The Top Ten Books I Read in 2017 (Plus 10 runners-up)

I read a lot of great books in 2017, so many that my top ten list of books I read in 2017 will include 10 runners-up to complete the picture. As always, I've read almost exclusively literary fiction - some contemporary books, some classics, and some obscure books accessible only through inter-library loan. One oddity this year, however, is that only 1 contemporary book made it to my top-ten (or even top-20) list. Some of the highly touted new books this year were really disappointing (later this week I will post my list of the most disappointing books of 2017); most were OK but by no means great, and I guess that makes sense. Realistically, how many books published in any given year will people still be reading a decade from now? A century from now? So, here's my list of:

The Top Ten Books (that I read) in 2017, plus 10 runners-up:

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers.1940

An incredible accomplishment for any author but almost unfathomable as the debut of a 23-year-old writer. How could she know so much about so many people and about her culture?

Iza’s Ballad, by Magda Szabo. 1963. Translated from the Hungarian

A smart and subtle depiction of a strained and strange mother-daughter relationship. Only gradually do we understand how cold-hearted Iza can be, how taking care of her mother serves her own, not her mother's, needs.

Jesus’ Son, by Denis Johnson. 1992

There are literally no darker works of American fiction; it can be easy to fabricate stories of crime and squalor, but something in these stories by Denis Johnson, who died this year, has the ring of authenticity and knowledge earned the hard way.

The Land at the End of the Earth, by Antonio Lobo Antunes. 1979. Translated from the Portuguese

One of the great war, or I should say anti-war, novels of the 20th century. By the end, we see how service in the colonial war in Angola destroyed the narrator for life, making him isolated, cynical, unable to connect with his family, his profession, his home town, his native land - or with anyone.

My Absolute Darling, by Gabriel Tallent.

The only new book on my 2017 top-ten list. It’s not always a compliment to describe a writer's style as cinematic, but in this case, yes, Tallent has a cinematic way of building to a complex, tension-filled dramatic climax. This debut novel altogether comprises an unusual mix of high style and vivid dramatic action – but be forewarned, this novel is extremely violent at times.

O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather. 1917

What begins as a celebration of the stark beauty of the Nebraska prairie and of the pioneer spirit that drove the first settlers to struggle and succeed evolves as we see the jealousy and the sexism, the misery of those who yearn to get away, and the narrow-mindedness of those who stay on the prairie.

Reading in the Dark, by Seamus Deane. 1995

As the novel progresses, Deane reveals a series of secrets that the narrator over time learns about his family history. The plot requires our attention, but it never overwhelms us, leaving us free throughout to appreciate the beauty of the language, the eccentricity of some of the characters in the narrator's community and neighborhood, and the beauty and strangeness of some of the interpolated stories.

Silence, by Shusaku Endo. 1966. Translated from the Japanese

A fine and complicated book, and, despite its remote setting in time and, for English-language readers, in place, the novel is accessible and compelling throughout. Was adapted into film this year by Martin Scorsese.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. 1937

A great portrayal of an independent black community, a powerful female protagonist, and a strong and honest love story. This novel is a key document in the 20^th-century revival of interest in black folk lore.

War and Turpentine, by Stefan Hertmans. 2013. Translated from the Flemish

The narrator tells the life story of his grandfather, an artist who served in World War I, based on his own recollections and on a manuscript that the grandfather left behind. It’s not a story about a single man but about an entire culture and an epoch.

The10 Runners-up:

1984, by George Orwell

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Eric Maria Remarque

The Black Notebook, by Patrick Modiano

Cry, The Beloved Country, by Alan Paton

The Door, by Magda Szabo

The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene

Persuasion, by Jane Austen

Sabbath’s Theater, by Philip Roth

A Sentimental Education, by Gustave Flaubert

A Sportsman’s Notebook, by Ivan Turgenev 

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