Over on the heffalump site, the hashtag of the moment is #7books. After making my list, I thought it’d be fun (for me, at least; your mileage may vary) to explain why they’re the seven that made a difference to me.
1. East of Eden by #JohnSteinbeck
I’m always surprised when a classic lives up to the hype. I approach the “canon” novels with skepticism, but I found this novel to be absolutely brilliant. I find Steinbeck’s writing very “human” even though I struggle to describe what I mean by that. He’s deeply affectionate towards people and towards…what makes people “people,” if that makes any sense.
What puts this novel on the list is not just that it’s a fine story expertly told; it’s the core message: No matter what has happened to you in the past, no matter your circumstances, you always have the freedom to choose to do right. This hurt me when I first read it. I had a stack of excuses for being shitty and I was forced to face the fact that none excused my shittiness.
Oof.
2. Small Gods by #TerryPratchett
This was my first Discworld novel and it remains my favorite. It’s hilarious, of course, as are most of Pratchett’s novels, and his skewering of both the falsely religious and the gods themselves is spot-on. It’s the ending, though. The coda. I’ve never read a book that stuck the landing as gracefully.
I got to meet Sir Terry at a book signing. We exchanged a sentence or two and he signed my copy of Small Gods and even drew a turtle in it. He was, by some margin, the most mesmerizing speaker of all the writers I’ve encountered. He was funny and humble, and utterly delightful. Make me sad just thinking of the loss, but that might be the snifter of ruby port in front of me talking.
3. The Brothers Karamazov by #FyodorDostoevtsky
My freshman ethics professor was an ass. He didn’t teach from textbooks. He said “I don’t care what Joe Blow has to say about Plato; I want to teach what Plato actually said.” So, instead of textbooks, we read the original sources, which was amazing. Of course, we were freshmen and because of that, we weren’t the most critical of readers. The professor’s favorite trick was to expose us to one philosopher or novelist, let us soak in what they’d written, and then when we were convinced, turn around and attack those same ideas we’d found so convincing.
It was truly a brilliant class.
Anyway, we only read the two chapters from The Brothers Karamazov, but that was enough. It blew me away to realize that what we’d been taught in high school, that novels consisted of theme and mood and plot and style, was total crap. Novels were about things, but we couldn’t talk about them in public high schools because they were about subversive things. And, you can’t get much more subversive than The Brothers.
4. The Savage Detectives by #RobertoBolano
It’s possible I love Bolano’s short stories more than his novels, and I’ve never had the nerve to even try 2666. That said, The Savage Detective is my favorite Bolano so far and that’s a high bar to clear. His work is mercurial in a way that absolutely draws me in. I find Pynchon a pain because, just when I’m starting to dig the vibe, he goes off somewhere else and starts over.
Bolano does some of that too, but it never loses me. Or, when it does, his use of language is mesmerizing enough to keep me hooked until I’m back on solid ground. I probably over-romanticize Bolano’s life because it’s a very romantic writer’s life, but there are worse things to romanticize, right?
5. White Teeth by #ZadieSmith
Speaking of mercurial…I usually find abrupt POV changes more distracting than anything (Mona Lisa Overdrive, I’m looking at you). Smith somehow pulls it off in this shaggy dog of a story that keeps its thread in spite of bouncing from character to character and story to story. It’s absolutely something that could have come across as a gimmick, but she’s got the chops to make it work. It’s also a fantastic re-read, which is a huge plus for me.
6. The Long Goodbye by #RaymondChandler
In the last 5 years, I’ve read a lot of Chandler and Hammett, as well as some of the more recent Nordic crime fiction writers, and I’ve come to a conclusion: I really don’t give a shit about crime fiction. However, I absolutely love crime fiction writing.
That’s weird, right? Usually, the story doesn’t really grab me, but I’m so entranced by the style that I don’t care. Chandler remains my favorite, and The Long Goodbye is my favorite of his. I’m not entirely sure the story works, but I don’t care. It’s a reading experience I never want to end (which is good, because it’s his longest novel as well.)
7. Neuromancer by #WilliamGibson
I read this around the time I was first getting into Nine Inch Nails. Wired magazine was just about to become A Thing. It’s literally impossible to get more zeitgeisty (Grammarly insists that “zeitgeisty” is acceptable, so who am I to argue?).
What really grabbed me was the in media res-itude of the whole thing (Grammarly didn’t like that one). There were no explanations of anything that was meant to be common when the novel took place. You had to pick it up as you went and if you couldn’t get what an Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7 deck was from the context, you were out of luck.
There are others, of course. There are always others. Heck, this list might change tonight if I think of some others. Lord knows I’ve read Lord of the Rings and the Elric books multiple times. This’ll do for now. I’m out of port and I think it’s starting to rain, so I’ll leave it at this. Have a lovely evening, and feel free to share your choices.
-RK