Some Good Thought-Provoking Fiction

Books everyone can explore #115

Hello, hi, hello, I love you. And this week’s selections, three thoughtful and thought-provoking novels, are for YOU.

You, who regularly texts me that you can’t find any fiction to get into since A Little Life. Welcome to some thoughtful novels that are substantive and compelling.

You, who only reads non-fiction, because you want to be “learning” something when you’re reading. How about we learn the greatest organizational psychology lesson of all, which is that humans are messy, vulnerable, irrational and remarkable? Make THAT a mental framework, babies!

You, who goes for historical fiction or nothing. (….oh. Um. Good point. OK I’m not sure this week actually is for you but they all have … flashbacks? How far back do we have to go to make it historical? Can it be, like, the 80s? Pls advise.)

You, who only consumes happy bunny romances. You KNOW I love and honor this journey for you but if you DID want to explore something a little different, these are three books that will not waste your time. (Fun fact, last week’s “Love it or Leave it: Romcoms” - you mostly decided to leave it! Cool cool cool I get it. You either love or hate that genre and its corresponding newsletters. We’re still friends, it’s fine.)

You, who is already irritable and fatigued by this faintly precious introductory structure. Honestly, objectively I can sort of agree with you but I also kind of am into it? So bear with me, beloved, we’re almost at the books.

And if none of these previous yous apply to YOU, you magical starfish, these novels are still worth exploring because other than Identitti which no one has read, they’re probably the ones I’ve talked and thought most about this year. Thoughtful! Thought-provoking! Worthwhile! Reckless to burn through all in one newsletter and Future Me will inevitably regret it, but I will throw caution to the wind and let the adrenaline course through my veins like literary moonshine! Let’s discuss!

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One of my all time favorite novels is Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers (**almost historical fiction alert**) so I was antsy to read her new novel. In fairness, almost anything would be a letdown for me after The Great Believers, and that was true of her literary mystery I Have Some Questions for You, but it’s still really interesting, frustrating, and compelling.

Power Summary: Podcaster Bodie Kane has successfully moved on from her painful childhood, her isolated years at a New England boarding school, and the murder of her friend at the end of her senior year. But when she’s invited back to campus to host a seminar, she finds herself unearthing the past - and the murder.

What thoughts it might provoke: What are the merits and dangers of collective memories, and how do we trust ourselves about the past? What responsibilities do we have in public discourse, and is any collateral damage worth it to share our “truths”? Is this a book about #MeToo and dangerous men? Is this a book about our insatiable needs to craft our realities? Is Bodie a hero or a perpetrator? Does the way Bodie “solves” the mystery justify the means? It provokes thoughts, is what I’m saying.

This isn’t actually all that scary/gory but it does contain material about sexual assault and the murder of a teenage girl, so I’ve given it 2.5 lambies on the emotional pain scale. Take care.

“Fever dream” is right, cover blurbist and actress Constance Wu - Natural Beauty is one of the strangest, most haunting, oddest, and most interesting books I’ve read in a while. I suspect this will make my top 10 of the year if only for its sheer audacity.

Power summary: Our narrator, once a piano prodigy, finds herself in dire financial straits, only to be offered a coveted job working in New York’s most elite beauty apothecary. What at first seems like a transformational lifeline soon becomes something more sinister.

What thoughts it might provoke: Literally every review/summary describes this book differently - it’s about the pursuit of perfection in art and what we must sacrifice along the way. No, it’s about the unattainable standards of (white) beauty. No, it’s about the immigrant journey. It’s a class struggle novel! It’s magical realism! It’s satire! It’s body horror! And ALL OF THIS WILL COME UP FOR YOU, people. It’s the lenticular effect in book form! I’m not even sure how much I “liked” it - the reading experience was extremely creepy in a foreboding, Black Swan kind of way - but it’s captivating and skillful. I hope you read it and tell me what you / I think.

I missed Signal Fires when it came out last year, but if you did also, this lovely, melancholy novel is surely worth a visit.

Power summary: Retired doctor Ben Wilf and ten year old Waldo Shenkman live across the street from each other and officially meet each other one night under the stars. Throughout the course of the book, which spans 50 years forward and backward, we learn how interconnected their lives and families are.

(That’s actually not a great summary but this is one of those books that’s more about people and thoughts than it is about plot, and it’s also very non-linear, so, shrug emoji.)

What thoughts it might provoke: What if everything and everyone is actually all connected, through space and time - what would that change in ourselves and our relationships? How can secrets brutally alter the course of our lives and happiness? (How) Is our destiny and our joy wrapped up in other people, for better and worse? Does beautiful tender writing also make you cry? Do we think Dani Shapiro adequately “resolved” the core secret of the book because even though yes fine I get that these things can’t be resolved and maybe that’s the point but even if that’s the case I still think she didn’t fully stick the landing and mmm yes I see that this is more of a question to people who have already read the book but I’m still curious?

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RIP Martin Amis

Someone once told me that we need to see and appreciate the greats before they die. He was referencing musical artists, but I think it applies to everything. And now I also think my entire life is lacking because while I have appreciated his sardonic writerly presence, I’ve never read any Martin Amis, who passed this week.

Please let me know which of his work to read first. And since I’m qualified to adequately eulogize him in this newsletter, let me leave you with something a very good friend and deeply accomplished reader said about him - we should all be so lucky as to have this as our legacy.

“I hope you will give mention to Martin Amis in your book newsletter tomorrow. I wish I could have known him, drank with him, and perhaps slept with him! No perhaps - make that definite.”

A Few More Provoked Thoughts

• This week’s books all link to LA’s The Last Bookstore, nominated by the terrifyingly intelligent and seemingly always right Shayna. I also love this bookstore even though they stopped buying used books and subsequently our house might crumble under the weight of them. If you have a favorite indie bookstore, let me know and I’ll link to them in future newsletters so that we are all gently reminded to use book shopping dollars for good and not for Amazon.

• Special shout out to The Corner Bookstore in NYC, nominated by Eliza, which apparently is a/the best and b/only fulfills remote orders by phone at (212) 831-3554, so cannot be linked to in newsletter links. ADORABLE.

• If you are so moved, please share this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it! We can all book talk together.

• Crossing guards. Why do they have to be simultaneously so power-hungry and so chaotic? This thought is constantly provoked, in me, by crossing guards and the way they absolutely add to traffic confusion. They know what they did.