967. Platform

Platform
Michel Houellebecq
2001

Around 260 pages

Here we have another ugly novel to add the pile, although I suppose this one is deserving of its place on the List due to the controversy surround its publicity tour. In case you didn't know, Houellebecq made an offhand remark about Islam during the tour, and was taken to court for "inciting racial hatred." And eerily, the events in this novel seem to predict the 2002 Bali bombings.

After receiving a hefty inheritance due to the death of his father, Michel Renault engages in sex tourism in Thailand, and begins an affair with a travel agent named Valerie. We get a lot of sex scenes that I'm sure teenagers would have enjoyed passing around and giggling over, pre internet.

So yes, another racist and misogynistic work, we can never get enough of those apparently. I guess any criticism levied at this novel will be dismissed as puritanical moral outrage. This just wasn't that shocking or interesting to me; I find the subject of sexual tourism too depressing to contemplate. 

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a play in 2006.

UP NEXT: Nowhere Man by Aleksandar Hemon

966. The Corrections

The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen

2001

Around 570 pages

This is one of those novels that has a reputation bigger perhaps than it deserves. I'd much rather pick up something by Ian McEwan or Paul Auster than have to spend time with any of Franzen's characters. I still think it is deserves a place on the List, but it's not a favorite of mine.

The Corrections focuses on the Midwestern Lambert family. Alfred is the rigid patriarch who is has Parkinson's and dementia, and Enid is the typical passive aggressive and long suffering wife. Their three adult children Gary, Chip, and Denise are all struggling as well.

These are very real characters, a little too real. At some point, most of us have to deal with the depressing realities of aging parents or family drama. That's the kind of real life nightmare that we use novels to escape from. Reading about it is not an enjoyable experience, even if it is True as an art form.

So I have no criticism about the characterization or pacing, even though it's a pretty hefty novel. But personally I didn't feel like it was worth it to have my heart broken for these characters, as they were all unlikable and unsympathetic. I prefer other Franzen works over this.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Won the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction.

Was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize.

UP NEXT: Platform by Michel Houellebecq

965. Don't Move

Don't Move
Margaret Mazzantini
2001

Around 300 pages

If you are growing tired of me complaining about the frequent graphic depictions of rape on this List, well, so am I. But they just keep coming, although I guess this one is a shake-up in a way, because it's a female author. See, women can be just as disturbing as men!

Timoteo is a prominent surgeon whose daughter is in the hospital after a motorcycle accident. While she is being operated on, he makes his confessions to her about a relationship he had with a prostitute Italia, which was started when he raped her. There's this section where he pictures Italia reporting him, what his response would be, and how easily he could get away with it. Needless to say, it was a rough and frustrating read.

This reminded me of Last Tango in Paris, where an intensely sexual story is told, consent is basically out the window, and the entire thing feels like an unhappily married man's fantasy. Strangely, this was written by a woman, but you don't have to be a man to write a story with a patriarchal viewpoint.

I did enjoy the pacing and style, but being stuck with Timoteo made this insufferable.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Adapted to film in 2004.

UP NEXT: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

964. The Body Artist

The Body Artist
Don DeLillo
2001
Around 130 pages

We continue saying goodbye to big names on this List with our final DeLillo read, and he decides to send us on our way with a novella that is written in such a complicated style that it feels much longer than it is. Here's my official DeLillo ranking:

1. Libra

2. The Names

3. Underworld

4. Mao II

5. The Body Artist

6. Ratner's Star

7. White Noise

DeLillo is one of those novelists whose style is just not a match for me, no matter how many times we try to make it work romantically.

In The Body Artist, Rey Robles dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and is found in his first wife's apartment, which adds extra sting to his grieving third and current wife, Lauren. Then a bunch of weird stuff happens, it's hard to know what's real, and Lauren is a performance artist, so you know feelings are going to be processed in the most obnoxious way possible.

