For me the year starts in fall. Not only is that when school begins, but my birthday's in October. And we all know the magical, nostalgic feeling a dying summer begins, along with the wishes for the brightness of spring. So even though 2024 isn't actually over, this feels like the most appropriate time to muse over the literature consumed this year.
Pile of books in my room, including all the books we read in Humane Letters this year.
So in no particular order - here's just a few books I read this year that I had something to say about.
(May contain spoilers).
1. The Great Gatsby (read in school) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I'd read excerpts from this before, in a guidebook to writing fiction, so I had a general idea of the cast: dreamy Daisy, mysterious Gatsby, and the mostly insignificant narrator. Most people in my class seemed to have strong feelings about it - it was either the best book of the year, or easily rejected for how "weirdly" and "suddenly" it ended. I have trouble forming a strong opinion. It was simply an experience. The style was as romantic and breezy as Daisy, but also just as vivid and, unlike Daisy, self-conscious. What mostly comes to mind now are images - brightly colored dancers like flowers in Gatsby's back yard, Nick and Jordan embracing in the street at night, an unbearably stuffy party at Myrtle's apartment.
As for the themes and plot of the book? I'm sure enough has already been written about this classic that there's nothing new I could say. But the ending made sense to me. The whole point is that the characters were living in a dream, a delusion, a constant dissatisfaction that none of their desperation would free them from - a shortcut from nothing to nothing. So that was the only way it could end.
A few favorite lines:
"The late afternoon sky blossomed in the window for a moment like the blue honey of the Mediterranean - then the shrill voice of Mrs. McKee called me back into the room" (Chapter II).
"But his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot. The most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night. A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the wash-stand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor. Each night he added to the pattern of his fancies until drowsiness closed down upon some vivid scene with an oblivious embrace. For a while this reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy's wing" (Chapter VI).
"She was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented 'place' that Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island fishing village - appalled by its raw vigor that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short cut from nothing to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand" (Chapter VI).
2. The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien
It's been my intention to reread The Lord of the Rings for a while now, and the impetus finally came when my sister wanted to watch Two Towers: The Extended Edition and I found a copy of the book a day or two later at Goodwill. I bought the copy firstly because I needed those books for myself - secondly, because I saw the previous owner had highlighted some things and I was curious what they had found important. It turns out they'd just highlighted anything Legolas says or does.
The Lord of the Rings is the kind of work to get better and richer every time you read it. It's obviously too much to absorb in the first read, so they get worked into your system overtime. With increased familiarity the books have lost a bit of their "stuffiness" and feel warm and indulgently comforting. Even watching Sam and Frodo wandering over desolate mountains and the Dead Marshes, with a simpering Gollum as their guide, and dim hope for the future - it's hard to despair when Sam steps in with commentary on cooking methods or the nature of great stories, or when the light of Galadriel's Phial pierces the darkness of Cirith Ungol: "For a moment it glimmered, faint as a rising star struggling in heavy earthward mists, and then as its power waxed, and hope grew in Frodo's mind, it began to burn, and kindled to a silver flame, a minute heart of dazzling light, as though Eärendil had himself come down from the high sunset paths with the light of the last Silmaril on his brow (Book IV, Chapter IX)."
3. Dearest Josephine by Caroline George
Here we have not a classic, but a young adult fiction book, published in 2021. I am wary of this genre, having spent time digging through YA sections that felt equivalent to wading through trash cans. But luckily I have friends to help me navigate through it. This is a book a friend of mine sent me as a birthday present last year, it being one of her favorites. The book concerns a young woman named Josie hiding away in a small village in England before deciding what to do with her life. In the aged manor her late father bequeathed her, she discovers letters and a novel left there by a previous resident, Elias, and through them finds a companion in this lonely period of her life - along with her friend Faith, with whom she is mending a friendship. A fine concept, but let's see, how well was it executed?
