740. Worstward Ho

Worstward Ho
Samuel Beckett
1983
Around 50 pages

We have finally reached the last Samuel Beckett novel on the List. He showed up on this blog eight times, and while I never looked forward to his visits, I appreciated the fact that he kept things short. No ranking this time, as I was consistently unenthused through all his works. At least this one gives a great line to put on your tombstone: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

As this largely reads as a poem, you're not really meant to follow a plot. I try to just let the words wash over me. It's kind of like reading Shakespeare, where every sentence needs to be translated in your mind into the King's English. It's so short and choppy, it's like driving with somebody who is constantly slamming on the brakes. Still preferable to our drivers who ramble incessantly for the whole car ride, but it's a rough journey.

This might be our most poetic entry on the List since Pale Fire. And I hated that too. To quote the sage of our time, Taylor Swift, I'm the problem, it's me.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Title is a parody of Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho!.

UP NEXT: Shame by Salman Rushdie

739. Fools of Fortune

Fools of Fortune
William Trevor
1983
Around 210 pages

I wish I had known when I was reading this that the film adaptation starred Iain Glen as Willie. That visualization would have greatly, ahem, enhanced my enjoyment of his scenes. That is one handsome feller.

During the Irish War of Independence, Willie loses his family, with the exception of his mother, to an attack by the Black and Tans. He falls in love with his cousin Marianne, because that is not so incestuous during this time period. 

If we don't factor in the creepy schoolteacher, I thought this was a great novel. The historical backdrop was fascinating. Willie was a likable but passive protagonist, and it was interesting that the perspective shifts from Willie to Marianne during their romance, so we never really get to see Willie be proactive. But hey, some of my best friends are reactive main characters, so I'm fine with it.

I finally have an Irish author that I like! Thanks Willie!

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The Washington Post described the film adaptation as "a passionate, mystifyingly awkward bit of filmmaking."

UP NEXT: Worstward Ho by Samuel Beckett

738. La Brava

La Brava
Elmore Leonard
1983
Around 430 pages

I love that Elmore Leonard is sprinkled throughout the List to give us a reprieve from some of the more hard hitting social commentary novels that we have to contend with. Not that his stories are light and breezy, but they are definitely more fun than the Apartheid. 

Joe La Brava is a former secret service agent, who now spends his time capturing Miami street life on camera. He gets knee deep in a case involving a former movie star and organized crime. Jean Shaw was an excellent femme fatale, which is to be expected from a character named Jean Shaw.

Our leading men in these gritty stories are rarely likable, but I enjoyed Joe as a protagonist, and he had a more unique background than just former cop turned P.I. Now I'm in the mood to watch Scarface.

Thrillers are good for my soul. 

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

There was a planned adaptation starring Dustin Hoffman, but it fell through due to contract disputes.

UP NEXT: Fools of Fortune by William Trevor

737. Waterland

Waterland
Graham Swift
1983
Around 310 pages

I was surprised to learn that the film adaptation moved the location to Pittsburgh. This feels like a story that can only happen in the Fens. And Jeremy Irons stars in it, so not really sure what's going on there. I guess childless women being crazy is a trope you can take anywhere.

Tom Crick is a history teacher who is slowly being phased out by his school to make way for more STEM subjects. He takes the fresh approach of using his personal history to engage his students. Tom's relationship with his wife Mary is juicy enough to engage even the most bored pupil.

Swift manages to come up with some disturbing, albeit not entirely original, twists to this story, and the way he presented the narrative was unique. Much of my enjoyment came from the descriptions of the Fenlands, and I can see the influence this had on future works that I admire (Ian Banks anybody?).

I know a few scenes in this story are going to stick with me, which is more that I can say for a lot of the slogs on this List.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

UP NEXT: La Brava by Elmore Leonard

736. The Life and Times of Michael K

The Life and Times of Michael K

J.M. Coetzee
1983
Around 200 pages

We have a clear reference to Kafka in the title, so we already know our protagonist is in for a thankless and grueling experience. Poor Michael really can't catch a break.

