Books I Read January 9th 2022

Happy New Year. I spent my December too busy to read much or to write about reading. I got to talk a bit about homelessness in the LA Times. In brute truth, the back half of the year was not what it should have been reading wise, and after a decent start my total for 2021 puttered out at just north of 175 books. Not what I was hoping for but I enter 2022 committed to self-improvement in that, as in many other areas. In any event, these are the books I read the last month or so...

Maigret at the Coroners – Maigret's trip through Arizona offers Simenon opportunity to make some engaging but ultimately oddly off-base criticisms of America. Engaging stuff, even if it ain't quite Toqueville.

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian – Engaging historical fiction of the sort which is really accurate about how many guns a ship of the line has. I read it beside a fire, in a cabin in Big Bear while watching the snow fall. That benefits you very little, admittedly, but it's mainly what I remember about this book.

The Gourmet and Other Stories from Modern China by Lu Wenfu – Wenfu was one of post-war China's most talented writers, whose fame caused him to become a casualty of the cultural revolution, These series of stories, written shortly after Mao's death and the resuscitation of the his reputation, offer an oblique and measured criticism of a society experiencing rapid and unprecedented change. I dug it.

The World of 'Mestre' Tamoda by Uanhenga Xitu – Rabelesian fables about a fast-talking good-for-nothing and post-Colonial Angola. Despite being written while the author was imprisoned by the Portuguese regime, they possess an earthy joy at the daily realities of Angolan existence. Fun and strange.

Mothers and Shadows by Marta Traba – Faulknerian recollections of two women united in suffering caused by the wave of fascism then sweeping across South America. It reminded me of Bolano in the potency of its monologues and in its willingness to stare at the nastiest aspects of the human experience without looking away or degenerating into pornography. Strong stuff.

The Laughing Cry: An African Cock and Bull Story by Henri Lopes – The rise of a thuggish African dictator as chronicled by his man servant and cuckold. Slim but large in scope, a tragicomic commentary on the unrealized hopes of post-colonial Africa. Sexy, funny, sad, excellent.

Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge – A bestiary of a magical modern China. Part of that strain of modern East Asian fiction which intertwines the banal and fantastic/horrific in compact prose. Generally that's not really my taste but this worked – there's a genuine weirdness here combined with enough narrative pay off that you don't end the thing infuriated.

Haiji Musa and the Hindu Fire-Walker by Ahmed Essop – Another fascinating series of shorts, this time by a member of South Africa's Indian diaspora. Essop depiction of his community is lively and self-critical, with an eye for comic detail. I really dug it, one of a lot of good books I read this month.