Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Whether she’s writing about The London Blitz or the life of a middle-aged detective, Atkinson is brilliant. Her writing twists and turns and then makes another twist. She’s the master of using simple words in complicated ways.
Sometimes I stop and marvel at one of her sentences and try to figure out how she put it together; it’s like trying to dissect a stopwatch. Her female characters are especially wonderful. “Life After Life” follows one of them, Ursula Todd, through every different possible outcome of her life; it’s a sort of sophisticated version of “Choose Your Own Adventure.”
This might sound like a peculiar device, but it becomes a fascinating and emotional meditation on fate and destiny. This is one of my very favorite books. I loved it so much that I started rereading it as soon as I finished it.
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Does anyone write the way Esi Edugyan does? Every one of her sentences dances on the page. The writing is so animated and fresh that you feel like it is its own new language. The book follows a boy who escapes slavery in Barbados in a hot-air balloon.
He and his companion and the woman who had protected him in Barbados are beautiful characters, and the story soars, but the real star is Edugyan’s voice. I can’t wait to read more from her.
Regeneration by Pat Barker
“Regeneration” is one part of a trilogy about World War I, and all three of them are spectacular. The books focus on two characters – a working class kid who becomes an officer in the British Army, and a doctor who is responsible for treating traumatized soldiers and “curing” them so they can be sent back into battle.
I don’t know how she does it, but Barker makes you feel as if she had been in the front lines of the war. The writing is dense and deep and gorgeous. I think about these books all the time. Be warned that they do take a lot of concentration, but the rewards are enormous.
Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion
This is the book that made me want to write non-fiction. It’s a perfect hybrid of reporting with writing that just… dazzles. Every image is as crisp as a photograph, and every sentence is lean and elegant. I read this for the first time in college and my course in life was set: after I read it, I just wanted to do what Joan Didion was doing.
I reread it at least once a year, and I keep it on my desk when I’m writing and flip through it all the time, reading sections here and there. It still inspires me.
Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill
This novel is written like a series of brief dispatches, which at first seem disjointed and random, but slowly build on each other to create the portrait of a failing marriage. The book has a dream-like, fragmented quality, and yet, almost magically, the story feels complete and rich.
I have no idea how Offill has done it. It’s amazing how tiny bits can cohere into such a powerful whole. I read the book in one gulp and it has lingered with me ever since.