Michael K has a cleft lip and works as a gardener in Cape Town. He is the caretaker for his mother and wants to return her to her birthplace while she is still alive, which is difficult because he can't obtain proper permits to leave the city. It's pretty much one struggle after the other for Michael.

I always appreciate it when main characters have some kind of perceived physical defect. We can really tell a lot about humanity by how others react to that character because of their flaws. And in this instance, Coetzee uses Michael K to show how marginalized communities are treated without constantly bringing up race. 

So I wouldn't say I've enjoyed any of his novels yet, but I'm admiring his skill as a social commentator more and more.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Won the Booker Prize in 1983.

UP NEXT: Waterland by Graham Swift

735. The Diary of Jane Somers

The Diary of Jane Somers
Doris Lessing
1983

Around 500 pages

This is actually two novels, The Diary of a Good Neighbor and If the Old Could. It is also our goodbye to Doris Lessing, who I never enjoyed as much as I expected to. This is definitely her best work, so at least she leaves at an all time high.

Jane Somers is a magazine editor whose mother and husband have recently died of cancer. Naturally, this causes her to reexamine her relationships. She befriends Maudie, an elderly woman who has always struggled with poverty, and in the second novel, explores love after grief.

It was interesting having an author focus on the latter phases in life as a woman, which doesn't get a lot of attention in literature. There is no female version of the Rabbit Run series. Lessing really captures how your perspective shifts as you enter new life stages.

The plot took a turn for the weird in the second novel, but Jane remains likable throughout the story. I guess Doris Lessing did this under a different name to see if her writing would find success without her famous name. I guess being a popular, esteemed author gets boring after a while.

So a good send off for Lessing, who I respect but wouldn't number among my favorites.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Lessing was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature.

UP NEXT: The Life and Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee

734. The Piano Teacher

The Piano Teacher
Elfriede Jelinek
1983
Around 290 pages

There's never been a character in literature like Erika Kohut, which is likely a good thing. This is a disturbing read, but I can't deny that Erika is a fascinating subject.

Erika is a piano teacher in her 30s who teaches at the Vienna Conservatory and lives with her controlling mother. She has some unconventional fetishes, and chooses an engineering student, Walter Klemmer, to participate in her sexual fantasies. Kinkiness ensues.

I've noticed the smut written by women on this List tends to focus heavily on repression as a theme. Erika was a brilliant invention, a character constantly teetering between numb passivity and violent rage. And her relationship with her mother would take years to untangle. I love how Jelinek integrated music into the narrative, as it helped flesh out Erika as a character and provided a fitting backdrop for an Austrian story. 

Harrowing, and likely to stay with me for awhile, so for that it earns its stars easily.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into film in 2001.

UP NEXT: The Diary of Jane Somers by Doris Lessing

733. The Sorrow of Beligum

The Sorrow of Belgium
Hugo Claus
1983
Around 610 pages

By now we've had our fair share of World War II novels on the List, but I believe this is our first story that takes place in Belgium. It's always interesting to see how another pocket of the world was affected by global conflict. And we can check Belgium off our world tour!

The Sorrow of Belgium is a bildungsroman that tells the story of Louis Seynaeve, a Flemish schoolboy who lives in Kortrijk before and during the German occupation. His family are Flemish nationalists and Nazi sympathizers. He goes to a boarding school run by terrifying nuns, and does normal schoolboy things. Well, mostly. Hopefully how he lost his virginity isn't that normal.

It's wild having this entry right after Primo Levi. Hopefully, it's easier to sympathize with Levi than a family that regularly says "Heil Hitler." But Claus manages to make them humans without the benefit of hindsight, and it's hard not to feel sorry for the mother, who could have benefitted from a therapy session. Or ten.

With the way racism and prejudice was so integrated into the culture, it's chilling how ripe Belgium was for Hitler. A fascinating peek at a country very much in the thick of everything, but often overlooked in literature.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a miniseries in 1994.

UP NEXT: The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

732. If Not Now, When?

If Not Now, When?
Primo Levi
1982
Around 330 pages

When it comes to Primo Levi novels, "enjoyable" is certainly not the word to describe the reading experience. This novel did not feel as raw and gut-wrenching as If This is a Man. This felt more like wish fulfillment, in a way.