On my first read, I was ambivalent and mostly disdainful. The style felt elementary, cheesy, the plot seemed to drag on. But when I reread it this summer, having let down my expectations, something clicked. Dearest Josephine is a perfect novel for the time of life I'm in right now (in the same way Birdy's Young Heart is a perfect album). Instead of writing a polished description of why, here's the outburst I sent to my friend over text upon having finished it.
"Well, I reread it....And appreciated it more than I did the first time. It seems I'm finally getting to the point in my life where books can actually impact me, can leave some kind of a bruise on my stony soul. Yes, this book is cheesy, but underneath that exterior it's simultaneously crushingly realistic and overwhelmingly romantic. Overall, it's just so full. I got bored with the length the first time and with the constantly changing states of the characters, as well as the sheer amount of different plot lines and relationships to track, but now that's what makes it so impactful, because it mirrors the messiness of real life. It captures the fear of change and the impossibility of knowing the future and the long slow painful waiting for some un-self-initiatable resolution to the story... waiting for a daydream to become reality.... waiting for the climactic kiss to shock you awake from your century-long helpless slumber...
It also makes me crave sleepy village life and rambling correspondences and love letters and a greater love for tea and early mornings in the countryside. Another cozy book to curl up in... one I'll probably get more from every time I read it."
4. Aria of the Sea by Dia Calhoun
Aria of the Sea has taken the title of my "favorite book" for a long time. Obviously it's impossible to ever really choose a favorite book, and the existence of book series complicates things - the Harry Potter series and Andrew Peterson's Wingfeather Saga would be rivals for this spot. Regardless, even after years this book has stayed in my heart. I've never read anything else quite like it.
The book is about a young girl named Cerinthe (a gorgeous name that I've often adopted for my own use on internet profiles) whose dream is to be a dancer. She lives in the archipelago kingdom of Windward, hailing from the small island of Normost, but gets the chance to study at the School of Royal Dancers in Faranor, the kingdom's capital. The most important things to her are her dancing; the memory of her departed mother; Thordon, a cute boy she met on the voyage over; and the voice of the Sea Maid, daughter of the Goddess Nemaree, whose singing she has heard all her life during her life on Normost. The plot is excellent and the fantasy worldbuilding strangely delicate - not overstated, but unique enough to give an exotic flavor to the story. It's a great story about determination, devotion, enmity, creativity, and most of all, vocation. How many children's fantasy novels are there about that???
5. How to Write About Music edited by Marc Woodworth and Ally-Jane Grossan
The fifth and final book I want to mention isn't a novel, but rather a guidebook I bought earlier this year. How to Write About Music is composed of "excerpts from the 33 1/3 series, magazines, books, and blogs with advice from industry-leading writers." In other words, it's a book about music journalism, filled with samples and bits of advice from people who apparently make their living by writing about music?? The idea of music journalism appeals to me but not in a realistic way - rather, it just sounds romantic and racy to spend one's life chasing after a new band or how to put the proper spin on an album review. Also - who reads what people write about music anyway? Me and the authors of this book, apparently. So I enjoy having it around for the sake of their companionship.
Here's a brief quote from the introduction by Marc Woodworth, which covered some ideas worth pondering.
"The 'writing about music is like dancing about architecture' canard may be witty enough to stick. It may even suggest something of the difficulty of the job. Still, I'd rather welcome than dismiss a priori a good dance about architecture, just as I'd welcome a masterful film made from a book, or an opera based on international diplomacy. Unlike expressions cross-pollinate and bring unexpected forms into being... It's precisely in that gap between arts that the possibility of making something worthwhile might best be realized."
~~~
I read a lot of other great books, too: 1984 by George Orwell, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis, Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, The Martian by Andy Weir, Blood And Moonlight by Erin Beaty (another rare great YA fantasy book!), among others. So that was my year. I hope, that if it at least didn't suggest some recommendations, that this list at least prompted you to think more about what you read, why you like it, and what makes it good.
Happy Fall!