I Reviewed Every Book I Read in 2023 — These Were The Standouts.
I wonder about the pursuit of favorite books. Am I really an adult here with entertainment for uncomplicated entertainment’s sake or am I still a teenager in haphazard pursuit of identity who needs a favorite color favorite food favorite friend. The search for narrative is relentless and never-ending, a testament to the power of the written word in sense-making and personal evolution.
Last year my relationship with my favorites and even my conception of favorite books itself was threatened. I had just finished Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and was struggling to form an opinion on it. I thought back to some of my self-proclaimed favorite books and was shocked to find what little was left of my opinions on those either. On Willa Cather’s My Ántonia “this is my Great American Novel and there’s that traumatic story where a couple gets eaten by wolves in Ukraine”. On Viktor Pelevin’s Omon Ra “if only it was that easy to make a hero but that interlude about reincarnation is such a chore”. Is this really all I have left? My foundations were shaken and I embarked on a mission to synthesize my thoughts on every book I read this year to battle the existential abyss. The following are in no particular order.
Warlock by Oakley Hall
Warlock is physically exhausting to read because no one’s totally in the right or totally in the wrong. It reimagines the shootout at the O.K. Corral, re-injecting all of the moral ambiguity that has been removed from this legend of the American Old West by subsequent retellings that render it in the same terms as a game of cops and robbers. Warlock was written in the shadow of the Red Scare and throughout we see repudiations of the fear-driven mob mentality that propelled figures like Senator McCarthy to power. We also see a nuanced picture of collective action in the form of a miner’s strike where plenty of mistakes and wayward turns are made by everyone involved. It is unfortunately all too relevant in today’s political climate.
Old Man Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
The Paris of Old Man Goriot is a meat grinder in which love of power, love of wealth, and love of love are enmeshed in devastating ways. We follow Eugène de Rastignac, whose name has become synonymous with social climbing, as he struggles to throw off his impoverished provincial background. In the process he becomes involved with Goriot and his daughters. Goriot was previously a wealthy vermicelli dealer but has been steadily brought into poverty by his daughters’ financial irresponsibilities. Ever the doting father, Goriot’s generosity knows no bounds in a society where every small favor must be bought and paid for. Is a lamé gown worth your father’s dying breath? You be the judge.
The Madman by Kahlil Gibran
The Madman is a short collection of affirming tranquil poetry. It has a timeless quality to it like Aesop’s fables or the Old Testament. The stories it tells hearken deeply to human nature no matter how allegorical or mystic their subject matter is. It’s like the most powerful god in Greek mythology being a philandering womanizer who constantly embarrasses his wife in public with his antics.
Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill
Largely autobiographical, Long Day’s Journey into Night follows one day in the life of the Tyrone family: Mary, the nervous matriarch struggling with a morphine addiction; James, the authoritative patriarch whose simultaneous penny-pinching and irresponsible real estate speculation are a constant source of discord; Jamie, the fatalistic older brother living a dissolute lifestyle; and Edmund, the artistic younger brother (based on the author) whose persistent cough worries all that it may be tuberculosis. They fight, they reminisce about better days, and they fall into addictions. It is supremely ugly. You know things are going poorly when all the disparaging remarks your family had about your significant other when you got together start coming out of your mouth too.
What were your favorite books this year?
What do you think that says about you?