In real life, Levi joined a group of unexperienced resistance fighters in Italy and was almost immediately captured and sent to Auschwitz. So in Auschwitz, he probably spent much of time reflecting on what could have been and fantasizing about being a heroic soldier, instead of an emaciated prisoner in hell. Our main character Mendel was a watch repairer before joining the Red Army. He loses his wife and shtetl to the Germans, and falls in with a group of Jewish resistance fighters.

So this is a book that Levi needed to write, but naturally it's not going to be as powerful as reading about his firsthand experiences in a death camp. But everything this man writes is worth a read. Now that he has gotten this out of his system, I'm very curious where he will go from here with his next novel.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The title is taken from a well-known rabbinical saying attributed to Hillel the Elder: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And when I am for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?"

UP NEXT: The Sorrow of Belgium by Hugo Claus

731. A Boy's Own Story

A Boy's Own Story
Edmund White
1982
Around 220 pages

Two gay novels in a row! See, I knew gay people existed, despite what the List was telling me. 

Our narrator begins the story at 15, and is just starting to explore his sexuality as a gay person. And let me just say, he seems to have a lot of opportunities to take things out for a spin, if you know what I mean. I don't recall being presented with as many chances to have homosexual encounters just in day to day living when I was growing up. But maybe it's like the Leaky Cauldron; it's invisible to muggles like me.

I really enjoyed this novel. I loved our narrator, and it was fascinating seeing all the ways the men in the story tried to rationalize their homosexuality. For some, it's something you put in a box and get over by marrying a woman (a big thank you to those fellas on behalf of the ladies). For others, they just think of it as a part of growing up, a sort of pre show to heterosexual experiences to come. It's sad that it's so foreign to just embrace it as a part of your identity.

I like that the narrator thought his homosexual impulses would be curbed by going to an all boys boarding school. Good call there, buddy.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

First in a trilogy.

UP NEXT: If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi

730. The Color Purple

The Color Purple
Alice Walker
1982
Around 305 pages

I understand the criticism of the novel and the movie, that it might feed into the negative stereotypes about African American men. The men in the story are horrible people. But is it really the responsibility of Black women to correct all of society's assumptions about Black men? Let Celie tell her story the way she wants to tell it, even if it is a relentlessly depressing one.

Celie is a 14-year-old girl whose only confidant is god, because her father forbids her from telling anybody else about his sexual and physical abuse. She has two children by her father, and is married off to a farmer named "Mister," even though he asked for her sister Nettie's hand. Mister is another abusive monster, but his mistress, Shug Avery, forms a connection with Celie. Yay, lesbian literature!

This is a powerful book and Alice Walker is an extremely talented author. It is a bummer that the Black stories that get the most attention are the ones that full of trauma and misery. But like I said, that's not Alice's fault or responsibility, and she did an amazing job getting your heart to break for Celie.

Predictably, the film adaptation is directed by a straight white guy.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Number 17 on the American Library Association's 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books.

Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983, making Walker the first black woman to win the prize.

UP NEXT: A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White

729. Wittgenstein's Nephew

Wittgenstein's Nephew
Thomas Bernhard
1982
Around 100 pages

I actually had to fork over some money to track this one down. Usually I'm savvy (i.e. cheap) enough to find a free copy. It's always the German novels that cause me issues, the troublemakers. Anyway, this was like the continuation of Concrete, but I'm not complaining. Thomas Bernhard is, though.

This is a largely autobiographical work, as our narrator has the same chronic lung disease that Bernhard suffered from. And like Bernhard, he befriends Paul Wittgenstein, the nephew of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Paul is being treated for an unnamed mental illness at the same time that our narrator is hospitalized for his lung ailment. 

This is a very short novel that I enjoyed quite a bit. Once again, Bernhard is relatable in his observations of being an invalid and the relationship between the sick and the healthy. And he rips apart Austrian high society, which is fun. 

