My 2020 Reading List

I believe that it was James Agee who once said that as a film critic he always found something of interest in every movie he saw. I feel that same way about every book that I read. As I have done at almost every end of the year on my blog, I make a list of the books that I have read during the year. I hope that there are some titles that may be of interest to you. If you search my 2020 archive, you will find that I have made comments on many of them. In 2020, a year like no other, books have played an especially vital role in my life. I’m sure that most of you feel the same.                                                

FICTION

1001 Afternoons in Chicago- Ben Hecht

A Crown of Feathers- Isaac Bashevis Singer

A History of Forgetting- Caroline Adderson

Asymmetry- Lisa Halliday

All the King’s Men-Robert Penn Warren

Brief Encounters with the Enemy- Said Sayrafiezadeh

Camino Winds- John Grisham

Cane- Jean Toomer

Deadlock- Sara Paretsky

Death on the Homefront- David Hopen

Dubliners-James Joyce

Ducks, Newburyport- Lucy Ellmann

Gateway to the Moon- Mary Morris

Great Expectations- Charles Dickens

Great House-Nicole Krauss

How Late it Was- James Kelman

Invisible Man-Ralph Ellison

Kim-Rudyard Kipling

King of the Jews-Leslie Epstein

Moby-Dick-Herman Melville

Nick the Greek- Harry Mark Petrakis

Olive Again-Elizabeth Strout

Olive Kitteridge-Elizabeth Strout

Redhead by the Side of the Road-Anne Tyler

Right After the Weather-Carol Anshaw

Selected Stories-William Trevor

Shuggie Bain- Douglas Stuart

Someday We Will Fly- Rebecca Dewoskin

Stateway’s Garden- Jason Drain

Sula- Toni Morrison

The Dutch House-Ann Patchett

The Great Believers- Rebecca Makkai

The History of Love-Nicole Krauss

The Jazz Palace-Mary Morris

The Jungle-Upton Sinclair

The Last Chronicle of Barset-Anthony Trollope

The Last Trial-Scott Turow

The Many- Wyl Menmuir

The Night Watchman- Louise Erdrich

The Narrows- Ann Petry

The Orchard- David Hopen

The Patron Saint of Liars- Ann Patchett

The Sense of an Ending- Julian Barnes

The Song of the Lark-Willa Cather

The Testaments- Margaret Atwood

The Time Traveler’s Wife- Audrey Niffenegger

The Vanishing Half- Brit Bennett

Their Eyes Were Watching God-Zora Neale Hurston

True Grit- Charles Portis  

Valentine- Elizabeth Wetmore

We Should Never Meet- Aimee Phan

Writers and Lovers- Lily King 

NON-FICTION

A Bookshop in Berlin-Francoise Frenkel

A Good American Family- David Maraniss

A Spy Among Friends- Ben Macintyre

A Question of Honor-Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud

Agent Sonya- Ben Macintyre

Caught in the Revolution-Helen Rappaport

Churchill and the Jews-Martin Gilbert

Disraeli: The Novel Politician-David Cesarani

Dust Tracks on the Road- Zora Neale Hurston

Fall Out of Heaven- Alan Cheuse

Furious Hours- Casey Cep

Operation Mincemeat- Ben Macintyre

Ralph Ellison-Arnold Rampersand

Rebel Cinderella- Adam Hochschild

Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America-Michael Dobbs

Say Nothing- Patrick Radden Keefe

State-Melissa Isaacson

Stelmark- Harry Mark Petrakis

Studies in Classic American Literature- D.H. Lawrence

Talking to Myself-Studs Terkel

The Big Goodbye-Sam Wasson

The Chicago Conspiracy Trial- John Schultz

The Miracle and the Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets-Sarah Miller

The Spy and the Traitor- Ben Macintyre

The World is Always Coming to an End-Carlo Rotello

This Boy’s Life- Tobias Wolff

When Skateboards will be Free-Said Sayrafiezadeh

Manky and Ben

I highly recommend the recent movie Mank, which now can be found on Netflix. It is the story of the writer Herman Mankiewicz and the writing of the screenplay Citizen Kane for Orson Welles. Before heading out to Hollywood, Mankiewicz had established himself as a much-acclaimed writer. Mank (as he was called by most of his friends) had been a foreign correspondent in Berlin for the Chicago Tribune, a drama critic for the New York Times, and the first regular drama critic for The New Yorker magazine. He battled alcoholism all his adult life.

