Sunday, December 02, 2007

Wahsington Post lists its best book of 2007

In today’s Book World, the Washington Post lists its top 10 books of 2007.

The top five works of fiction are:

  • Finn, Jon Clinch
  • The Last Cavalier, Alexandre Dumas
  • On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
  • The Savage Detectives, Roberto Bolano
  • Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson

I am thoroughly pleased to see Finn on that list. It is a terrific re-imagining of a classic work of American fiction. I also can’t quarrel with On Chesil Beach as one of the year’s best novels. Author Ian McEwan is the best writer in the English language today.

The book by Dumas is exactly the kind of quirky choice the Post would make. I’m not familiar with Bolano’s book and, again, didn’t much care for Tree of Smoke.

The best non-fiction, according to the Post:

  • Edith Wharton, Hermione Lee
  • FDR, Jean Edward Smith
  • Ralph Ellison: A Biography, Arnold Rampersad
  • The Unnatural History of the Sea, Callum Roberts
  • The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story, Diane Ackerman

I didn’t like Hermione Lee’s book one bit. Rampersad’s biography of Ralph Ellison was reviewed in these pages yesterday. It is an impeccable work of scholarship, and highly readable.

No comments:

Post a Comment