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Title is a reference to Diderot's Rameau's Nephew.

UP NEXT: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

728. A Pale View of Hills

A Pale View of Hills

Kazuo Ishiguro
1982
Around 185 pages

Could the List authors at least save their masterpieces for the third or fourth novel in their canon? This is really starting to make me feel insecure. So happy that Ishiguro is now on the List, we are definitely building our A-team here.

During a visit from her daughter, Niki, Etsuko reflects on her life as a young woman in Japan, and how she left that country and moved to England. Etsuko and her Japanese husband, Jiro, had a daughter together, and a few years later Etsuko met a British man and moved with him to England. She took her elder daughter, Keiko, to England to live with her and the new husband and had a second daughter. In England, Keiko becomes increasingly solitary and antisocial. 

So another beautifully depressing work. Ishiguro is very sympathetic to his characters, so you feel deeply for everybody in the story. I enjoyed the themes of loss and memory, and at the very least, it shows the promise Ishiguro has a storyteller. 

Not the best Ishiguro has to offer, but a damn near perfect debut.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

He received a £1000 advance from publishers Faber and Faber for the novel.

UP NEXT: Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard

727. Schindler's Ark

Schindler's Ark
Thomas Keneally
1982
Around 380 pages

Crossover episode! Schindler's Ark's movie adaptation is naturally on the 1001 movie list. As usual, the book is much better than the film, and avoids some of the more heavy-handed symbolism (ahem, above).

This novel tells the story of Oskar Schindler, self-made entrepreneur who finds himself saving Polish Jews from Nazis. Basically he is Batman. Schindler is presented as a flawed womanizer with a drinking problem. Keneally also tells the story of the forced labor camp outside town, Płaszów, and of Amon Göth, Płaszów's commandant.

The only way to not drown in a sea of misery that we live in a world capable of committing the Holocaust, is to focus on stories like Oskar Schindler. He's not a Mr. Rogers-type, and Keneally thankfully does not try to paint him that way. But what a soul. I'm not surprised he did well with the ladies.

Keneally is a great storyteller and weaves fiction and non fiction well.  Looking forward to more non fiction novels!

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Won the Booker Prize.

A carbon copy of Schindler's original 13-page list, initially thought to be lost, was discovered in 2009 in a library in Sydney, Australia.

UP NEXT: A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

726. The House of Spirits

The House of Spirits
Isabel Allende
1982
Around 450 pages

Continuing our run of exceptional novels, we come to The House of Spirits. I have always had to space out my Isabel Allende reads, because she breaks this fragile heart in twain. It's hard to believe this is her debut novel. For my own mental wellbeing, I have to believe that she wrote a lot of rough, unpublished work before this.

The House of the Spirits spans four generations of the Trueba family, and although she never explicitly says where the novel takes place, it's easy to connect the allusions she makes to Chilean history. The family has many memorable characters, including my favorites Clara, who has paranormal powers and is shocked into muteness, and her fiery sister-in-law Ferula.

Of course, I am unsurprised that the movie adaptation white-washed the cast and bombed. This would be a hard story to adapt though even with the right cast. She has the same style of slow build as Marquez, and the same unfortunate inclination to include sexual violence. It's heart-breaking to go through so much trauma with these characters. 

Could definitely use a lighter read as a chaser, but I'm not sure the next entry qualifies.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

The book was first conceived by Allende when she received news that her 100-year-old grandfather was dying. She began to write him a letter that ultimately became the manuscript of The House of the Spirits.

Allende starts all her books on January 8. 

UP NEXT: Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally

725. The Newton Letter

The Newton Letter
John Banville

1982
Around 100 pages

Looking at the upcoming novels on our List, we are in for a record-breaking string of bangers. Until Samuel Beckett comes back again of course.

This short novel follows the adventures of a biographer whose current subject is Isaac Newton. I love it when we follow an author who rents a remote cabin to work on their masterpiece. I think all writers have that fantasy, but I'm a little nervous I would get axe murdered if I did that. I was instantly hooked by the first line: "Words fail me." That's writer's block in a nutshell! Although I feel like vice versa is maybe truer.

