Melinda's Top Ten Book Picks for 2017

The following are my favorite books for the year so far listed in alphabetical order by author:


1.   American writer Judd Apatow's "Sick in the Head"  Interviews of top comedians

2.   Irish author Sara Baume's "A Line Made by Walking"

3.   American author Chris Bachelder 's "The Throwback Special

4.   Irish author Sebastian Barry's "Days Without End"

5.   American author Paul Beatty's  "The Sellout"

6.   Israeli author David Grossman's "A Horse Walked into a Bar'

7.    Irish author Patrick McCabe's "The Butcher Boy"

8.    Indian author Karan Mahajan's "The Association of Small Bombs"

9.    American writer George Saunders' "Lincoln at the Bardot"

10.  Scottish author Ali Smith "Autumn"

Israeli Author David Grossman's Novel "A Horse Walked into a Bar" The Human Comedy of Grief & Guilt

Israeli writer David Grossman (b Israel 1954) is a highly acclaimed & awarded writing of both fiction & non-fiction.  His most recent novel "A Horse Walked into a Bar" received the Int'l Man Booker Prize 2017.  This is a novel of trenchant searching for the unique essence of each individual, "that thing that comes out of person without his control."  Grossman's profound genius for storytelling is artful & impassioned.  He spins a complex yarn that threads together 3 lives in a masterful game of chess.  Dovelah Greenstein is the star of this show.  He's a standup comic with a routine that includes a litany of jokes "A horse walks into a bar and asks the barman for a Goldstar on tap." One of  many running comedy bits that start but veer off, not into a laughable punchline but quixotically through his pathetic & self-effacing life.  In the audience is a retired prestigious judge,  Avishai Lazar, with whom Dovelah remembers as having a brief but meaningful friendship in their youth.  The great thing about humor, sometimes it allows you to laugh allowing for a brief reprieve from torment.  The clever contrivance of novel unfolds relentlessly over one standup routine Dovelan delivers with the intent of obtaining some validity or penance from his old friend whom he's not seen in 4 decades.  Dovelah is a rapacious raconteur able to elicit a connection with his audience that stirs up a murky pleasure both sickening & alluring.  The reader becomes captive to Dovelah's routine; a loose camouflage to convey the oppressive guilt & remorse he endures.  Avishai surprises himself by agreeing to come to listen & staying for Dovelah outpourings on stage.  Avishai is jolted into recalling memories of his life which have been suppressed and the grief he harbors for his wife.  He consents to provide a brief "judicial" reckoning for Dovelah from watching his performance art.  Both men are surprised by the presence of a diminutive woman in the audience who recalls Dovelah as the kind boy in her neighborhood who walked on his hands giving a topsy-turvy view on things.  She adds her own adamant vantage of the boy she remembers.  The consummate force of this remarkable work is how it grasps the reader with its stunning recognition of what it means to survive.  Just to be alive, how subversive it is and what a rare treasure to be able to experience life.   "A Horse Walked in a Bar" is a strenuous journey through life's suffering mitigated with the miracles of love & laughter.   I recommend reading this novel & nominating Grossman for a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Collected Short Stories by Roxane Gay "Difficult Women" Well Written but Painful to Read

