted for over a quarter of my “reading.” I enjoy listening to them on commutes, during chores, and on disc golf road trips.

Arbitrary Awards

Overall favorite: Fifth Business
Best SF: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Best fantasy: Piranesi
Best crime fiction: Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Best romance: Normal People and Effi Briest
Best horror: Fever Dream
Best graphic novel: Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
Best play: The Flick by Annie Baker
Best short story collection: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Best obscurity: The Devil to Pay in the Backlands - Bisexual bandit in Brazil’s Old West reflects on a deal he may have made with a dark force he claims not to believe in.
Best premise: A General Theory of Oblivion – A woman walls herself into her rooftop apartment, while outside the Angolan War for Independence rages on for years.
Most wasted premise: Multiple Choice
Best story: Children of Time
Best character: Bring Up the Bodies
Best prose: Gilead
Best structure: Underworld and The Professor’s House
Best twist: The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag
Most difficult: I, the Supreme and Absalom, Absalom
Longest: Clarissa and The Tale of Genji
Funniest: The Siege of Krishnapur
Angriest: Confessions of Nat Turner
Weirdest: The Famished Road

Sustained tension: Fever Dream and The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Most fun: This Is How You Lose the Time War
Most depressing: One Left and Black Rain
Most energetic: This Is How You Lose the Time War
Most emotional: A Little Life
Most ambiguous: Manon Lescaut
Most decadent: The Line of Beauty
Most disappointing: Hummingbird Salamander
Best title: The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years

Key

** Excellent
* Very Good
[blank] Fair to Good
^ Bad

The List 

1021: The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (Japan)
1499: La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas (Spain) ^
1688: Oroonoko by Aphra Behn (UK) ^
1731: Manon Lescaut by Antoine Prevost (France)
1748: Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (UK) ^
1761: Julie, or the New Heloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Switzerland)
1766: The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith (Ireland) ^
1771: The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett (UK)
1808: The Marquise of O and Other Stories by Heinrich von Kleist (Germany) *
1827: The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni (Italy)
1839: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (UK) *
1888: Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov (Bulgaria)
1891: Billy Budd by Herman Melville (USA) *
1894: Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane (Germany) **
1901: Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann (Germany) **
1902: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James (UK) **
1906: Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Soderberg (Sweden) **
1913: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust (France) *
1915: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham (UK) **
1919: Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust (France)
1925: The Professor's House by Willa Cather (USA) *
1926: Lolly Willows by Sylvia Townsend Warner (UK) *
1931: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (USA)
1935: Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand (India)
1936: Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (USA) **
1937: Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (Japan) ^
1938: Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre (France) ^
1938: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thorton Wilder (USA) *
1940: And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov (Russia)
1942: The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag by Robert A. Heinlein (USA) *
1946: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis (Greece) ^
1946: Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty (USA) *
1948: No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (Japan)
1954: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (USA) ^
1956: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)
1956: The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa (Brazil) **
1959: River of Fire by Qurratulain Hyder (India) *
1961: The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey (USA) ^
1962: The Time of the Doves by Merce Rodoreda (Spain)
1965: Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse (Japan) *
1965: The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski (USA)
1967: Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (USA) **
1969: The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah (Ghana) *
1970: Fifth Business by Robertson Davies (Canada) **
1972: The Manticore by Robertson Davies (Canada)
1972: The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Leguin (USA)
1973: The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell (Ireland) **
1974: I, the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay) *
1974: The Lost Honor of Katerina Blum by Heinrich Boll (Germany)
1974: Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone (USA) **
1975: World of Wonders by Robertson Davies (Canada) *
1976: Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (USA)
1976: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (USA) *
1979: A Dry White Season by Andre Brink (South Africa)
1979: Ghost Story by Peter Straub (USA)
1980: The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years by Chinghiz Aitmatov (Kyrgyzstan) *
1981: The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer (South Africa) **

