After reading close to hundred books this year, here are my Best Reads of 2023:
Non-European Fiction/Poetry
?? Death of Artemio Cruz--- Carlos Fuentes
Fuentes's masterpiece looks at not only a 12 vital days of a corrupt soul but also the modern Mexico, narrated through cinematic approach calling to mind Citizen Kane.
?? Complete Poems--- Tomas Transtromer
A master, these poems, written in condensed languageue with directness and precision, possess themes ranging from music and dreams to nature and consciousness. One of my favourite poets.
?? Opened Ground: Selected Poems-- Seamus Heaney
Selection of poems from one of the giants of modern poetry, with it's accessible and down-to earth language looks at personal and collective history drawing from Catholic and Irish nature, myth and history. Deserving Nobel Laureate.
?? Poems--- Salvatore Quasimodo, Collected Poems 1920--1974--- Eugenio Montale
While Quasimodo's poems are drawn from his Sicilian background and makes use of classicism and impressions, Montale, Italy'a greatest poet in the last 100 years, possess a more visual dexterity and is more pessimistic in outlook.
?? Voss--- Patrick White
White's masterpiece narrates the love story of Johann Ulrich Voss, a German explorer and Laura but it also looks at an individual in search of the soul of a continent, combining religious symbolism and expressionism with startling effects.
?? Another Country-- James Baldwin
Baldwin's richest novel in terms of ideas and imagination, this novel presents Rufus as individual expressing the existential paradox of Camus (see the essay on suicide), at the same time presenting African-Americans living in another country of their minds.
?? Selected Poems--- Adonis
Dazzling and aensuous imagination from one of the most discussed poets from the latter years of the last century, these selected poems looks at issues ranging from exile and politics, to different dimensions of love.
?? Afterlives--- Abdulrazak Gurnah
Insightful look into the horrors pepetrated by Germans in an African country. Gurnah's finest work in terms of psychological detail.
?? Cairo Trilogy--- Naguib Mahfouz
Mahfouz's greatest work looks at not just the family of Jawad but also society in transition to modernity and World War ll.
?? The Conservationist--- Nadine Gordimer
Experimental masterpiece from one of the great female novelists of her generation, the novel reveals in moments the life of capitalist Mehring as a flood washes up a dead body in 1970s South Africa, a biting look at Apartheid.
European Fiction
?? The Slave--- Isaac Singer
Singer's beautiful novel looks at beauty and ugliness of Jewish tradition and ask the question if one can risk religious faith for love's sake written with lyrical and existential reflection.
?? Tin Drum--- Gunter Grass
A look into local culture and society's grotesqueries in this linguistic exuberant masterpiece. And that sentence: Barbaric, mystical, bored, is the most authentic and prophetic remark in post-war fiction.
??/ ?? Remains of the Day--- Kazuo Ishiguro
A compact novel that looks into human memory, duty and responsibility narrated through Stevens six-day road trip.
?? Trilogy--- Samuel Beckett
Beckett's greatest achievement in fiction looks at, with linguistic ingenuity, the division of the self and existential problems of man through a voice in oppression and solitude. His most pessimistic but wonderful creation.
?? Septology--- Jon Fosse
Magnum opus of Wolfie and Nobel Laureate looks at the life of an aging painter Asle three days before Christmas, Fosse combines religious metaphysics and symbolism in this one sentence novel.
??????? Briefing for a Descent into Hell-- Doris Lessing
An imaginative experiment into the life of a mentally disintegrated character, Lessing blends fantastical voyage and realism to wonderful results.
??????? The Waves--- Virginia Woolf
A novel that looks at life of seven individuals from childhood to death with brilliant references to movements of seawater which mirrors the ups and downs of existence.
?? Afternoon of a Writer--- Peter Handke
A day into the life of a writer with creative block, Handke clearly questions the role of a writer in this beautiful novella.
And the Book of The Year:
?? In Search of Lost Time--- Marcel Proust
Simply put: a novel about life and unparralled insight into memory (memory as the years) and men (giants immersed in Time).
Honorable Mentions:
?? People in the Summer Night--- Frans Emil Silanpaa
A symphonic novel which looks at two weekend days in a countryside experiencing human conditions, filled with wonderful descriptions of nature.
?? The Assitant--- Bernard Malamud
This novel not only looks at immigrant life but also redemption by referencing/applying religious symbolism.
