Reading and Writing Review 2014

Reading and Writing Review 2014 (includes fiction standouts: novels, novellas and collections/anthologies)

Books and Novellas (left the cutoff at 50 pages) Read in 2014

Vampires in the Lemon Grove Karen Russell (collection)                                    

The Best Australian Stories 2014 ed Amanda Lohrey  (anthology)

The Art of Fiction  John Gardner  (expository)

Arthur and George Julian Barnes

The New Veterans Karen Russell (novella from Vampires in the 

Lemon Grove originally in Granta (Winter 2013)

Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami                                                                 

Stoner John Williams                                                                                           

Halfhead Bay Nam Le (novella from The Boat)                                                 

The Neanderthals Rediscovered Dimitra Papagianni & Michael Moore (expository text)                                                                                                    

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz                                             

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brian Sanderson  (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                        

Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois (anthology)

The Elephant Vanishes Haruki Murakami (collection)

The Boat Nam Le (collection)

Dinosaurs, a Very Short Introduction David Norman (expository text)

Tehran Calling Nam Le (novella from The Boat)

The Windup Girl Paolo Bacigalupi

The Children Act Ian McEwan                                                                            

Lies My Mother Told Me Caroline Spector (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)

Kisses by Clockwork ed Liz Grzyb (anthology)

Jasper Jones Craig Silvey

Eclipse Four Ed. Jonathan Strahan (anthology)                                             

Falconer John Cheever                                                                                          

Virgins Diana Gabaldon  (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                                                                                 

Bombshells Jim Butcher (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                                                                                 

Flesh and Blood Michael Cunningham                                                              

The Book Thief Markus Zusak                                                                            

The Princess and the Queen, or, the Blacks and the Greens George R.R Martin (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                                                                                                            

The Pure Gold Baby Margaret Drabble                                                               

Fiction Standouts

Keeping standouts to a maximum of four and they are in order of preference.

Absolute Standout:

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell. I can’t praise this collection highly enough - I loved all but two stories. Russell is ostentatious but also fresh and witty and these stories and novelettes are of the best that I’ve read. At a micro-level, Russell’s syntactical work is also remarkable. Do yourself a favour and have a read. Russell blends stories of the urban fantasy genre with structural elements more common in ‘literary’ works. I think she is a writer to be celebrated. If you don’t have time then at least read the story ‘Reeling for the Empire’

Novels

The following novels are all highly recommended reads.

Arthur and George Julian Barnes

Historical literary fiction at its best. This is near a masterpiece, only marred, I thought, by an incredulous bit of light philosophy late in the novel by George (you’ll see it when you read it). Won’t give too much away but it’s marvelous.

Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami

Original, full of semi-Socratic dialogue and surreal scenes, all pulled together in a well-crafted novel. It was my first read of a Murakami novel and I’ll certainly return. Kafka on the Shore won a number of prizes including The World Fantasy Award. The philosophical elements work well with an intriguing, inventive plot.                                                           

Stoner John Williams

I can’t quite put my finger on it, both uplifting and depressing, but a work that I simply enjoyed. Williams has a rare talent of not reverting to melodrama in order to create tension. Stoner felt pure in terms of prose, with a nice blend of ‘telling’ and ‘showing’, which many writers these days forget (some are caught up in lengthy ’showing’ that might be a product of creative writing texts and courses). I can see why Julian Barnes so highly recommends it (the prose in both Arthur and George and Stoner share similarities). 

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz

This has its problems – you'll want a Spanish lexicon at times if you're not Latin American (or to a lesser degree, from the US) and I don’t think that the various threads all work successfully. But every novel has its flaws  – and it’s a brilliant work: intelligent, gutsy, exuberant, fun and tragic.        

                                     

Standout Collections and Anthologies

I won’t include the two I had stories in: The Best Australian Stories 2014 and Kisses by Clockwork, as it just seems in poor taste - needless to say, I loved them both.

Vampires in the Lemon Grove Karen Russell (collection)

Think I’ve raved on about Russell enough. Superb                                   

Dangerous Women (anthology) ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois

Megan Abbott, Megan Lindholm, Nancy Kress, Joe Abercrombie, Brian Sanderson and John R Landsdale’s stories alone are enough to make this a must-read anthology.

The Elephant Vanishes Haruki Murakami (collection)                                  

Refreshing collection in a conversational narrative voice. Enjoyed my dose of Murakami. Hope you do too.

The Boat Nam Le (collection)                                                                             

Some truly remarkable prose and stories within. Felt let down by the title story but on the whole Nam’s debut collection is a work to admire. A remarkable talent.

Novella Highlights

The New Veterans Karen Russell (novella from Vampires in the Lemon Grove originally in Granta,Winter 2013)                                                                      

Halfhead Bay Nam Le (novella from The Boat)                                                 

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brian Sanderson  (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                        

Tehran Calling Nam Le (novella from The Boat)                                              

Short Stories

'29 superb stories' in a previous post.

Stories Published in 2014

Publications in the journal Overland Literary Journal 214 (my second story there) and the anthologies Kisses by Clockwork ed. Liz Grzyb and The Best Australian Stories 2014 ed. Amanda Lohrey.

Very satisfying year. Every story that finds a good home is a celebration but being in The Best Australian Stories 2014 was both exciting and humbling.

Publication News

A long short story of mine, written within a framework (of sorts) of the Sphinx’ riddle to Oedipus, will be published in 2015 in an anthology I'm excited about (contents not released yet and I'll update this later). It’s a dark fantasy/horror story with a reflective narrative voice, which includes a bit on nature, philandering, life’s stages, reading and myth.

Festive Season

Enjoy the festive season. Once again, hope you all read a few books, watch a few films (and other shows) and spend time with loved ones.