Top 10 Books of 2009
By Kurt Wenzel
(12/24/2009) Of course it is impossible for one person to read every book published in a given year, or to approach even a fraction of those books. So the term “best of” is probably deceiving (as it almost always is). Instead it may be better to think of this as the “greatest hits” list of an avid, even obsessional, reader — though one who comes to you with the usual set of personal, political, and aesthetic prejudices.
You may also notice that more than a few of these titles appear on other top 10 lists. I offer this as proof that I’m not completely shooting in the dark here, and that there may be more of a general consensus when it comes to good writing than one would like to admit.
If these are not the 10 “best,” whatever that may mean, I am confident they are 10 pretty darn good ones.
So the hope for this list is modest: that you might find a title or two here that you hadn’t considered before, and if you decide to pick one up, I might have had a small hand in helping you discover a few hours of pleasure during the long Hamptons winter.
“The Moment
of Psycho”
David Thomson
Basic Books, $22.95
The superlative film critic David Thomson argues that it was Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” released in 1960, that unleashed America’s cinematic id. Certainly the film’s confluence of sex, violence, and horror was unprecedented, and Mr. Thomson asserts that Hitchcock both uncovered, and nurtured, our taste for lurid material.
Even more fascinating is how the author is willing to explore what the medium’s liberation ultimately wrought. “All too often,” says Mr. Thomson, speaking of film violence in the decades that followed, “it was a ‘fun ride’ separated from pain, damage, and consequence.” “The Moment of Psycho” is brave enough to give us not only a portrait of Hitchcock’s genius, but also its corollary — the erosion of American innocence.
“Cheever: A Life”
Blake Bailey
Knopf, $35
The writer John Cheever made a career out of ripping the veneer off postwar suburban life. In “Cheever: A Life” we learn the impetus: the writer’s own fractured marriage, simultaneously repressed and indulged homosexuality, and astonishing bouts of drinking. Mr. Bailey’s account is also a fascinating portrait of suburban family life in the 1960s, where the subject’s life takes us to depths even “Mad Men” fears to tread.
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“Lark and Termite”
Jayne Anne Phillips
Knopf, $24
Something of a comeback for the author, who has never been able to duplicate the success of her highly celebrated 1980 novel, “Machine Dreams.” In “Lark and Termite,” Jayne Anne Phillips’s poetic prose doesn’t quite reach the heights of Faulkner, but her damaged West Virginia family, and the author’s use of inhabiting her character’s innermost thoughts, invite legitimate comparisons to “The Sound and the Fury.”
“Inherent Vice”
Thomas Pynchon
Penguin Press, $27.95
A stoner detective novel set in early ’70s California. With “Inherent Vice” Thomas Pynchon abandons the byzantine poetic and intellectual flourishes that bolster (or weigh down, depending on your perspective) his major works. “Inherent Vice” is fast and friendly reading, with a satisfying mystery at its core — even if its debt to “The Big Lebowski” is glaringly obvious.
“The Myth of the
Rational Market”
Justin Fox
HarperBusiness, $27.99
Further proof that the term “free market” is an oxymoron. By scrutinizing the history of economic theory and various market collapses, Justin Fox gives us the ultimate metaphor: that the market is itself human, designed by us, and therefore never rational. The author proves that vanity, group-think, and out and out greed never fail to corrode economic formula, and argues for government regulation. Send an extra copy to Ben Bernanke for the holidays.
“Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned”
Wells Tower
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, $24
The debut story collection that every M.F.A. writing student was reading this year. It is also a searing portrait of a troubled America, told mainly through its depiction of out-of-luck men. The writing is beautifully controlled, and the title story even has a message fit for the holidays: A maimed young woman shows a band of bloodthirsty Vikings the path of peace and love. (And then how can you go wrong with a writer named Wells Tower?)
“Robert Altman:
The Oral Biography”
Mitchell Zuckoff
Knopf, $35
As the director of some of Hollywood’s finest films, including “M*A*S*H,” “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” and “The Player,” Robert Altman was a true American maverick. Mitchell Zuckoff’s biography tries to capture the story through voices only, splicing together interviews with various associates and friends, not to mention Altman himself, whom Mr. Zuckoff interviewed just before his death in 2006.
As with all oral biographies, the method can seem chaotic at times but is in many ways perfectly suited for a subject like the unruly Altman. Most unsettling moment? Altman telling his children that in a choice between them and his movies, he’d take the movies.
“Under the Dome”
Stephen King
Scribner, $35
A mysterious force field envelops a small town in Maine, sealing off its inhabitants from the world and throwing their lives into a Darwinian struggle. While this is yet another great set piece by the master of horror, it also contains some of Stephen King’s most character-driven writing. The villain, Big Jim Rennie, is a truly scary figure, a sanctimonious, blowhard politician who exerts his will over the townspeople with an ad hoc police force and a lucrative crystal meth business. The novel is not only one of Mr. King’s best, but also a testimony to his astonishing productivity, which is unprecedented in American fiction.
“The Year of the Flood”
Margaret Atwood
Nan A. Talese, $26.95
Humans try to survive after a series of natural disasters threatens to end all life on earth. Heard this one before? Margaret Atwood’s mastery of hard science makes her approach as fresh as this scenario is familiar — and chillingly plausible. Half lamb-lions, sheep with human hair, and pigs with human brain tissue run amok alongside various criminals, sex workers, and corporate thugs.
A companion piece to her 2002 dystopian novel, “Oryx and Crake,” “The Year of the Flood” comes with perfect timing for the Copenhagen climate conference.
“The Humbling”
Philip Roth
Houghton Mifflin, $22
The tale of a washed-up stage actor whose life is rejuvenated by his affair with a much younger woman. . . . Oh to be Philip Roth. Some were put off by the novel’s graphic sex scenes, but the hero Simon Axler’s confrontation with aging and death is worth the cringing. Just ask Al Pacino, who has optioned “The Humbling” and will play Axler in the film.
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Kurt Wenzel’s novels include “Lit Life” and, most recently, “Exposure.” He lives in Springs.