This reminded me of an insufferable movie, A Ghost Story, which was 92 minutes of a dead man standing with a sheet over his head, haunting his widowed wife. I liked this novel more, because it took me less than 92 minutes to read.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adapted to film in 2016.

UP NEXT: Don't Move by Margaret Mazzantini

963. Fury

Fury
Salman Rushdie
2001
Around 260 pages

Well, we are finally done with Rushdie novels. I never got pleasure from dunking on the guy; so many people want him dead that it just felt slightly gross to add to any din. Personally, I just don't like his storytelling technique, but that doesn't even feel relevant when discussing the importance of his novels. But I rate these books by my own enjoyment, so let's just get through this as quickly as possible.

Malik Solanka is a millionaire from Bombay who creates a puppet called "Little Brain." Ugh, it's Sabbath's Theater all over again. I preferred Roth, which really demonstrates how rough I found this reading experience.

Like I said, this is our last Rushdie and it's hard to do a ranking when you disliked them all equally. It's just a style issue for me, and I've had my fill lately of novels about men dealing with their "demons."

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

As a reminder, in 2009 Rushdie signed a petition in support of film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.

UP NEXT: The Body Artist by Don DeLillo

962. At Swim, Two Boys

At Swim, Two Boys
Jamie O'Neill
2001
Around 565 pages

Luckily, the List assigned At Swim-Two-Birds, just so we would get this pun. I'm always down for a queer romance, but must we channel James Joyce when we do it?

At Swim, Two Boys tells the love story of two young men, Jim Mack and Doyler Doyle (in case you needed a reminder they are Irish). In 1915, the two meet in Catholic school. Jim is quiet and the victim of molestation by the priest, and is impressed by Doyler's more rebellious nature. Their relationship grows as the boys are increasingly pressured to join the Irish Citizen Army and fight for their country.

I felt like we had seen all of these characters before and O'Neill didn't necessarily do anything new with them. I thought the events of the novel were a little too neat and predictable to be true to real life, but he did provide a satisfying end to the story. 

Not my favorite style, but a decent read.  

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a play and a dance interpretation. 

UP NEXT: Fury by Salman Rushdie

961. Choke

Choke
Chuck Palahniuk
2001

Around 295 pages

Okay, we had two masterpieces of novels, now the List is back to trying to make me vomit again. I'm not saying I loved chocolate pudding before reading this, but I don't appreciate it being ruined for me forever. 

Once again, we get a dark, psychological novel about a sexually disturbed man with mommy issues. I remember watching Joker and thinking how heavily it was borrowing from Choke, but I guess all these stories are so similar that they feel like they blur together.

I would definitely put Burroughs, Ellis, and Palahniuk works in the same category of gross novels starring supremely unlikable and misogynistic men. Skip!

RATING: -----

Interesting Facts:

Adapted to film in 2008.

UP NEXT: At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill

960. Life of Pi

Life of Pi
Yann Martel
2001

Around 460 pages

I wouldn't say the movie version is better, but it is definitely equal to its source material, which is a tall order for Hollywood. Particularly with all the CGI required to tell this story, this could have easily been a Cats style nightmare.

I know we're talking about the book here, and not the movie but they really feel like complementary works. During The Emergency in 1976, Pi's father decides to sell the zoo he manages and emigrate with his family to Canada. On the way, the ship sinks in a storm. Pi escapes on a lifeboat, unfortunately some of the zoo animals do as well.

Based on the premise alone, this would be an exciting adventure story, but Martell layers the novel with nuanced reflections on the nature of truth and if we are truly alone in the universe. 

Obama wrote a letter directly to Martel, describing Life of Pi as "an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling." If your prose is so good it's taken as proof of a higher power by the president, what further validation do you need as a writer?

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

Adapted to film in 2012.

UP NEXT: Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

959. The Book of Illusions

The Book of Illusions
Paul Auster
2002
Around 230 pages

How does Paul Auster come up with such strange concepts? That man continues to delight and amaze me. But all good things must end, and this is unfortunately our last Auster novel on the List. 