You can tell that Banville is an avid reader. To me, his works always feel like a pleasant combination of Iris Murdoch, Ford Maddox Ford, and Julian Barnes. And this is an early work, so he's only going to improve.

So happy to have you on the squad John!

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Banville said he would advise readers who want to sample his work to start with this novel.

UP NEXT: The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

724. On the Black Hill

On the Black Hill
Bruce Chatwin
1982
Around 275 pages

I always love it when authors reference other writers in their work. Mary Jones is an avid reader, but she didn't enjoy Mayor of Casterbridge as much as I did. She ends up getting hit upside the head with Wuthering Heights, so she probably did not enjoy that one as much as me as well.

On the Black Hill is set on the border between Wales and England. Twin brothers Lewis and Benjamin live on an isolated farm and sleep side by side, in a totally not weird way. Their father Amos is jealous of his wife's education. 

I thought this was a little all over the place, but based on Chatwin's history as a travel writer, it make sense that he would have an eclectic and sprawling style that is unrestrained by time and place. So not my favorite novel (and didn't connect with any of the characters), but certainly not an offensive entry.

Another List author who was gone too soon!

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a film in 1987.

UP NEXT: The Newton Letter by John Banville

723. The Comfort of Strangers

The Comfort of Strangers
Ian McEwan
1981
Around 130 pages

I believe sexuality has only been handled in a healthy way a handful of times on the List. Which tells me that humanity is full of freaks. Ian McEwan is such a compelling writer, with such disturbing premises, that it is impossible to not stop and stare.

Mary and Colin are a British couple on holiday in a city, trying to give their dying relationship mouth to mouth. They meet Robert, a native with some, um, colorful stories, and his wife Caroline. They are creepy as hell, but Mary and Colin haven't watched enough horror movies to go running for the hills.

As a huge fan of horror movies, I was pleased with this one. It plays out like a movie with the slow build, and I was unsurprised that it was taken to the big screen. Still not the best McEwan is capable of, but an intriguing and unsettling entry nonetheless.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into 1990 film starring Christopher Walken.

UP NEXT: On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin

722. July's People

July's People
Nadine Gordimer
1981

Around 195 pages

July's People was banned in South Africa, which is not at all surprising, as every South African novel we read was banned at some point. The government of Gauteng Province provided the following reason for the ban:

"The subject matter is questionable ... the language that is used is not acceptable, as it does not encourage good grammatical practices ... the reader is bombarded with nuances that do not achieve much ... any condemnation of racism is difficult to discover - so the story comes across as being deeply racist, superior and patronizing."

Doesn't encourage good grammatical practices? Well, that eliminates about half the entries on the List. Although a world without Thomas Pynchon novels does have its appeal.

The novel is set during a fictional civil war in which black South Africans have violently overturned the system of apartheid. The Smales, a liberal white family, are rescued by their black servant July. Naturally, the Smales struggle with the power shift.

Often the List exposes us to the most extreme forms of racism, so it illuminating to just get a glimpse of the more domestic examples of prejudice. Gordimer provides this with the interactions between Maureen and July. It's alternative reality, but it's very revealing of the era's society. And this era's society, let's be honest.

Gordimer was only with us for a short time, but I appreciate a woman who causes a stir.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Banned in South Africa after its publication, and later under the post-apartheid government.

UP NEXT: The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan

721. Concrete

Concrete
Thomas Bernhard
1982

Around 160 pages

In Samuel Beckett's hands, I might have been repulsed by what is essential a 160 page monologue with no separate paragraphs. But there was something about Bernhard's dark humor that really worked for me. I also like it when our narrator waxes poetic about a physical ailment. There's a lot of drama just in the functions of a human being.

Our delightfully introspective narrator Rudolf is a Viennese musicologist with sarcoidosis. If that doesn't push all the right buttons for you, I'm not sure what would. I find it amusing when characters go on long rants about a litany of complaints, especially on something as relatable as writer's block. There is a lot to complain about on this planet, and people who "can't complain" are just uninspired.

