Fighting The Literary Doldrums
If you’re like me, you’ve hit a literary rut, lately. The past two or three titles I’ve read have been bland or at least bland on my particular palate. They aren’t bad, but they simply haven’t been as engaging as I would like. In an effort to reignite a fire, (a dangerous metaphor when it comes to books) I’d like to run through a few titles that did excite me over the past year. If you find your reading entering the doldrums like I do, maybe one of these titles can help you find a path out.
Convenience Store Woman by: Sayaka Murata. This is a translation of an award-winning Japanese novel from 2016. It focuses on Keiko Furukura who struggles to fit in among her family, school, and social surrounding. She finally finds a home working at the convenience store. When the outside world is chaos, there is order, logic, and peace within her repetitive, daily tasks. The difficulty for Keiko then becomes sharing that sentiment after she clocks out. Having worked several similar jobs, I immediately felt a kinship with Keiko. At around 160 pages, this is a quick read but still fits in some surprises.
The Fisherman by: John Langan. This book was recommended by a friend and it quickly became one I was recommending to everyone. Abe and Dan decide to fish the waters of a much talked about creek that is fed by a reservoir. The origin of that reservoir quickly takes the two men into a historical horror story of magic, otherworldly creatures, and the lengths loss can drive us to. This is a slow burning tale of terror, not for the feint of heart. It’s beautiful in its terror though.
The End Of Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by: Greg Grandin. When I was working on my history degree, I wrote a paper on the concept of the frontier and how pivotal that abstract idea has been to U.S. definition prosperity. I like to think Grandin came across that 25-page -paper and was inspired to write this 400 page book. Grandin goes back to before 1776 and traces the persistent presence of “the frontier” through our history, how it keeps moving, and how that reflects the social politics of the day.
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by: Gabrielle Zevin. This was given to me by my sister-in-law and I don’t know why. A causal runner who loves Poe and would sooner talk to his books than people. Don’t know why she thought I’d like it. This book is an intimate, mysterious, and humorous tale of building a family from what has been discarded by the rest of the world. It’s a calming read and has several book recommendations along the way. It also addresses strategies for promoting independently owned businesses and sharing reading with people who think they don’t like to read.
Every Heart A Doorway by: Seanan McGuire. This one is a bit of a cheat because I didn’t read it in 2019, I read its sequel, but you should start here. Stories about children that find their way to other worlds like Wonderland, Oz, or Narnia are fantastic but what happens when those kids come back? How do they have a normal life after they’ve been the hero of an entire world? This book, that is drowning in awards, attempts to answer those questions and many more. It’s also technically a murder mystery among other things. If you like it, as I’ve mentioned already, there are several sequels out and on the way.