Damn, this was tough:

1. The Music of Chance

2. The Book of Illusions

3. Mr. Vertigo

4. Moon Palace

5. The New York Trilogy

6. Timbuktu

This one is only edged out of first place because The Music of Chance was such a masterpiece. And Timbuktu ends up in dead last strictly because I am a cat person. But honestly, I've been enamored with everything this guy has produced. 

David Zimmer is a professor who lost his wife and children in a plane crash. Naturally, he falls into a depression and the one thing that gives him any semblance of joy is watching the silent comedies of Hector Mann, an actor who has been missing since the 1920s. He decides to write a book on Mann.

I feel like the growth that Auster's characters go through from the beginning of the novel to the end is really unmatched. This also appealed to me as a lover of old cinema and good old fashioned mystery stories. I also love it when the main character is also a writer, so this just had all the ingredients I need for an entertaining novel.

Brilliant ending as well. See, that's how you do an ending, Kureishi.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

David Zimmer previously appeared in Auster's novel Moon Palace.

UP NEXT: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

958. Gabriel's Gift

Gabriel's Gift
Hanif Kureishi
2001
Around 180 pages

I am unsurprised to see that this was nixed from future editions from the List. It's not a very remarkable book and certainly it's the least remarkable Kureishi so far. So let's remark on it!

Rex Bunch is a washed up musician who once played with Leslie Jones. His partner Christine once designed clothes for rock stars, so the glory days are behind them both. Their son Gabriel is gifted a drawing by Leslie Jones. To prevent another argument from taking place, Gabriel makes copies of the drawing, giving one to his mom and one to his dad, and keeping the original to himself.

Gabriel seemed younger than his stated age of fifteen, although I guess he is stunted from his codependent relationship with his parents. But an unconvincing protagonist and a weirdly abrupt and strange ending make this one a no for me.

I haven't really enjoyed any Kureishi novel, so no tearful goodbyes this time.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

In early 2013, Kureishi lost his life savings, intended to cover "the ups and downs of being a writer", in a suspected fraud.

UP NEXT: The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster

957. Austerlitz

Austerlitz
W.G. Sebald
2001

Around 420 pages

I always know exactly what I am in for with Sebald, which is an emotionally wrenching and unconventionally presented Holocaust novel, with photographs to boot.

As always Sebald takes his time getting to the story, beginning the novel with descriptions of buildings. In other novels, this might be annoying, but I think it is almost necessary to ease the reader into a story like this. The main plotline concerns Austerlitz, who was adopted by a Welsh family after being rescued from Holocaust.

You definitely need a subtle touch with this material, and Sebald manages that perfectly here. Thematically, it is more interested in how the Holocaust will be remembered than the events themselves. So the photographs work especially well here, as artifacts that will outlive any oral accounts.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Won the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award.

UP NEXT: Gabriel's Gift by Hanif Kureishi

956. Schooling

Schooling
Heather McGowan
2001

Around 320 pages

It's getting harder to find these obscure novels. They are not old enough to get the Project Gutenberg treatment, but they aren't well known enough to be in libraries. This List knows it has me by the balls now, and I just want to finish. So I'll fork over the money for the ebooks, but I'll keep complaining about it!

Catrine Evans is a thirteen-year-old American who is sent to an English boarding school after her mother dies of cancer. This premise appealed to me, because as an American teenager I fantasized about being sent to a British boarding school (minus the mother dying part), given how those schools are portrayed in the media. But the style of writing made this a tough read for me. 

Stream of consciousness coupled with the childish perspective makes this a grueling experience. This is the kind of prose that you are encouraged to write in an academic setting. The events in the story were interesting enough to me that I would have enjoyed a more straightforward narrative. 

So not a bad novel, but not my taste.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Named Best Book of the Year by Newsweek.

