"The Invention of Sound" by Chuck Palahniuk

 Year of Publication:  2020

Length:  228 pages

Genre:  Horror, satire

Foster Gates has spent seventeen years trawling the very darkest corners of the internet searching for his missing daughter, and revenge on those who took her.  His quest leads him to Hollywood foley artist Mitzi Ives.  Mitzi specialises in providing screams for horror and action films.  She is the best in the business because her screams are so real, in fact they are harvested from people who are brutally murdered just for their death screams.  Mitzi realises that she has inadvertently come across the perfect scream, one so powerful that it could have potentially deadly consequences.

Since his 1996 debut novel Fight Club, which was made into the classic 1999 film, Chuck Palahniuk has explored the darkest excesses of our modern world in shocking and savage funny novels, comics, journalism and adult colouring books.  The Invention of Sound may not be Palahniuk's best book, but it is a well-written, disturbing and bleakly funny novel, which takes as it's basis one of the most ubiquitous but frequently overlooked aspects of filmmaking, the foley, which is basically creating ordinary sound effects for film and television.  The novel moves between Foster Gates' dark quest for his daughter, the story of possible serial killer Mitzi Ives, and the experiences of former horror star Blush Gentry, who is kidnapped during a Comic Con.  It's written in a fragmented, staccato prose, and is always readable, although it may be too bleak for some readers.  Palahniuk over-eggs the pudding somewhat, piling twist upon twist, particularly at the end, with the introduction of a shadowy conspiracy.

   

"The Member of the Wedding" by Carson McCullers

 Year of Publication:  1946

Length:  179 pages

Genre:  Coming-of-age

The novel takes place over a few days in August in a small town in the Southern United States during World War Two.  Twelve year old Frances Jasmine "Frankie" Addams is a lonely, bored, but highly imaginative girl.  Her closest companions are the family's African American maid, Berenice, and Frankie's six year old cousin, John Henry.  She becomes fascinated with her brother's upcoming wedding and determines to involve herself in the wedding, and run off with the happy couple on their honeymoon.

This is an economical, beautifully written tale about growing up.  While written in the third person the narrative never leaves Frankie's perception of the world around her, a world that is seemingly safe but full of darkness and sharp edges. Frankie is imaginative and very intelligent, but very impulsive and foolhardy.  Her cousin, John Henry, she regards as a nuisance and also a companion.  Her mother is dead, and her father lives in the house, but is a largely absent figure, who seems to have little to no understanding of Frankie and her needs.  Her main caregiver and probably closest friend is Berenice, who is the only one who seems to really understand Frankie, and certainly the only one who really seems to make an effort to understand her, she also presents a different and more complex world to Frankie and the reader.  Berenice is a cleverly and sensitively drawn character.  While race is not a key theme in the novel, it is definitely present.  One of the most disturbing elements in the book is Frankie's meeting with an unnamed soldier, and there is darkness throughout the book.  It has elements of gentle nostalgia, but there is cruelty at it's core.  It takes place during the Second World War, which is discussed throughout, contrasting the small seemingly unchanging town, with the chaos and tumult going on in the world outside.  The book's key incident, the wedding itself, barely features, brushed over in a few paragraphs, it exists in the world of hope and memory.  

"Agent Running in the Field" by John le Carre

Year of Publication:  2019
Length:  366 pages
Genre:  Spy, thriller

This is the 26th book by British author John le Carré and he still has his finger on the political pulse of our troubled times.  The story revolves around Nat, a 47 year old veteran of the British Secret Service, who forms a friendship with a young man named Ed with whom he plays badminton once a week.  At first these games offer a respite from Nat's professional problems, as he is put in charge of an all but washed-up subsection of the Service, with a motley collection of spies.  However soon his personal and professional lives collide and Nat finds himself in an even murkier world of betrayal and intrigue.

This book deals with some of the most pressing political issues of our time and John le Carré is scathing against Brexit, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Boris Johnson.  However, this is not a political tract.  It mixes important messages with an exciting thriller plot full of interesting and engaging characters, and the story moves forward at a fast pace.  Despite being almost 80, le Carré has lost none of his ability to tell a story or remain engaged in the times that he is living in.  If you have never read le Carré before, this is a very good place to start.

 

"Beautiful You" by Chuck Palahniuk

Year of Publication:  2014
Length:  222 pages
Genre:  Satire

Naive, ambitious Penny Harrigan, from Omaha, works as an assistant at a prestigious law firm in New York City where she meets Cornelius Linus Maxwell, the richest man in the world, known to the press as "Climax-well" due to his string of famous glamorous girlfriends. He sweeps Penny off her feet, and soon she finds herself living a jet-set lifestyle meeting the most powerful and beautiful people in the world, with every luxury she could possible want.  However Penny immediately realises that she is not Maxwell's girlfriend, but a guinea pig for his experiments in sex and sensuality, and he is using the results of his experiments to devise a groundbreaking range of sex toys for women, marketed as "Beautiful You".  As the women of the world become addicted to the extreme pleasures of the Beautiful You products, Maxwell's darker purpose becomes clear.

This is the fourteenth novel from cult American author Chuck Palahniuk, who is probably still best known for his debut novel Fight Club (1996).  Like most of his books, this is a contemporary satire, in which an aspect of modern life is take to apocalyptic extremes, notably sex and consumerism, and the exploitation of women's sexuality.  This is not one of Palahniuk's best works by any means, the ending in particular is disappointing, but it is well-written and raises some compelling themes, even if they could be explored further. 