1981: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr. (USA) **

1982: Software by Rudy Rucker (USA)
1983: The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek (Austria)
1988: Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong (Vietnam) *
1989: A Time to Kill by John Grisham (USA)
1991: Synners by Pat Cadigan (USA) ^
1991: The Famished Road by Ben Okri (Nigeria) *
1992: Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg (Denmark) *
1992: Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates (USA) *
1995: American Tabloid by James Ellroy (USA) *
1997: Underworld by Don DeLillo (USA) **
2001: The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (Australia) *
2002: Light by M. John Harrison (UK) *
2003: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller (UK) **
2003: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (Norway) *
2004: The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (UK) *
2004: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (USA) **
2005: Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link (USA) *
2006: World War Z by Max Brooks (USA) *
2007: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan)
2008: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Canada)
2008: Anathem by Neal Stephenson (USA)
2010: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (Japan)
2012: A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Angulusa (Angola) **
2012: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (UK) **
2013: Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus) *
2014: All the Light We Cannot Sea by Anthony Doerr (USA) *
2014: Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (Argentina) *
2014: Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra (Chile)
2015: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (UK) **
2015: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (USA) **
2016: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (USA)
2016: One Left by Kim Soom (South Korea) *
2017: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (USA) *
2018: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (USA)
2018: Normal People by Sally Rooney (Ireland) **
2019: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal el-Hotar and Max Gladstone (USA) *

2019: A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker (USA) **
2019: The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell (Zambia) **
2019: Wanderers by Chuck Wendig (USA)
2020: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (USA) *
2020: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (UK) **
2021: Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer (USA) ^

70 plays this round, a new personal best. I read almost twice as many women playwrights than I’d previously read, filling in some of my blind spots. As with the novels, I focused more on 21^st century than in the past. Only Kleist shows up on both list.

-472: The Persians by Aeschylus (Greece) ^
-414: The Birds by Aristophanes (Greece) ^
-417: Electra by Sophocles (Greece)
-405: The Bacchae by Euripedes (Greece)
-195: Menaechmi by Titus Plautus (Italy) ^
1429: The Well Cradle / Izutsu by Zeami Motokiyo (Japan)
1599: As You Like It by William Shakespeare (UK) ^
1613: The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster (UK) *
1626: Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford (UK)
1675: The Country Wife by William Wycherley (UK) *
1677: Phedre by Jean Racine (France) *
1730: Games of Love and Chance by Pierre Marivaux (France) *
1810: The Prince of Homburg by Heinrich von Kliest (Germany)
1882: An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen (Norway) *
1892: The Weavers by Gerhart Hauptmann (Germany) *
1900: Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov (Russia)
1905: Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw (Ireland) **
1907: The Bonds of Interest by Jacinto Benavente (Spain) **
1921: The Gas Heart by Tristan Tzara (France) ^
1928: Machinal by Sophie Treadwell (USA) *
1929: The Bedbug by Vladimir Mayakovsky (Russia)
1931: Tales from the Vienna Woods by Odon von Horvath (Hungary) ^
1935: Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot (UK)
1935: Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets (USA) ^
1936: You Can't Take It with You by George Kaufman (USA) ^
1939: The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman (USA) *
1939: The Time of Your Life by William Saroyan (USA)
1943: Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht (Germany) *
1951: Eli: A Mystery Play of the Sufferings of Israel by Nelly Sachs (Germany)
1952: The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco (France) ^
1952: The Lark by Jean Anouilh (France) **

1956: All That Fall by Samuel Beckett (Ireland)

1958: A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney (UK) *
1958: The Zoo Story by Edward Albee (USA)
1960: The Sultan's Dilemma by Tawfik al-Hakim (Egypt) *
1965: The Homecoming by Harold Pinter (UK)
1965: Saved by Edward Bond (UK) *
1965: The Memorandum by Vaclav Havel (Czechia) **
1969: What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton (UK) *
1975: The Nature and Purpose of the Universe by Christopher Durang (USA)
1976: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange (USA) **
1976: Streamers by David Rabe (USA) *
1978: Plenty by David Hare (UK) **
1978: Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill (UK) *
1982: The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard (UK) **
1983: Night, Mother by Marsha Norman (USA) *
1986: The Other Shore by Xingjian Gao (China) ^
1989: The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein (USA) **
1990: Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel (Ireland) *
1991: Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon (USA) **
1995: Blasted by Sarah Kane (UK) *
1997: The Weir by Conor McPherson (Ireland) *
1998: Copenhagen by Michael Frayn (UK) **
2000: Proof by David Auburn (USA) *
2001: Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks (USA) *
2003: The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh (Ireland) **
2004: Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl (USA)
2004: Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley (USA) **
2005: Blackbird by David Harrower (USA) *
2009: Ruined by Lynn Nottage (USA) *
2009: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety by Kristoffer Diaz (USA) *
2009: The Shipment by Young Jean Lee (USA)
2012: Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar (USA) *
2012: Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn (USA)
2012: The Effect by Lucy Prebble (USA) **
2013: Chimerica by Lucy Kirkwood (UK) **
2013: The Flick by Annie Baker (USA) **
2017: The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth (UK) *
2017: What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Shreck (USA) **
2018: Fairview by Jackie Drury (USA) **