UP NEXT: Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald

955. Atonement

Atonement
Ian McEwan
2001

Around 370 pages

Thank heavens for Ian McEwan. Of course, this novel is so depressing that it's hardly a cheerful pick me up, but I needed something moving that didn't include graphic scenes of sexual violence and sympathetic portrayals of child rapists. So in many ways, this was just what the doctor ordered.

In the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony misunderstands the relationship between her older sister Cecilia and Robbie, the son of her upper-class family's housekeeper. This misunderstanding has dire consequences for all of their lives, and it's a bad time to be a young person in England anyway.

It can be so frustrating when the characters in a story believe something that the reader knows is not true, that it can ruin the entire experience. But McEwan manages the perspectives and characters so masterfully that I never felt that way. He perfectly captures how catastrophes like this unfold. Just like in real life, so many little things have to go wrong for some tragedies to occur that it's hard not to feel like the fates are against you.

Loved the film adaptation as well, Joe Wright should adapt all my favorite novels.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Adapted to film in 2007.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

UP NEXT: Schooling by Heather McGowan

954. The Feast of the Goat

The Feast of the Goat
Mario Vargas Llhosa

2000

Around 475 pages

Well, this wasn't as bad as the previous novel, but it stilled aimed to disturb me as much as possible, with its explicit descriptions of torture and sexual assault. 

Set in the Dominican Republic in the 1960s, the novel follows three plot lines. The first centers around  Urania Cabral, who returns to the Dominican Republic to visit her sick father. The second story line focuses on the last day in Rafael Trujillo's life. The third storyline depicts Trujillo's assassins as they wait for his car that night, and what happens to them after the killing.

Again, I get where Llhosa was going with this, with Urania's assault symbolizing Trujillo's hysterical violence against the country at the time. Llhosa is drawing connections between sexuality and power, and painting a vivid portrait of a very scary despot.

But it was a rough read and offers little hope to the reader, which I could have used about now.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Adapted to film in 2005.

UP NEXT: Atonement by Ian McEwan

953. An Obedient Father

An Obedient Father
Akhil Sharma
2000
Around 290 pages

You know how during the last season of a show, you can tell the main actor's heart isn't in it anymore? Yeah, that's how I'm feeling right about now, after being assigned yet another novel that features graphic scenes of child rape. I'm not up to giving Sharma credit for anything here, this was just disgusting.

Our main sicko is a corrupt politician who rapes his daughter repeatedly. And somehow we are supposed to feel sympathetic to this guy. I guess it's supposed to be like how Dostoyevsky features guilt-ridden antiheroes waiting for their comeuppance. Thanks, I hate it.

Another one that makes me want to give up the List altogether, but we've come this far. So we will just give this zero stars and try to forget it as soon as possible.

RATING: -----

Interesting Facts:

Received the 2001 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and Whiting Writers' Award.

UP NEXT: The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa

952. The Devil and Miss Prym

The Devil and Miss Prym
Paulo Coehlo
2000
Around 205 pages

I am obsessed with Paulo Coelho, even if I can't pronounce his name with confidence. He is one of those authors who creates short novels based on unique but simple premises. He's almost like the M.Night Shyamalan of authors, although he's much better than that.

A strange man comes to a quiet village, and shows the listless Miss Prym a place in the woods that he has stashed gold. He promises to give the gold to the village, if a murder happens in the allotted time. Miss Prym makes a counter proposal that if nobody is killed, she gets to the keep the gold. 

I find these types of moral quandaries fascinating, and Coelho always populates his novels with thoughtful and philosophical characters. I enjoyed watching Coelho tackle the questions of good vs. evil, and the ethical implications of the concept of an omniscient god. 

I'm not always eager to see adaptations of my favorite novels on screen, but I think this would make a great film. Looking forward to more Coelho!

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

At the age of 17, Coehlo was committed to a mental institution and escaped three times.

UP NEXT: An Obedient Father by Akhil Sharma