It was also entertaining how much he hated his sister, and led to some laugh out loud moments for me. Thomas Bernhard, you are working your way into my shriveled heart.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

New edition was published in 2012.

UP NEXT: July's People by Nadine Gordimer

720. The Names

The Names
Don DeLillo
1982
Around 340 pages

For whatever reason, I could only locate an audio version of the story. But a format change can be a good way to try to click with an author that you haven't been gelling with yet. It's like when couples in bad marriages take salsa lessons together. 

The novel follows James Axton, an American risk analyst, who encounters a series of murders related to a clandestine cult that is obsessed with the significance and power of names. We also explore his relationship with Kathryn, his estranged wife, and their son, Tap, who is working on a non fiction novel.

Sure, I'm jealous of Tap's intellect, but I also think he is an unbelievable character. DeLillo's worlds never feel real or true to me. But the fascination with language was entertaining, and every once in awhile, he comes up with a sentence or description that forces me to pause in appreciation. 

I feel like this could have been a tighter story, but still impressive.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Optioned for a film adaptation in 2015.

UP NEXT: Concrete by Thomas Bernhard

719. Rabbit is Rich

Rabbit is Rich
John Updike
1981
Around 480 pages

This is the conclusion of the Updike novels on our List, although there are two other entries in the Rabbit Run series. I am eager to find out what happens to Harry Angstrom, but I don't want to say goodbye to this character yet. Yes, he's a reprehensible jerk, but he's our reprehensible jerk.

Harry Angstrom is still married to Janice, and is actually wealthy now after inheriting his late father-in-law's car dealership. He is still our Harry though, so he is still dealing with domestic issues and the consequences of his philandering.

I can't think of many characters in literature we get to know as well as Harry. In many ways he is the quintessential American man, but Updike manages to imbue him with enough humanity that he never feels like he is just there to fulfill an archetype. All of the characters are flawed in very real ways, although Nelson still annoys me the most.

The frequent objectification of women is hard to stomach, but it is very true to the character of Harry, who is in constant conflict with himself. He wants women, but hates them as well, which is a tale as old as Adam's dick. In Updike's capable hands, even the scenes of everyday life are riveting. 

Bye Harry! You were a total ass, but I forgive you.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1981. 

UP NEXT: The Names by Don DeLilo

718. Lanark: A Life in Four Books

Lanark: A Life in Four Books
Alasdair Gray
1981

Around 560 pages

Alasdair Gray may be one of the sexiest names I have ever heard, but that does not mean that I will automatically love your novel, sir. This was a rough one, and I see why this book isn't well known.

The novel is comprised of four books, arranged in the order of three, one, two, four. There is also an epilogue before the end, because this novel is kooky, goddamn it! Lanark is the name chosen by a young man who wakes up in a train carriage with no memory of who he is. The entire novel is basically a fever dream, set in a strange world that is a little bit like Scotland.

Well, I never really enjoy the trippy ones, so I knew this would be a slog. A standard issue postmodernism work, complete with a wacky structure and the characters meeting the author in the text. Not my cup of tea.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Written in over 30 years. Don't give up on your novel!

Anthony Burgess called Gray "the best Scottish novelist since Walter Scott."

UP NEXT: Rabbit is Rich by John Updike

717. Summer in Baden-Baden

Summer in Baden-Baden
Leonid Tsypkin
Published in English in 1982
Around 250 pages

I love it when authors totally stan other authors, so I was excited to read a book about Tyspkin's love for Dostoyevsky. And I've missed our depressing Russian authors lately.

We get two narratives here, but the juicy one follows the newly married Dostoyevskys, Fyodor, and his wife, Anna, who are on their way to Germany for a four-year trip. Tsypkin is enough of a Dostoyevsky fan boy to know pretty much everything about his life, but it's not meant to be 100% real. But like most famous writers, Dostoyevsky was kind of a tool.

Even though it is fictional, this is a rich portrait of a complicated, deeply flawed man. I guess Tyspkin did not live long enough to see this book published, which is a shame, but it felt like such a passion project that I don't think he wrote it for an audience.

