Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 2009

The City & The City is fine, but I think I prefer Mieville when he's in a 500 page novel with tons of ideas mode rather than pursuing one specific conceit.

Please Look After Mother is a very good novel about generational conflict, tiyl Ozu.

It's gotta be Wolf Hall though, despite Mantel's recent shitty terf nonsense and the fact that the project as a whole - casting a guy who was quite clearly a monster as a misunderstood, sympathetic character - still strikes me as strange.

i've read two books on this list! and i'm voting for inherent vice bc i hated a gate at the stairs

I own about ten of these, I’ve read about four, and the only one I really want to vote for is Rhino What You Did Last Summer. And I reread it recently and this beautiful metaphor always amuses me

Now, I’ve had my share of beautiful women over the years – and a lot of other people’s share as well – but I have to tell you, I’ve never been so gagging for someone in my entire life. Even though all we’re actually doing is holding hands, I’ve a nightstick on me that could put manners on a G7 protest.

good to have any desire to read mantel driven out of me i guess xxp

Boy that Ismail Kadere sure had a long and fruitful career, huh? Should read him sometime.

Rhino What You Did Last Summer included due to that very interesting essay gyac linked a few days ago.

Yes I included Chico Buarque's novel but not Nick Cave's, dealwithit.gif

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Voted for 1Q84 because I like the fact that I kept being very confused by the way it seemed extremely clumsy and artificial and yet I kept phenomenally enjoying it and couldn't stop reading it. I like books where I can't explain why they're good!

But "I Do Not Come To You By Chance" is great and more people should read it!

Democracy Or Demo Crazy - this guy!

Pride And Prejudice And Zombies is the worst idea ever conceived.

_Rhino What You Did Last Summer_ included due to that very interesting essay gyac linked a few days ago.
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_Pride And Prejudice And Zombies_ is the worst idea ever conceived.

Someone bought me Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as a present and I just did not know how to respond to that. Hopefully my face did not betray me.

voted for the novella exclusively concerned with the technicalities of London bus punctuality, because I could, obvs

Ah, the era of monsters crossing over with history in popular novels.

I’ve read Inherent Vice and 1Q84. Gonna have to think about which I prefer more.

Had genuinely no idea about Mantel's TERF stuff. Fuck.

In that case, The City & The City.

Yeah I kinda felt I had to include Pride & Prejudice & Zombies just because it was such a product of its time but not expecting anyone to vote for it.

i want to re-read a gate at the stairs; i remember liking it quite a lot but all i have seen is ppl say they dislike it

it's definitely likable, i just hated the bloggy voice it was written it and also the emotional manipulation toward the end

both pet peeves of mine where i can see someone else approaching them and thinking it was down-to-earth and moving

The City & The City is fine, but I think I prefer Mieville when he's in a 500 page novel with tons of ideas mode rather than pursuing one specific conceit. Despite a few stumbles, and initial handicap of East European cop with slight garble, you betsky, which I got used to, he's got enough ideas 4 hot pursuit of alt-polcier, which I'm a sucker for anyway ( incl. Yiddish Policemen's Union, The Demolished Man, more in that sense Blade Runner than source Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) Also, as usual, I'm voting for the only one I've read (will try Inherent Vice again: more weird detection, after all!)

Inherent Vice v. Wolf Hall.

watching the Inherent Vice film made it pretty clear I'd not have to read the book tbh

The book is better

you're wrong lj it's worth reading

and despite PTA lifting whole chunks of the text verbatim, the two have a completely different vibe

As much as I like Lorrie Moore, A Gate At The Stairs read like an experiment in a voice and style that she couldnt' bring off.

inherent vice is so good

Brooklyn was a minor thing quite well done, like the film adaptation.

Oh yeah, nice film. Especially liked speculating about how things went after the ending.

Yeah I liked Gate at the Stairs but couldn't get past the extent to which it is not as good as classic LM

I gave up after about 50 pages of Brooklyn, it was like reading an album by The Lighthouse Family.

Was between Wolf Hall, City & the City, and Lacuna for me of the 7 I'd read. Voted Lacuna.

I missed Brooklyn. I liked it a lot (and the film).

Huh. I would've guessed "My Struggle: Book One" would be the one to beat before reading this thread. Guess it's not as popular as I thought. It gets my vote over "The City & the City" which is the only other one I've read.

“My Struggle” is definitely something I intend to read.

I was going to suggest The Other City by Michal Ajvaz, and The Golden Age for 2010, but I guess they were written a while earlier and those were only the English publication years.

1Q84 basically made me lose interest in Murakami altogether, the first book was enjoyable enough but it was an utter slog by the end.

It’s kind of dumb but I loved Lethem’s Chronic City when I read it.

I recall enjoying 1Q84 but can't remember why it needed to be almost 1000 pages long. On reflection it probably didn't. The City & The City, like most Miéville post The Scar, is a great idea in search of a point. Er, that's all I've read! Which is two more than the 2008 list so at least I get to vote this time.

oh i’ve read my struggle book one and have never felt the need to read the rest. it was pretty good still

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead vs Wolf Hall with Plow just winning out.
1Q84 is the only murakami book I don't like.

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My Struggle book one is really great - I have read most of the others, enjoyed them all, but the first is clearly the best

I finished My Struggle, is the best I can say about it.

The Fat Years is an interesting alternate history of China (post Tiananmen) which is very informative about the actual pre Tiananmen history.

I'm also dithering between Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead and Wolf Hall but going for the latter.

that name again is Mr Plow...

only one i've read 8(

(and then only last year)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Lots of voters this time, good.

I love Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead, it's my favourite of his; a great book about music, food, adolescence. As I was reading it, it really reminded me of Richard Ford: it has that feel of a writer setting out to document in detail the everyday events of a few characters over a few weeks. I've since learned of the history between Whitehead and Ford, so the comparison is pretty screwed.

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 2010