Roxane Gay is a writer of great skill & creative genius.  Her collection of short stories "Difficult Women" were all impregnable & deeply disturbing.  I was fascinated & repelled by her powerful short stories.  Her troubling tropes all tie in with themes that make life difficult for women.  Once I succumbed to her omnipotence as a storyteller I surrendered to horrific subjects of physical abuse, sexual abuse and a base animalistic nature possessed by women that harbors incredible rage & anger. Gay writes convincingly of the transparency of women except as sexual object.  Several of Gay's stories deal with the immense agony of losing one's child & the guilt that can only be mitigated seeking penance by being brutally beaten or sexually molested.  Interestingly, Gay writes often about children without siblings whose parents only had enough love for one child.  Twins appeared to be the only ones able to love selflessly & maintain healthy relationships.  For the most part, there was a plan for escape from relationships or a need to push a loved one away.   Gay confronts racism & "jungle fever" a lust for women of color.  Brown enough to satisfy sexual desires but not too dark as to be considered unattractive of problematic.  Prejudice is seen as being passed from generation to generation.  There was an overall oppressiveness to Gay's stories.   Even a mother's misguided words or advice prove excruciating.  A mother mourning her child killed in an accident is blamed by her mother "How could you let this happen."   The stories are over wrought with rage, violence resentment and self-loathing.  In addition to the hostilities & self-destruction is the pall of despair & worthlessness in many ways handed down from the mother.  One mother shares her misguided wisdom "You make friends with the ugliest kid in your class and you make friends with the loneliest kids in your class.  The ones off by themselves.  They will be the best friends you've ever had and they will make you feel better about yourself."  And the advice one mother gives her daughter for holding onto her man, "No mystery to keeping a man.  You do whatever sick thing he wants, when he wants and you'll never have a problem."  I have no quarrel with the expertise of Gay's piercing stories that cut like a knife.  However, the stories are grim, depressing & upsetting.  These stories are not for the tame.  

Irish Author Sara Baume's "A Line Made by Walking" - Art and Sadness which Last Forever

The last line of Irish writer Sara Baume's (b UK) entertaining & intellectual melancholy novel "Art and sadness which last forever" resonate throughout this captivating book.  The novel's narrator Frankie speaks directly to the reader and cuts deeply into the human soul.  Frankie is a 25 yr old art school graduate who has been dealing with a deep sorrow since childhood.  Now at 25, she has cut herself off from social interactions except for her always understanding & supportive mother.   Frankie knows she must accept that her want of artistic accomplishment has not led to creative genius and she must stop her perpetual bereavement for lack of talent.  She is also still grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother.  Frankie persuades her mother to allow her to reside in her grandmother's remote home until it can be sold.  This only leads Frankie further down the rabbit hole of isolation & despair.   She has construed a photographic art project of shooting only animals she discovers in their demise.   With impactful encounters or emotions, Frankie tests her knowledge of artists' works that share a significance.  Baume's cleverly construed novel is an interesting foray into the art world as well as into the troubled pscyche of a very disturbed & self-destructive young woman.  Frankie wants to live her life at the basest level of engagement taking up as little space in the world as possible.  Frankie never achieved the notoriety of artist claim she sought but Sara Baum's "A Line Made by Walking" is an arresting, exceptionally impassioned work that delves plea for art's importance in the world; best art achieves is to uncover what is unrecoverable.  And, thoughtfully considers the worth every individual brings into the framework of humanity.  The last painting that Vincent Van Gogh (VVG) completed depicts with excruciating beauty an angry churning sky, tall yellow stalks, a grass green & mud-brown path cutting through the stalks, tapering into the distance, a line made by walking.  The last words spoken by VVG to his brother "The sadness will last forever."

Judd Apatow's "Sick in the Head" A Fascinating Compilation of His Interviews with Celebrity Comedians

Judd Apatow ("Knocked Up" & "This is 40") was obsessively drawn to comedy as a boy.  His insatiable fascination with comedians led to an audacious drive to connect with his comic heroes & interview them.  As high school student in the early 1980s he sought & graciously received numerous interviews from the humorists & entertainers at the highest echelons:  Garry Shandling, Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Allen & Martin Short to name just a few.  The comedy legends he interviewed as a teen, he revisits as an adult with a successful career in filmmaking, comedy writing and TV producing.  These  interviews are invaluable and should placed in the Smithsonian Institute & the Broadcast Hall of Fame.  They are invaluable with genuine warmth, mutual respect, helpful advice, intelligence, candor & wit.  The analysis by these comic celebrities of their crafts and work processes are contemplative & insightful.  Apatow's natural ability to converse & elicit information from the most successful & funniest entertainers of the last 3 decades is nothing short of miraculous.  The book has interviews from the funniest people on the planet:  Mel Brooks, James L. Brooks, Albert Brooks, Martin Short, Key & Peel, Steve Martin & Mike Nichols.  There are also many interviews with female comics & writers:  Lena Dunham, Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer to name a few.  Judd writes an intro for each individual telling us of his admiration for the person & any personal relationship.  Apatow & Sandler were roommates as struggling comics in their early 20's.  The enduring relationships Apatow maintains throughout his career is admirable and the creative genius these artists possess is enviable.   Some of the comics dealt with their own demons and were forthright in discussing.  (Apatow whined too much about being a child from a divorced household.  Boo hoo hoo, get over it).  Regardless, reading these intimate behind the scenes dialogues with comic geniuses is endlessly fascinating.  The craft of writing & performing is revelatory and exceptionally entertaining.  This is as close as mere mortals can get to being included into the camaraderie of comic megastars.  The spirit of generosity & encouragement among these talented artists is magical & heartwarming.  The ability to make others laugh is arguably the most wonderful gift someone can share with the world.  I strongly urge everyone to read "Sick in the Head" and argue these precious recordings be placed into our national treasure troves for posterity.            