He was lured to Hollywood by the money. In a hyperbolic telegram to Ben Hecht conveying to him an offer at a job as a screenwriter for Paramount, Mankiewicz asks him:  “Will you accept three hundred per week to work for Paramount Pictures. All expenses paid. The three hundred is peanuts. Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don’t let this get around.”

If there is one fault in Mank, the movie, it is the limited role of Hecht, who is always seen in a talented group of screenwriters, but never one-on-one with Mankiewicz. They were close friends, and Hecht had the utmost admiration for Mankiewicz, whom he alone called Manky. Here is what Hecht wrote about Manky in his memoir, A Child of The Century:

“I have sat in a room filled with writers of every kind and there was only one to whom we listened—Manky”

“Beside Manky, the famous people among whom he buzzed all his life like a hornet or gadfly seemed pale-minded.”

How Late It Was, How Late- A Trailblazing Novel

A Tribute to the Greatest Espionage Writer of All-Time

I was saddened to learn this week of the death of David Cornwell, better known by his nom de plume of John le Carré. There was no better writer of espionage fiction. It was easy to get hooked on his great spy stories, always written with great eloquence, and spiced with delicious irony. Cornwell learned the craft of spying in his years at both M15 and M16. At both these highly secretive departments, he heard the tales of the rogue British intelligent officers and diplomats who for decades worked as Soviet agents, especially the notorious Cambridge Five—Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross. He knew that their daring escapades would be hard to capture in fiction. Yet he managed to create fictional characters that successfully mirrored their trails of deceit and betrayal. There will never be another John le Carré. He was truly in a league of his own.                                                                                 

Illinois Poet Laureate–Angela Jackson

I was pleased to learn recently that Angela Jackson was named as the new Poet Laureate of Illinois. She is an incredible and multifaced writer-poet, novelist, playwright, biographer. Ms. Jackson is an Honorary Member of the Cliff Dwellers, and I have been able to get to know over the years. She is gracious and kind. She is eloquent in a soft-spoken way. I want to share this new poem of hers. It is a poem of thanks, love, and hope, as we come to the end of what has been a  most difficult year for all of us.

Giving Thanks

Illinois, 2020

We give thanks—

For red cardinals that appear

Anywhere,

For violets, pristine and tender,

And tall white oaks

That bear

The weight of midwestern winds

Moving across the prairie

State.

Thanks

For the kiss of the great Lake

Michigan, on a Big Chicago, bodacious and bursting With Promises

Thanks for the lakes and rivers that flow through

A State of dreams and blood and tears,

The rivers of toil that lace the land

And a Big River, Mississippi,

That runs.

Thanks for mid-cities churning industry

For rural places poised on tractors

And waystations

Peopled with all kinds

Of people—

All colors

A One

In the Land of Lincoln

Lifting Freedom, Union, yes

We pray for each other

In all our heartbreaks.

We give thanks

For hope,

For family, for dear ones,

And neighbors

For “I love you”

Written on the red wings of cardinals

On the sweet petals of violets,

On the strong brown branches of oaks.

We give thanks,

Thanks and thanks.

Shuggie Bain

Shuggie Bain, the debut novel of Douglas Stuart, deservedly won the 2020 Booker Prize. It is certainly the best new novel that I have read this year. I believe that the book will endure the literary test of time, and eventually be considered a classic.

The novel is highly autographical, mirroring Stuart’s childhood in hardscrabble, working-class Glasgow. Agnes is the mother of three children, Shuggie being the youngest. Agnes leaves her first husband for another man. Then that man, Shug Bain, who became her second husband, leaves her for another woman.

Agnes is an alcoholic and living with her and caring for her emotionally exhausts the three children. The eldest two leave home, leaving young Shuggie left behind to care for her. Agnes is victimized by the abuse of men. Shuggie, struggling with his sexual identity, is taunted and bullied by the neighboring children.

Despite all this, Shuggie exhibits amazing strength and fortitude, remaining with his mother through her inevitable path of self-destruction that leads to her death.

The imagery and language of this book are brilliant. The Glasgow dialect takes a bit of getting used to. But once you do, you see that even in its hardness and harshness, a beautiful lyricism comes through.