I am an admitted fan of lists, all reasonable objections to them be damned. Since the staff of The Journal has returned to the mother ship from their far-flung holiday destinations, I’ve been polling them as to what were the best works they read in the past year. I made no bones about genre (as in poetry, fiction, non-fiction), genre (as in sci-fi, mystery, etc) or date of publication—as long as it was read in the year 2011. Needless to say I’ve had to edit piles of adult content out of the responses, but below I’ve listed what remained from that winnowing. Enjoy!
Nick McRae, Poetry Review Editor: Unholy Sonnets, Mark Jarman
“The best book I read in 2011 was Mark Jarman’s collection, published in 2000. I’d read many of the sonnets in other venues, but I’d never sat down with the full collection until this past year. The poems are beautiful and were exactly what I needed at that moment, as I had myself recently begun working on a group of sonnets dealing with Christian mythology and spirituality. Jarman’s book helped me think about the subject from an angle I hadn’t considered. It has had a huge impact on my writing already.”
Dominic Russ, Fiction and Nonfiction Review Editor: Suttree, Cormac McCarthy
“Often conceptualized as the intersection between the “Nighttown” of Ulysses and the picaresque meanderings of other river narratives such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Suttree, which took Cormac McCarthy thirty years to write, blends high narrative, artifice, and verbosity with the sundry world of the booze hounds and grifters that haunted the dregs of Knoxville in the early 1950s. As brooding and dark as it is funny, McCarthy’s prose strips the natural world of any romanticism, allowing the reader to perceive the earth in its brutal and unblemished abundance.”
Alex Fabrizio, Production Manager: Ulysses, James Joyce
“I’d never read it before the brilliant summer class offered at Ohio State, which was taught by the brilliant Sebastian Knowles, and I’m so glad—what a way to get introduced to this hilarious, bizarre, and ingenius piece of writing.”
Daniel Carter, Design Editor/Web Developer: Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link
“Strangely, one of the most memorable books I picked up this year is something I’ve read at least a few times before. I don’t even love all those stories in it that much, but the title story is one of those things that seems able to be disturbingly relevant to whatever year or life situation you’re in. I look forward to reading it again in 2015.”
Michael Marberry, Associate Poetry Editor: Ray, Barry Hannah; The Wild Iris, Louise Gluck
Mr. Marberry didn’t give rationales for his picks, but I’ve heard tell he doesn’t read any fiction by writers born north of Tennessee/Alabama border, so Barry Hannah makes sense. Marberry’s second pick is a collection of poetry by Louise Gluck from 1993, a wonderful poet who even a laymen like me has had chance to read—I expect her new collection lives up to the rest of her work.
Silas Hansen, Associate Nonfiction Editor: Salvation on Sand Mountain, Dennis Covington
“Covington’s book was published way back in 1995, but is still one of the best examples of immersion journalism/narrative nonfiction I’ve found. I love how he shows such compassion for the people in the book—snake handlers in Southern Appalachia—and paints them in such complex and interesting ways. He never takes the easy way out, and I was drawn in by his prose from page 1. Great book, even if you think you’re not the least bit interested in the subject.”
Nick White, Associate Fiction Editor: The Aspern Papers, Henry James; The Ghost Writer, Phillip Roth
“Written over a century ago, James’s novella is practically perfect in every way. Immensely readable, the story centers around a literary critic’s attempt to woo two old spinsters in the hope to obtain rare letters penned by a poet he admires. James is a master of scene and detail.
“Like The Aspern Papers, The Ghost Writer is an oldy but a goody. If you are a writer (or like to think, like me, that you will one day grow up to become one), this book will fascinate. Roth is a master, and I will read anything that he writes; in fact, reading this book has inspired me to go through the whole Zuckerman series.”
Tory Adkisson, Poetry Editor: Rookery, Traci Brimball; Beautiful in the Mouth, Keetje Kuipers
“I read many books in 2011, so many that my best book is actually a tie between two dazzling debut poetry collections. Both poets write about the erotic in ways that make me insanely jealous—their figuration is masterful, their intelligence measured, their attitudes replete with a sultry swagger that’s otherwise difficult to define. Kuipers may be more a poet of place—her Oregon, New York, Montana, and everywhere else are each imbued with an incredible, lived-in sensual depth, while Brimhall is a poet of mythic consciousness—just check out her poem in the voice of Odysseus’s maids cleaning up the carnage of his battle with Penelope’s suitors! Both books left indelible impressions on me, and gave me models of what to strive for as I am just starting to work on a draft of my first book.”
Alex Streiff, Fiction Editor: Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee and Tsim Tsum, Sabrina Orah Mark
“I remember after reading the first page of Disgrace while still in the bookstore, I stopped and said, probably a bit too loudly: ‘This is a fucking writer.’
Tsim Tsum is breathtaking in it’s ability to mix the humorous and the beautiful. It’s a profoundly fun read.”
I’ve mentioned elsewhere that my favorite book of 2011 was Tea Oberht’s The Tiger’s Wife, but I expect I’ve already flapped my gums too much about that novel—she doesn’t need the extra sales at this point.
Well there you have it ladies and gentlemen. We here at The Journal will get our noses back in the books where they belong, and we’ll see you back here in a year or so. Sound good?