December 2020 Books
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Sometimes when I write these blog posts about my monthly reading, they seem to me to become a kind of diary. December was tough for all sorts of reasons and I feel like I don't remember much of it as a result. Similarly, these books feel remote and somewhat tainted by my state of mind (should Rosewater have gone in my top books of the year? Or That Reminds Me? Would they have if I'd read them at a different time? It's impossible to tell until I reread them). But I have done my best to refresh my memory of them and pull together my disparate thoughts.
The Great
That Reminds Me by Derek Owusu
This is one of those books that defies categorisation. It is raw, powerful and gutwrenching. I suppose it would be best described as prose poetry, and is a short little book made up of fragments comprising the observations and feelings of a young boy growing up in London to Ghanaian parents. I believe Owusu is best known for his poetry, and his lyricism here does not disappoint. It is beautiful and also slippery (the speaker often appeals to the folkloric trickster Anansi), and as a result the book becomes utterly striking. There are some heavy themes here; protagonist K deals with alcoholism, suicide and self-harm as he struggles to cope with his Borderline Personality Disorder. A stint in foster care in Suffolk as a child leads to themes of abandonment and trouble getting a grip on where he fits in in the world, also with regard to his racial identity and his masculinity.
There's not much not to like here, though the brevity of the book and its heavy themes mean that it can at once be quite a painful and intense read, and yet also one where you might want a little more of its story and characters (especially for a fan of longer works like myself). Nonetheless, it is a powerful piece and I will definitely be keeping an eye on Owusu's work in the future. I'm sure it would benefit from a reread from me and a bit of a closer, more concentrated eye to truly appreciate all its layers.
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
I loved all the complex ideas that Le Guin explored in this book about two neighbouring planets, Urras and Anarres. Its subtitle is 'An Ambiguous Utopia' and that is certainly what this book delivers, exploring all the grey areas of various political systems, allowing none of them to become truly utopic. It explores socialism and anarchism in the depiction of Anarres and capitalism and individualism in Urras, all done in a sensitive and thoughtful manner, and also in great detail.
Whilst I very much appreciated all of these things and would consider rereading this novel in the future, I did struggle to get into it and latch on to the characters and plotline, which is something I usually don't have trouble with when reading Le Guin's work. I think this is probably a combination of my own distraction and this being a novel that definitely focuses more on its ideas than its plot, even more so than Le Guin's other novels, which often seem to blend the two a little more seamlessly. I think some readers will struggle with its slow pace and get lost in all the back and forth philosophy, so beware of that before you read it. But my goodness is it worth it. It’s a unique and clever novel and one that very much deserves its place among the science fiction greats.
Rosewater by Tade Thompson
This was an imaginative, gripping and distinctive science fiction that expertly played with the alien invasion trope in such a way as to make it feel new and fresh and unexpected. It follows Kaaro, a government agent living in Rosewater, a relatively new town that has sprung up around an alien biodome in Nigeria in 2066. This biodome occasionally 'opens' in some sort of strange ceremony and heals all those that stand near it of their various ailments, naturally attracting pilgrimages and worship of a kind. Kaaro has special abilities which allow him to read minds (sort of) and find things (sort of), and he is also more sceptical of the biodome that he lives next to than his fellow Rosewater inhabitants and he has good reason to be, for it turns out he has actually been inside it himself…
The novel is pacey and reads like a thriller, with cyberpunk elements thrown in. It switches between timelines a lot and can sometimes be a little confusing so beware if that's a pet peeve of yours. It is also super clever and there were lots of ideas in here that I appreciated and that make this book stand out from other science fiction being published today. I will definitely be reading the remaining novels in the series.
However, with that being said there were a few things that prevented me from fully embracing this book, namely its protagonist. This is not something that usually bothers me really as I'm more than happy to deal with an unlikeable protagonist, but in this case his narration was just a bit overtly masculine and cyberpunky for me (I'm not a massive one for the genre in book form). I felt I couldn't connect with Kaaro as I could Essun in the Broken Earth trilogy for example, and there seemed little reason for him to have so few redeeming features. And to be honest Thompson seems well aware of his protagonist’s flaws, making him fairly self-aware about his misogyny and attitudes toward women in the novel. Nonetheless, it put me off slightly. Ultimately, though, this novel has a lot to recommend it.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
I can't believe I'd never read this before this year! And I confess because I was reading so slowly in December I only got round to reading the most famous of Dickens' Christmas stories before it was a bit too late - saving the rest for this year!
I doubt I need to go into the plot of this classic tale, but I was happy to conclude that it was just the cosy story that I needed. Of course it’s a little didactic and moralising (it is Dickens after all), but it is heartwarming and remains quite accessible to a modern audience, even someone who is less familiar with classic works I think. More than that, it has in many ways shaped the way we see Christmas today (particularly with its humanitarian leanings) and is interesting on a historical level, too. Highly recommend for a cosy evening next Christmas if you're so inclined.
The Good
Dear Life by Alice Munro
These short stories were good, solid pieces of work with a few gems hidden inside (I particularly liked 'Amundsen'), but they didn't feel like they had the life and verve of say, the stories in The Progress of Love which I read in 2019. I'm willing to guess that, as this is Munro's most recent collection and her last, published in 2012, that her earlier books were written more at the peak of her writing career. She has this signature simple, pared-back style that belies the complexity of her themes and the significance of some of the stories' pivotal moments; you only realise they were significant in the aftermath. She manages always to capture the utter strangeness of everyday life, somehow drawing you in towards her characters and at the same time keeping you at a remove so that you can see just how absurd even the most ordinary situations are. I also particularly liked the semi-autobiographical stories at the end. I'm looking forward to reading more Munro in the future, perhaps one of her earlier collections again.
Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola [audio]
I have followed Bolu Babalola on Twitter for a few years now and have always enjoyed her observations of the world, so I wanted to show my support and read her first book Love in Colour. This is a book of love stories based on existing narratives from history and mythology from around the world (with a few of her own inventions thrown in at the end) and is born of Babalola's desire to see more women of colour depicted in romance and depicted also as happy and in love and worthy of love, to balance out the deluge of fiction about the trauma of Black life. In this I think she largely succeeds. Her prose is accomplished and smooth for a debut author, and I think this book will have large appeal. I also think that Babalola's own stories that weren't based on mythological characters were actually the best, they felt more organic and easy and less rushed. Indeed, there isn't much time to really get completely invested in any of these stories because they are quite short - though I think if they appealed to you at some level then her novel Honey and Spice which is coming out next year may work better for you!
We all know I don't really like romance that much. And that's not because I look down on it snobbishly or anything like that, I simply don't love reading it. I think its partly because my favourite romantic stories are those about long-lasting deep-rooted calm and peaceful love. The kind with no drama. If there's drama, my brain just shuts off. I just think, why are you bothering? Find someone nicer! So rather inevitably I was never going to love this book. If this is you too, I don't think this novel will change your mind about romance forever. And it does make me somewhat unqualified to comment on the quality of these stories compared to other romance. But if you do like romance and your attention span is short at the minute, you might really get on with these! I listened to them which was good; there was a couple of narrators and one was better than the other but in general a good experience.