Irish Writer Sebastian Barry's "Days Without End" An Endless Odyssey of Grandeur & Devastation

Sebastian Barry (b Ireland 1955) is considered one of Ireland most distinguished authors & poets.  His eloquent stories are mainly set in his native Ireland.  "Days Without End" is a remarkable, historic epic.  Our hero is Irish born Thomas McNulty.  He shares his life story starting with his  sadistic trans Atlantic crossing in a cargo ship to the U.S.  He sails alone as a young man in the early 19th C.  "A man's memory might have only a 100 clear days in it & he has lived thousands."  Thomas must fend for himself in the harsh new world.  Tom's indefatigable human will gives homage to surviving as a victory.  He has a strange & fateful encounter with a young John Cole.  In Cole, he finds a "Friend for a whole life.  We were two wood-shavings of humanity in a rough world."  Together the two journey through an extraordinary odyssey.  They experience the savagery of battle for the Union Army.  After the war they enlist as troopers & ordered to annihilate the Indians.  During the Civil War Tom notes "Killing the Confederates was not like running at Indians who are not your kind but it is running at a mirror of yourself."  After the War, "Our work was to be the Indians.  People wanted rid of them.  Wanted them routed out."  Tom understood they were plain & simple killers; like no other killers that had ever been.  The pain & injustice never set right in their hearts.  Amidst the carnage & mayhem, Tom & John found their passion for each other in an unknown realm as lovers.  They also forged a paternal bond for an Indian girl whose entire tribe was slaughtered by their troops.  Together, they raise her lovingly as their daughter.  Barry is an exceptionally gifted writer.  In "Days Without End, Tom's voice is reminiscent of the free thinking Huck Finn, one who sees the ills in the world but dares to carve his own courageous path of love, friendship and decency.  I strongly recommend this finely crafted & beautifully told tale.  

The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan-Listed for Nat'l Book Award

Karan Mahajan was born in American in 1984 and raised in India.  His 2nd novel "The Association of Small Bombs" earned him an Anisfield-Wolf Award ('17) and was long listed for this year's Nat'l Book Award.   The ambitious storytelling is told from a cast of characters, from victims to terrorists.  The havoc of the deadly explosions is powerful.  The aftermath of the carnage is felt from the survivors, their families and from the perpetrators.  Frustration, hostility and swift illogical vengeance are at the corrosive center of this devastating novel.  The perpetual quest for reprisal & vindication for violence give this novel its unrelenting pulse.  Mahajan's characters are religious zealots or dissociated people grasping for meaning in their lives.  The prison system is unveiled for its corrupt & horrific systematic  torture.  The novel takes an oppressive position of violence.  The world needs to function through force & brutality.  The ability to make people empathize felt futile.   "I had always thought you had to educate others about your pain, show them how to solve it.  Now I realize you have to make them feel it."  Mahajan refers to 9/11 as a more heroic endeavor in arousing awareness than perpetual bombings that take the lives of fewer people.  The writing is gripping and intelligent.  Still, I found this a burdensome read that left me tattered.  "People say 9/11 was the worst terror attack of all time-was it?  I think the small bombs that we hear about all the time, that go off in unknown markets, killing five or six, are worse.  They concentrate the pain on the lives of a few.  Better to kill generously rather than stingily."  The irrational perpetuating thirst for revenge rather than peaceful discourse of reason proved omnipotent.