100 Novels, Round 5

Every 100 novels I take a moment to journal what I’ve read, how my reading habits have changed, and crunch some stats. Last round was back in July 2016. I’m back now (Oct 2018) to report on round 5.

Last round I focused on ancient classics and plays. This round I focused on female authors and short stories. A few thoughts on both follow.

Only 29% and 22% of the novels in the previous rounds were written by women. I don’t think of myself as consciously sexist (I’m sure not many people do), but my overall novel reading is very gender skewed. I explicitly try to keep a varied and balanced diet of genre, style, date, country of origin, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., but I’ve probably put more focus on nationality than anything else. (Admittedly, my “balanced diet” claims break down when it comes to non-fiction, an aversion which I can't defend, but isn't about to change.) Reading older books pre-dating when women had even remotely equal opportunities to write and publish, years of “classics” as defined by pre-culture war gatekeepers, and differences in how books are marketed that continue to this day, are my go-to excuses.

This round I decided to maintain at least gender parity; finishing 55% women. I was curious to see if my overall quality ratings would change, more for what it would say about me than about the authors. Two thirds of the books I rated as “excellent” were by women (above what chance would predict), but also two thirds of the books I rated as “bad.” I suspect at least two things were at play: I was reading a lot of masterpieces that I’d previously overlooked because of personal or cultural gender bias, but also taking gambles on less likely bets trawling for overlooked greats. I have very little insight into which works I am failing to connect with because of a gender barrier in how I approach or appreciate literature so feel free to weigh in.

Books let us briefly walk in the shoes of others, but I believe there is also value in ensuring that everyone experiences the recognition of familiar people, practices, and circumstances in books read during schooling. I’m interested in opinions on how curricula and canons can develop with this in mind. Current discourse treats this as a zero-sum game, but some balance is clearly possible. For me, this round included resonating with new favorites Sigrid Undset, Nella Larsen, Eileen Chang, Isabel Allende, and Elena Ferrante while still enjoying “traditionally masculine” (and sometime publicly asshole-ish) authors like Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, and Marlon James.

As for short stories, here, once again, is a whole medium that I've disregarded and maligned (see previous victims: graphic novels and plays), and to whom I now issue a formal apology. Really diving into short stories, understanding their history, seeing how they differ in pacing, effect, and construction, and experiencing some of the form’s highlights, has been highly rewarding. While I scrupulously logged hundreds of individual stories (because, duh, this is me), I’ll save that for another post. For now I'll just mention that I finally read Rock Springs, the Pulitzer prize-winning short story collection set in the titular town where I briefly lived between rounds 2 and 3. It was fine.

My book club attendance is in a slump at the moment with the only semi-regular gig being Chance’s book club. The ratings there have batted a bit below average, including my own selections, but the friends, discussions, variety, and themed-food compensate.

The stats:

US: 37

UK: 24

Canada, New Zealand, Russia: 3

Austria, Chile, China, France, Japan, Nigeria: 2

Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belize, Botswana, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Senegal, South Korea, Ukraine: 1

This was my first time reading novels from New Zealand, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belize, Botswana, Guatemala, Jamaica, South Korea, and Ukraine. I’m at 59 countries, on my way to my goal of 100, despite an increasing tendency towards English-language novels.

I’ve seen movie adaptation of only 10 of these books, a record low. Of these, I would only strongly recommend three: Rebecca, Arrival (based on Story of Your Life), and The Handmaiden (based on Fingersmith).

Overall favorite: The Naked and the Dead

Best SF: The Wall & The Stories of Your Life and Other Stories

Best fantasy: The Name of the Wind

Best crime fiction: Rebecca & A Brief History of Seven Killings

Best romance: The Bone People, Kristin Lavransdatter & (with only a tinge of guilt) The Time Traveler's Wife

Best horror: The Willows

Best graphic novel: Beautiful Darkness

Best play: How I Learned to Drive

Best short story collection: Interpreter of Maladies & Burning Chrome

Best obscurity: The Seven Who Were Hanged (a Russian silver age novella revisiting Tolstoy’s themes from The Death of Ivan Ilyich. A wealthy politician, five terrorists, a criminal sociopath, and a violent madman confront death.)

Best premise: S. (Two aficionados of a reclusive author begin a friendship in the margins, literally, of his mysterious adventure tale), Beggars in Spain (Genetics creates a generation that no longer needs sleep), & Death and the Penguin (An obituary writer and his adopted penguin, a refugee of a Soviet state-run zoo, become entangled with the mafia)

Most wasted premise: The Invisible Library

Best story: Possession

Best character: Oblomov

Best prose: The Shipping News

Best structure: The Luminaries & The President

Most difficult: Blood and Guts in High School & 2666

Longest: 2666 & Kristin Lavransdatter

Funniest: The Code of the Woosters

Angriest: A Thousand Acres

Weirdest: The Palm-Wine Drinkard

Most fun: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Most depressing: The Seven Who Were Hanged & Rickshaw Boy

Most energetic: Like Water for Chocolate & Satanic Verses

Most emotional: The Neapolitan Quartet (sidenote: the individual volumes are in a 4-way tie for worst cover art) & Half a Lifelong Romance

Most ambiguous: The Luminaries

Most decadent: Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli

Most disappointing: Primeval and Other Times

Best title: Some Prefer Nettles

Key:

** Excellent

* Very Good

[blank] Fair to Good

^  Bad  

The List:

1353: The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (Italy) ^

1778: Evelina by Frances Burney (UK) ^

1794: The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (UK) ^

1818: Persuasion by Jane Austen (UK) *

1846: The Devil's Pool by George Sand (France) ^

1852: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (USA)

1859: Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov (Russia) **

1873: The Enchanted Wanderer by Nikolai Leskov (Russia) ^

1876: Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (UK) *

1890: The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen (UK)

1907: The Willows by Algernon Blackwood (UK) *

1908: The Seven Who Were Hanged by Leonid Andreyev (Russia) **

1920: Cheri by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (France)

1922: The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield (New Zealand) *

1922: Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (Norway) **

1926: Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli by Ronald Firbank (UK) *

1927: Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse (Germany) *

1928: The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (UK) *

1929: Passing by Nella Larsen (USA) **

1929: Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki (Japan) *

1931: The Waves by Virginia Woolf (UK)

1932: Radetzky March by Joseph Roth (Austria) *

1933: The President by Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala) *

1933: Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers (UK)

1933: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein (USA) ^

1936: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes (USA) ^

1937: Ali and Nino by Kurban Said (Azerbaijan) *

1937: Rickshaw Boy by Lao She (China) *

1938: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (UK) *

1938: The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse (UK) *

1939: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (UK)

1941: Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein (USA) ^

1948: Half a Lifelong Romance by Eileen Chang (China) *

1948: The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (USA) **

1952: The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola (Nigeria)

1953: Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (UK)

1954: Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandala (India) *

1956: A Death in the Family by James Agee (USA) **

1956: Zama by Antonio di Benedetto (Argentina) ^

1957: The Waiting Years by Fumiko Enchi (Japan) *

1957: The Assistant by Bernard Malamud (USA) *

1960: The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien (Ireland) *

1962: The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer (USA) *

1963: The Wall by Marlen Haushofer (Austria) **

1964: The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning (UK) ^

1967: Ice by Anna Kavan (UK)

1969: Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock (UK)

1969: Them by Joyce Carol Oates (USA) **

1970: Time and Again by Jack Finney (USA) ^

1972: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (USA) **

1973: A Question of Power by Bessie Head (Botswana)

1981: So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba (Senegal)

1982: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (Chile) **

1982: Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell (Belize) *

1984: Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker (USA) ^

1984: The Wasp Factory by Iain M. Banks (UK)

1984: Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter (UK) *

1984: The Bone People by Keri Hulme (New Zealand) **

1985: Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade by Assia Djebar (Algeria)

1986: Burning Chrome by William Gibson (Canada) *

1986: Replay by Ken Grimwood (USA) *

1987: Rock Springs by Richard Ford (USA)

1987: The Bonfire of the Vanitites by Tom Wolfe (USA) **

1988: Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood (Canada) **

1988: Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (UK) *

1989: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Mexico) *

1990: Possession by A.S. Byatt (UK) **

1991: Regeneration by Pat Barker (USA) *

1991: Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold (USA)

1991: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (USA) **

1993: Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress (USA)

1993: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (USA) **

1995: The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay (Canada) *

1995: The Door by Magda Szabo (Hungary) *

1996: Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov (Ukraine) *

1996: Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) ^

1997: Because They Wanted To by Mary Gaitskill (USA) *

1999: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (USA) **

2000: Pastoralia by George Saunders (USA)

2002: Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (USA) **

2002: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (USA) *

2002: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (UK) *

2003: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffengger (USA) *

2004: 2666 by Roberto Bolano (Chile) *

2005: Old Man's War by John Scalzi (USA)

2006: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) *

2007: The Vegetarian by Han Kang (South Korea) *

2007: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (USA) *

2009: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (UK)

2011: Wool by Hugh Howey (USA)

2011: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (USA) ^

2012: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain (USA) **

2013: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (New Zealand) **

2013: S. by Doug Dorst (USA) *

2014: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (Jamaica) *

2015: The Sellout by Paul Beatty (USA)

2015: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman (UK) ^

2015: The Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante (USA) **

2015: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (USA) ^

2016: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (USA) *

Plays

1518: The Mandrake by Niccolo Machiavelli (Italy) ^

1623: The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare (UK) *

1773: She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith (Ireland) *

1779: Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (Germany) **

1892: The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen (Norway) *

1902: The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky (Russia)

1908: The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgium) *

1924: Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey (Ireland) ^

1953: Picnic by William Inge (USA) ^

1955: The Trojan War Will Not Take Place by Jean Giraudoux (France) *

1956: Look Back in Anger by John Osborne (UK) ^

1960: A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt (UK) *

1970: Dream on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott (Saint Lucia)

1972: Information for Foreigners by Griselda Gambaro (Argentina) ^

1975: American Buffalo by David Mamet (USA) *

1978: Buried Child by Sam Shepard (USA) *

1997: How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel (USA) **

2004: Fat Pig by Neil Labute (USA)

Graphic Novels:

1989: Batman: Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison (UK)

2004: We3 by Grant Morrison (UK)

2005: Cinema Panopticum by Thomas Ott (Switzerland) ^

2006: The Photographer by Emmanuel/Didier Guibert/Lefevre (France)

2006: Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan (USA) *

2007: Laika by Nick Abadzis (UK)

2012: Dockwood by Jon McNaught (UK)

2014: Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann/Kerascoet (France) **