I'll try and keep this short since it's my list of the best books I read in 2021, and was meant to be posted by New Years Day. What with one thing and another that, obviously, did not happen so here they are, along with a recommendation on why I think you should spend your valuable time reading each one. In no particular order:
1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This noirish classic melodrama, set amongst the glitterati of 1920's suburban New York, takes place over a single summer in 1922, when several lives collide rather messily amidst a background of lavish parties, spectacular mansions, dirty deals and doomed romance. Jay Gatsby is the fabulously wealthy title character with a murky past, although the tale is told through the first-person narrative of next-door-neighbor, Nick Carraway, an idealistic young man-on-the-move who is cousins with Gatsby's beloved, Daisy Buchanan. The story was inspired after Fitzgerald (pre-Zelda) spent his own summer canoodling with the rich and famous in the gilded environs of Long Island Sound. Both Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio have played Gatsby in movies made from the book and while I prefer the DiCaprio film, I always picture Redford in the title role when reading the book. It's a grand tale, simply told and easily read, both engrossing and very moving in the end. This was my third reading of the book and I find myself enjoying it more each time I read it. If you haven't read it, what are you waiting for?
2. Widespread Panic by James Ellroy. This is one of those books that readers tend to either love or hate. That's because author James Ellroy provokes extreme reactions to the machine-gun staccato rhythm of his prose, the complete absence of likeable characters, over-the-top violence and uber-dark vein of humor that permeates his vicious tales of the restless and depraved denizens of a long-gone Hollywood. If you're old enough to have heard of Confidential Magazine, Hollywood Babylon, Walter Winchell and the Black Dahlia, you'll have an idea of the time period and the type of characters you'll meet in Widespread Panic. The anti-hero of this book is a very bad seed, indeed, and shares his name with a real-life character, Freddy Otash, who once worked as a private investigator dishing dirt-for-dough on high-profile celebrities. Interestingly, the character of Jake Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson in the 1974 classic, Chinatown, was (allegedly) partly inspired by Otash. This fictional version finds Otash in and out of hot water (and the beds of various starlets) as he goes about ruining careers, breaking bones and wreaking Tinseltown havoc while engaging in any number of criminal enterprises. FYI: James Ellroy also wrote the novels L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia, the former turned into a fine film by Curtis Hanson, the latter made a mess of by Brian DePalma.
3. The Magus by John Fowles. For years I avoided reading John Fowles' seminal novel of psychological manipulation because I feared, for some reason, that it would be beyond my ken to grasp its meaning. Oh, or something like that. What utter nonsense! Turns out you don't need to be an Oxford Don to appreciate this fine book. The Magus is a very accessible, marvelously entertaining tale that is part mystery and part adventure. Beginning in 1950's England, we follow recent Oxford grad, Nicholas Urfe, bored and somewhat callous, as he quits his job, dumps his girlfriend and accepts a teaching position on a remote Greek island. Once there, Nicholas encounters a group of highly enigmatic individuals living on the estate of a wealthy recluse who may, or may not, have collaborated with the Nazis during their occupation of Greece. There's a beautiful woman who acts as a sort of siren luring Nicholas into the games of a master player, ultimately leading our hero to question not only their motives and true identities, but the nature of reality, itself. Clocking in at almost 700 pages, The Magus may turn many readers off before they give this excellent book a chance. My advice: be adventurous, the story pulls you in and the pages fly by so quickly you'll wish it was a hundred pages longer.
4. The Last of the Duchess by Caroline Blackwood. This is also a re-read, one that I stumbled across when it was first published in 1995. What makes The Last of the Duchess so intriguing is that it is real-life tragedy rendered into the blackest of comedies by a first-rate storyteller. The Duchess of the title refers to Wallis Warfield Simpson, the infamous Duchess of Windsor, for whom Edward VIII gave up the English throne in 1936 so he could "marry the woman I love". According to most accounts, neither the Duchess nor the Duke behaved very admirably throughout their long marriage, although they apparently misbehaved with great panache and style. By the time this book begins, in 1980's Paris, the Duke is long dead and buried, and Wallis is laid up in the bedroom of her luxurious French digs, presided over by her imperious attorney, Maitre Suzanne Blum. Originally sent to Paris by London's Sunday Times to write an article on the Duchess, author Caroline Blackwood is immediately met with resistance by Blum, who forbids Blackwood entrance to her beloved's bedchambers, and orders her not to snoop into Madame's private business and financial affairs. The ensuing pas de deux between Blackwood and the formidable Maitre Blum makes for a highly strung, often hilarious, account of secrets and lies and other dubious goings-on cloaked in a veil of spite and malice during the last years of the Duchess of Windsor's life. Along the way, Blackwood questions whether or not the Duchess is being held captive in her boudoir by Maitre Blum, and, even ponders if the poor woman is still alive. Will Blackwood overtake Maitre Blum by the end of the book and find out for herself the true state of the Duchess's health? Will a bejeweled and meticulously coiffed Duchess pull herself from her sickbed and actually show herself before the book's final page? Caroline Blackwood was a member of the English peerage so was not out of her element in the presence of Royals (and royal wannabes), much less the highly intelligent, spectacularly malevolent gargoyle, Maitre Blum. Blackwood's wry humor and acute observations make this battle of wits a singularly entertaining read.
5. The Killing Doll by Ruth Rendell. One of my longtime favorite English writers, Ruth Rendell, outdid herself with this first-rate psychological thriller; in fact, The Killing Doll may be my favorite Rendell of all those I've read so far (she has more than 50 books to her credit so I have a few left to read). Bleak and uncompromising, the book focuses on a family coming undone. In a shabbily genteel house in London, a mother's death throws the lives of her husband and children into a tailspin. While the widower immerses himself in obscure books on European royalty, the 20ish daughter--afflicted with a disfiguring birthmark on her face--attempts to fill the shoes of the late matriarch, with disastrous results. Her younger teen-age brother, an aspiring geomancer who sells his soul to the devil in the opening paragraph, tries to keep her spirits up but he's got problems of his own. Just next door, a recently-dumped "other woman" eyes the widowed father in a new light, while across the way, a disturbed Irish drifter awaits the return home of his missing cousin, a local butcher. And, in a neighborhood tunnel, a homicidal maniac lurks in the dark. Haunting, suspenseful, scary and sad, The Killing Doll is cinematic in its depiction of this conflicted group of characters and their surroundings, and the unraveling of minds overburdened by darkness. The book takes its own sweet time setting up its scenario so don't expect a barrage of action on every page. Ruth Rendell excelled in creating believable, psychologically complex characters without ever sentimentalizing or stereotyping them, and they are so skillfully drawn here that their fates come to matter very much to the reader. The climax, when it comes, is shocking even if it feels inevitable. If you're looking for light, uplifting reading material or a cozy mystery where all the loose ends are neatly tidied up at the end, The Killing Doll is definitely not for you. If, however, you don't mind a disturbing read that will take you out of your comfort zone, you might find this as absorbing as I did.
None of the above books were released in 2021, and with the exception of Widespread Panic, none are even from this century. However, they all give the reader a distinct sense of time and place. Last year, I decided to keep track of all the books I read and made brief notes on what I liked or disliked about them. FYI: the total books read in 2021 was 38, so make of that what you will. I've never been a speed reader and I know others who read 2 or 3 times this amount each year. My problem, if it even is a problem, is that I tend to savor books and immerse myself in the worlds their authors create. That is, if they're well written and those worlds worth venturing into. Very soon, I'll post the remaining 5 books that made my list of favorites from 2021. Try not to get too antsy waiting for the unveiling.
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