This is like a love letter to Russian literature, and I enjoyed all the literary allusions, even if the structure was a little hard to digest at points. 

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Susan Sontag wrote the preface.

UP NEXT: Lanark: A Life in Four Books by Alasdair Gray

716. Waiting for the Barbarians

Waiting for the Barbarians
J.M. Coetzee
1980

Around 160 pages

After Midnight's Children, we deserve a little treat. And I am enjoying J.M. Coetzee more and more, which is a good thing since he's a recurring cast member on this List. 

At a frontier outpost of an unnamed empire, a colonial magistrate suffers a crisis of conscience when Colonel Jell arrives looking to interrogate the locals about a supposed impending uprising. Coetzee always tells a simple story with a heavy dose of violence.

Man, I wish Coetzee would give some of these other List authors lessons in brevity. He only shares details that are absolutely essential to the story, and his themes are so universal that he really doesn't have to do a lot of world-building. All we need to know is an imperial power fears and abuses the natives, and he doesn't bog us down with unneccesary details.

This novel reminded me of The Opposing Shore, where soldiers wait poised for an attack that may never come. Coetzee's story is more action packed, but it does an excellent job of capturing that fear of the unknown, while emphasizing how imperialists capitalize on that fear to control and subjugate the masses.

Colonel Jell was one of the worst villains we've encountered on this List. Definitely worth a read.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Coetzee is said to have taken the title as well as to have been heavily influenced by the 1904 poem "Waiting for the Barbarians" by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy.

UP NEXT: Summer in the Baden-Baden by Leonid Tsypkin

715. Midnight's Children

Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie
1981

Around 450 pages

Not only did this win the Booker Prize, but it won the Booker of Bookers Prize as voted by the public. Considering the other winners that we have to choose from, I think everybody needs to get a grip. Of course, I am well aware that for many people, this is the most important book of the century. There are many works of genius on this List that are miserable to get through. While this is not Ulysses or Infinite Jest level of drudgery, it's still an exhausting novel.

Our narrator of the story is Saleem Sinai, born at the exact moment when India became an independent country. He was born with telepathic powers and always needs a tissue. He later discovers that all children born in India between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. on that date have special powers. Saleem, using his telepathic powers, assembles a Midnight Children's Conference. Saleem uses his telepathy to bring hundreds of children into contact while also attempting to discover the meaning of their gifts.

Reading Rushdie is like listening to somebody describe their dream. He is so descriptive and meandering that he seems like he has little interest in his audience's experience. Having extensive knowledge of Indian history would probably be a strong advantage in deciphering this work, but even then I would imagine it's still a rough ride. 

This might be a novel I want to revisit down the line, but for now, I definitely want to see other people. 

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Sold over one million copies in the UK alone. 

Won the Booker Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981.

In 1984 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi brought an action against the book in the British courts, claiming to have been defamed by a single sentence in the penultimate paragraph of chapter 28, in which her son Sanjay Gandhi was said to have had a hold over his mother by his accusing her of contributing to his father Feroze Gandhi's death through her neglect. The case was settled out of court when Salman Rushdie agreed to remove the offending sentence.

UP NEXT: Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee

714. Rites of Passage

Rites of Passage
William Golding
1980

Around 280 pages

Since Hemingway and Melville have exited the scene, we haven't had a lot of sea-faring stories, so I was happy to accompany Edmund Talbot on his nautical journey. This was an enjoyable novel and increased my respect for the breadth of Golding's work.

It's always fun to have a novel presented as a journal, although it's an outdated practice by this point on the List. Edmund shares his account of a six month voyage to Australia in the early 1900s. I don't really want to give anything else away here, but suffice to say the story deals with shame and the class system. 

Golding eases us into this narrative by starting with somewhat comical descriptions of the ship and its passengers, and then shifting into a more shocking tale. This tone change could have been too jarring in another writer's hands, so I was impressed by Golding's deftness here. And Edmund was a great choice for a narrator, as he begins the novel in a very stuffy, Eustace Scrubbs place and ends up somewhere entirely different. 

