 Word On Books
with Jeremy Fenton
This is my final column for the Echo after five and a half years as book reviewer, and as such I'll be deviating from the usual current-release fare and indulging my own reading sensibilities. A sort of literary canon according to me...
Although great books are still being written (Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey and Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff to name but some of those released during my tenure as a reviewer), my own taste in reading falls, for the most part, back at least half a century.
What follows is a look at my favourite books (call them my desert island nine if you like).
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
I strongly suspect that today you would not get away with a plot as far-fetched as the one found in Great Expectations. But what a plot it is! This is Charles Dickens at his best. All of the usual themes he's associated with are brilliantly interwoven in a spellbinding rags to riches tale: childhood poverty, the struggle of the criminal underclass, and (almost unbearable to read) a vast unrequited love. This is the closest to romance fiction that you'll find this reader.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
When Conan Doyle came up with the character of Sherlock Holmes he could hardly have predicted the subsequent popularity of his beak-nosed detective (in fact he even tried to kill him off at one point!). Holmes' popularity a century later proves that not only was Conan Doyle a master at characterisation (his character names are rivalled only by Dickens), but he pretty much invented the genre of crime fiction. The Hound of the Baskervilles is the Holmes adventure that stands head and shoulders above the rest through its wonderfully gothic atmosphere and intense supernatural storyline.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
I can't recall ever being as enthralled by a book as I was by Moby Dick with its telling of Captain Ahab's relentless, unrational, and unforgivable pursuit of the great white whale. It combines an incredible plot, great characterisation, fascinating diversions on the subjects of whales and whaling, and an allegory to end all allegories. This is the very height of what a great book can, and should, be!
Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I include de Saint-Exupery among my favourite reads for the simple reason that he embodies a now almost forgotten aspect of literature and authorship: a writer who actually lived an adventurous life to the fullest (he was an aviator) and lived to write of it in the most beautiful prose. Few things in literature can compare with his description in Wind, Sand and Stars of finding a simple orange after crashing in the desert and running out of water. To read de Saint-Exupery is to be humbled by a soul as brave as he was poetic.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The ultimate love story-cum-tragedy between the now-immortal Heathcliff and Cathy. The gothic language, narrative framing (the story within the story), characterisation and setting arguably create the most vivid atmosphere ever put to paper. I could (and will) read this book repeatedly.
Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger
The enigmatic JD Salinger has only published four books (and one of those was a collection of his short stories), and I could have easily selected any of them to highlight here! For this reader, existential angst doesn't make for very interesting reading (at least it didn't after I turned about 22!), but I make an exception for Salinger's works simply because he does it so well. In fact it is the single theme underlying all his works. Franny and Zooey is, by Salinger's own admission, a pretty skimpy book. However I would argue that never has the hopelessness of the human condition been put on paper so convincingly (and achingly sad for that matter).
Mysteries by Knut Hamsun
A largely lost treasure of literature (and a largely lost writer as well). Mysteries by Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun is an undefinable book. The story of a small port village, the people who live there and their mysterious actions. At the heart of it all aren't answers, just the realisation that life is a mystery and each of our lives is as unique as anything under the sun. Complex, demanding, and satisfying, Mysteries is a true work of literary art.
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Most writers of note get better throughout their 'careers'; Henry Miller - ever the iconoclast - did the exact opposite. His first published work, Tropic of Cancer, detailing his elliptical adventures (and yes, sexual exploits!) in Paris, was his most powerful statement as a writer and it all steadily declined from there... In Cancer, Miller wrote with the passion and joi de vive of a man possessed; equally as versed in the power of language as James Joyce (someone once said to me that Miller was like Joyce, only readable). I can already hear at least 51 per cent of readers protesting: but what about Miller's attitude to woman? All I can say is read deeper...
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
In one whimsical swoop, and well before most of them had been born, Carroll covered nearly everything that the counter-culture and so-called postmodernists tried (and in some cases are still trying) to achieve.
His presentation of the absurdities of life, the power of imagination and a sense of adventure in undefinable realms has still not been beaten by any number of 'serious' writers (although other 'children's authors' May Gibbs, JM Barry, 'Dr Suess' and Maurice Sendick also stand tall in this accomplishment).
Narrowly cut from the above books are works by Milan Kundera, Alice Walker, Blaise Cendrars, Harper Lee, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Orson Scott Card, Leo Tolstoy, Hermann Hesse, Umberto Eco, Fyodor Dostoevski and Joseph Conrad. All great writers who have written excellent books.
Before I finish I do have a couple of reading regrets from the past half-decade to share; chief among them that I've still not been able to digest any of Jane Austen's books (I think I may be genetically predisposed to putting them aside after fifteen pages), that no author has yet successfully synthesised high quality literature with science fiction (but I stick by the mantra that bad science fiction is still better than no science fiction), and, lastly, that I never stated in print that the Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien is as overblown and self-indulgent a piece of fiction as you'll ever find (oops, there it is in print now!).
Thank you for reading, it's been a pleasure.
jeremy@spinningplanetdesign.com
www.wordonbooks.com
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