From late 19th century Montana, to present day Brooklyn, to a futuristic realm, these three novels seem, on the surface, unrelated. Different settings and timeframes. Different voices and characterizations. Different styles of prose. What they have in common is they are written in perfect pitch, propulsive prose, their stories probing the quest for connection.
Ever more relevant in a world noted for disconnection and discord.
PIRANESI, by Susanna Clarke, which was on many best-of lists last year, seems a post-apocalyptic novel. Such novels tend to be dark, often despairing, also extremely creative – like fantasy or science fiction, writers can create new worlds. Ah, but wait. Perhaps we are not in a post-apocalypse. Perhaps we are in a mind game. Metaphysics versus concrete. The title character is based on an 18th century artist knowns for sketches of imaginary prisoners. He’s seems starkly alone with his thoughts, except for a weekly encounter with something of a tutor. He wanders a vast cavernous space he calls the House, like the remains of Pompeii. A series of statues serve as companions. He records thoughts in a notebook. He seeks comfort in glimpses of sky and birds.
The House is valuable because it is the House. It is enough in and of Itself. It is not the means to an end.
… It is my belief that the House itself loves and blesses equally everything that it has created. Should I try to do the same?
Just as you wonder how much stream of consciousness in this stark setting will work, other characters emerge. Their relationships and backstories are revealed, bit by bit, like a good mystery. Memory is faulty. Present time not so distant after all. The most profound questions emerge. What serves our imaginations? How do we escape the prison of our own minds?
Think Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Read CLOUD CUCKOO LAND by Anthony Doerr. Stare at a cubist painting for a while. Wander prehistoric ruins. Revisit Edgar Allan Poe!
MARTYR, a first novel by poet Kaveh Akbar, may seem, by title alone, an examination of the manipulated mindset of a terrorist. Do not be deceived. Acclaimed, and longlisted for the National Book award, Akbar presents an endearing young man, Cyrus, the son of a woman killed in 1988 when an Iranian plane was shot down, ostensibly by accident, by the American military. Now an expatriated struggling writer, he suffers the ravages of childhood trauma: addiction, anxiety, detachment. Stumbling through life, he would be lost but for the safety net of a small circle of friends.
But my whole life I’ve thought about my mom on that flight, how meaningless her death was. Truly literally like, meaningless. Without meaning. The difference between 270 dead and 269. It’s actuarial! Not even tragic, you know? So was she a martyr? There has to be a definition of the word that can accommodate her. That’s what I’m after.
His fascination with the meaning of martyrdom leads to an encounter with an Iranian artist spending her last cancer-ridden days on exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. They bond at once and together explore a myriad of existential quandaries. What does it mean to sacrifice your life to something larger than yourself? What does it take to connect with other humans in a way that might end suffering? Cyrus, fantastically human, is unforgettable.
Read John Updike’s TERRORIST. Read John Le Carré. Read READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN by Azar Nafisi.
Last, never least, the accomplished Irish writer, Kevin Barry, brings his signature lilted language and quirky humor, and a tender heart, to a different sort of search for freedom in THE HEART IN WINTER. His first novel set in the U.S. takes place in Montana mining country, late 19th century. A sensuous woman, with a dark past, has been imported to be wife to a local sea captain. When she falls for a ne’er do well romantic, they run away, pursued by bounty hunters hired to return her to her rightful owner.
They rode for careful hours through the cold fabrics of darkness. There was a trail on them now for sure. They made no fire when finally they did stop. They lay wrapped in amalgamated wintercoats against the base of a noble tree. They didn’t feel the cold for the thrill of new fear that was laid atop it.
Their dreamy commitment to each other will take your breath away. Even the most terrifying moments are handled in exquisite prose and Barry injects quirky poetry as well as laugh out loud characters to break up the tension. Oh, and did I mention a loyal stubborn horse? A cannot-put-down novel, again diving into the need to connect at the deepest level.
Oh the days now were long hard sentences not to speak of the nights and that’s when we’re most alone is the truth of it for most people is the nights.
Read, if you missed it, Lauren Groff’s A VASTER WILD. Read Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Watch the movie McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Wrap your arms around a romantic.
I highly recommend these beautifully written literary page turners. Great for reading groups or take coffee [or wine] with a friend to talk about what makes us human. LMK what you decide.
Cheers.