Edmund being our voice also prevented the novel from being heavily weighed down by nautical terms like other stories from this genre have been. Worth reading just to see how much more Golding has to offer than just Lord of the Flies.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Won the 1980 Booker Prize.

UP NEXT: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

713. Broken April

Broken April
Ismail Kadare
1978
Around 200 pages

How embarrassing, we still had a book from the 70s to cover. I am guessing the List arranged the entries this way because the English translation was released in 1980. Otherwise, the Listmakers are just plain wrong about something, and we all know that couldn't happen.

Gjorg is a 26-year-old man who must avenge his brother's dad in accordance with the customs of Northern Albania. As a result of the revenge killing, Gjorg knows he will end up being murdered by a member of the opposing family. 

Our first Albanian entry! And Kadare introduces us to the culture in a rather brutal way, like when he tells us the bride's family gives a bullet to the groom, in case she's unfaithful. There's not much plot here, but we are given to understand how out of step with the rest of the continent Albania was, considering what was going on in Europe in the 1930s when this story was set. 

Kind of a miserable story, and if that is our only checkmark for this country, I think Albania got the short end of the stick.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a Brazilian film in 2001.

UP NEXT: Rites of Passage by William Golding

712. Rituals

Rituals
Cees Nooteboom
1980

Around 190 pages

I believe this is our first Dutch novel since 1860, so I suppose it was time to check in with these guys. I enjoyed this short, rather depressing work, and it was a nice reprieve from the hefty tomes we've had recently.

Inni's writes the horoscope for a local paper and tells his fellow Leos that their wives will cheat on them and they will kill themselves. So then when his wife cheats on him, he's really backed into a corner. The rest of the story follows Inni's previous encounters with a father and son, Arnold and Philip Taads. 

I don't have much to say about this one. This is largely a philosophical work, but he includes touches of well-measured absurdism. It was a quick, if not very uplifting, read. Glad we will see more of Cees down the line.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a French film in 1988.

UP NEXT: Broken April by Ismail Kadare

711. A Confederacy of Dunces

Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole
1980

Around 400 pages

It's always a bit uncomfy when a novel is published by the family or friends after an author's death, without their permission. We add John Kennedy Toole to our sad list of authors who committed suicide, although I don't think anybody on that list has written anything so comical. It's not my sense of humor, but I still enjoyed the ride, and we never quite reached Gargantua and Pantagruel levels of disgusting jokes.

Ignatius Jacques Reilly is an overweight and unemployed 30-year-old slob who lives with his mother. Due to circumstances that are partly his fault, he has to get a job for the first time in his life. He gets a series of jobs that all end in disaster, Don Quixote-style. 

Ignatius comes from a long line of literary losers, which includes Oblomov, Leopold Bloom, and Holden Caulfield. They don't fit in, typically in their outward appearance as well as their private thoughts, which lean towards hate and anger at the world that rejects them. I certainly enjoyed this more than I have enjoyed Joyce, but this isn't a laugh out loud funny novel to me, which I know it is to many. 

It's a shame that Toole didn't live long enough to see The Joker.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Published 11 years after Toole's death.

The book's title refers to an epigram from Jonathan Swift's essay Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

UP NEXT: Rituals by Cees Nooteboom

710. City Primeval

City Primeval
Elmore Leonard
1980
Around 275 pages

In all the excitement of criticizing Umberto Eco, I forgot to herald in the 1980s. To me, Elmore Leonard is the quintessential 80s author, so it's more fitting to do it with him anyway. Welcome to the party pal!

"Oklahoma Wildman" Clement Mansell kills a crooked Detroit judge. Homicide Detective Raymond Cruz pursues him. I never want to give too much away with crime novels, but Leonard tells a well-paced and gritty story that would make his ancestors (e.g. Raymond Chandler) proud. 

I always like to read Elmore Leonard on beach vacations. They are all fast reads that don't sacrifice quality. Given the fact that Timothy Olyphant is in the miniseries adaptation, I will definitely have to tune in during my private Mandy time.

Looking forward to Leonard's other entries!

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a Justified sequel in 2023.

UP NEXT: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole