My favorite reads of 2021
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
This was the first book I read by Kazuo Ishiguro, and I loved it so much that I read three more books by him this year, and two of them are on this list. I’m a sucker for anything that uses science fiction to explore what it means to be human, and imagines the different ways advances in technology will push us to to make increasingly difficult distinctions between human and other. I’m also a sucker for absolutely heartbreaking books that are impossible to put down. This book is both!
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Anyone who has worked in retail or food service will love this book. It hilariously captures the feeling of being a faceless employee, repeating the same phrases day in and day out, and being absolutely invisible to customers as a real human being. Convenience Store Woman tells this familiar tale through a character who actually loves the work, and feels like playing the role is where she finally fits in. On one hand Keiko is hard to understand––why would you want to work at a convenience store at 36 years old? But on the other hand, you respect her insistence on refusing to conform to society’s expectations of her––expectations to be interested in sex, marriage, relationships, traditional “grown-up” workplaces, and so much more.
Joy by Zadie Smith
If I had done favorite books lists for years past, Zadie Smith’s books would be on all of them. But this year, I read a collection of her essays, Feel Free, rather than one of her novels. Joy closed the book, and what an essay to go out on. Zadie explains her understanding of the difference between joy and pleasure––pleasure being a nice experience that makes your hour/day/week better, and joy being a once-in-a-while, all-encompassing emotion that is so powerfully positive it can sometimes make the rest of your life look a little grayer. “It doesn’t fit with the everyday.” Smith writes, “The thing no one ever tells you about joy is that it has very little real pleasure in it. And yet if it hadn’t happened at all, at least once, how would we live?”
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
I am picky about historical fiction, but this Pulitzer Prize winning epic from Michael Chabon is flawless. Artist and budding magician and escapist Joe Kavalier uses his skills to escape from Nazi-occupied Prague and joins his cousin Sammy Klayman, a promising comic-book writer, in New York City. The two combine their strengths and produce an anti-facist, Hitler-battling superhero named the Escapist, among other characters. Many of the characters are based on real people in the comic book world, and the book spans multiple generations without becomingly unwieldy. It’s a lovely, imaginative book.
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver always delivers, and this book is no different. Although on the surface this novel is about climate change, I found it to be much more about the breakdown in communication between rural and urban Americans. It did this without insulting either party, and without portraying either as ignorant or irrelevant. The protagonist, Dellarobia, occupies a space directly in the middle, struggling between a desire to differentiate herself from the place and people she grew up with, while simultaneously defending their point of view to those who are incapable, or unwilling, to understand them. Kingsolver demonstrates a deep and authentic respect for all parties, and the groups of people they represent.
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
A fictional female artist trying to make connections, and a way for herself, amongst other artists of the 1970s. The fact that the protagonist’s name is Reno and she loves to ride motorcycles should be a recipe for disaster, but somehow it works: she is an entirely believable, complicated character: both confident and insecure, both insightful and naive, both idealistic and cynical. This one might be my favorite of the year.
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Fellow people in their mid-20s, I’m sure you have all experienced this at least once: the “I know how I feel but I don’t know how they feel, and they know they feel but they don’t know how I feel, so we both dance around romance that’s just always a tiny bit out reach because at one point or another, one of is is unsure or unwilling to take anything to the next level” relationship that goes on endlessly until one of you just decides to cut yourself off because the emotional stress is just too overwhelming? Well. The Idiot weaves that story so well it’ll make you want to scream. Main character Selin is such a truthful representation of any teenager––unsure of every decision she makes and convinced, incorrectly, that everyone around her is sure of theirs.
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
It’s rare to find books with elderly protagonists, and I was delighted by main characters Axl and Beatrice and their world. Like Never Let Me Go, this book is undeniably heartbreaking, but in a poignant and ultimately peaceful way. To all appearances The Buried Giant is a fantasy novel, but truly its about trauma, loss, guilt, memory, and conversations that should have happened but never did. And its about love. And if you’re anything like me you’ll weep like a goddamn baby at the end.
I love to read, and I read a lot, and when I really love a book I think about it for days afterwards but rarely feel like I have an opportunity to share my thoughts. So I wrote them down and sent them into the social media void. If you got all the way down here, thanks for reading :)