       

"If Not Now, When?" by Primo Levi

Year of Publication:  1982
Translator:  William Weaver
Introduction:  Mark Mazower
Length:  331 pages
Genre:  War

Set during the last couple of years of the Second World War, the novel follows a band of mostly Jewish partisans and resistance fighters, from Poland and Russia, as they survive in Nazi-occupied territory.  Always on the move, struggling against harsh conditions, often lacking food and supplies, and wracked by fear, personal tensions and rivalries, they try to sabotage and hamper the Nazis as much as possible, fuelled by revenge, loyalty, patriotism, and hopes for a life after the conflict.

Primo Levi was an Italian chemist and writer who is probably best known for his autobiographical works recounting his experiences as a prisoner in Auschwitz, most notably It This Is a Man (1947), and his fiction was mostly in the form of short stories.  If Not Now, When? was his only novel, and this was based on his own experiences fighting the Nazis as a partisan and the stories he was told from partisans and resistance fighters that he met in the years immediately after the war.  This is a fantastic novel.  A gripping war story, full of action and adventure, telling an often overlooked aspect of World War II, it is also a story about ordinary human beings in the most terrible situations, told with empathy and compassion.  The characters are complex, particularly the main point of view character, Mendel, a Russian watchmaker turned reluctant soldier.  While there are moments of joy and humour, this is a dark tale, and touches on the emotional and psychological consequences of killing and surviving war.

   

"The Beautiful and Damned" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Year of Publication:  1922
Length:  364 pages
Genre:  Fiction

In 1910s New York, socialite Anthony Patch, grandson of a multimillionaire tycoon, meets and becomes instantly infatuated by the beautiful Gloria Gilbert.  The two marry and are soon the toast of Jazz Age New York, spending their lives in a whirlwind of alcohol fueled wild parties and lavish spending.  However, they are living well beyond their means, on the increasingly doubtful promise of a large inheritance from Anthony's grandfather and, coupled with their increasing alcoholism, the couple plummet towards self-destruction.

This was F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, following This Side of Paradise (1920) which is namechecked in the book, and is seen as being based on Fitzgerald's own relationship with his wife Zelda.  It's beautifully written with beautiful, poetic turns of phrase and is often strangely funny.  It's also still strangely relevant, even though the book was written nearly a hundred years ago, there are plenty of Anthony and Glorias about today.  I could imagine them today being social media "influencers".  Anthony and Gloria are not a particularly likeable pair.  They are both monumentally selfish.  They are also seemingly incapable of looking to the future:  Anthony is convinced of a multimillion dollar inheritance, which ends up being tied up in the courts in a case which becomes a major subplot in the later section of the book; while Gloria wants to enjoy her youth and beauty to the fullest, even though she knows it will fade someday, it is still a bitter pill when that day arrives.  Throughout the book the characters try various careers without success, while their friends move on to success and come to view them with contempt.    This is a great book, and very readable.  It's main problem is the very end, which feels rushed and unrealistic, and kind of undeserved.

 

"If Beale Street Could Talk" by James Baldwin

Year of Publication:  1974
Length:  230 pages
Genre:  General fiction

New York City:  Clementine "Tish" Rivers is nineteen years old, pregnant and engaged to Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt.  However Fonny is in jail, having been accused of rape.  As Tish and her family fight against a racist system to prove Fonny's innocence, the story of their relationship is told in flashbacks.

This book is powerful, angry, compassionate and beautifully written.  James Baldwin is one of the most important American writers of the 20th Century, and this is an urgent and vital book - that is as relevant today as it was in 1974.  It's frequently dark and gritty read, but there is a hard-won optimism here, and the love story between Fonny and Tish is beautifully detailed, and Baldwin writes beautiful, poetic prose.  It's also a novel about being black in America, and just tying to live life when the whole system is against you. 
It's a great book, that everyone should read.

"Sleeping Beauties" by Stephen King and Owen King

Year of Publication:  2017
Number of Pages:  715
Genre:  Horror, fantasy

One day all the women in the world start to fall asleep as normal, but they do not wake up.  Instead, as soon as they fall asleep they grow a web-like cocoon , and react with mindless, murderous violence if the webbing is cut or broken.  In the small town of Dooling, West Virginia, a strange woman appears who has superhuman powers of strength and healing, has knowledge about people that she could not possibly possess and, most of all, can sleep and wake as normal.  As a rapidly decreasing number of women stay awake to combat "Aurora" (as the mysterious syndrome is called), men face up to a world without women.  Meanwhile, the women wake up to a strange world, entirely without men.  Can the women find their way back?  More to the point, do they want to?

This is a pretty gripping novel, it focuses mainly on the small town of Dooling, and the women's prison in the town.  It comes from a simple, but quite fascinating premise:  How would men be in a  world without women?  And what would a world without men be like?  It's a timely novel, which does not shy away from contemporary resonance (some books wear there politics on their sleeves, this one pretty much has it on the front of it's tee-shirt).  However while it is thought-provoking, it also succeeds in being fun.  despite it's length it keeps you reading.  It's dark, funny and suspenseful with a range of interesting and mostly likeable, although there are a fair few straight-forward villains.  Of course, Stephen King is the most popular writer of our time, and here he teams up with his son, Owen, although the novel's voice is pretty consistent, and reads throughout like a Stephen King novel - however I have never read any of Owen King's other works, and so I do not know what his style is.  Some of the storylines in the book are unsatisfying, and there are a few plotlines that seem to be building up early and are then abandoned.  However, this is a good book and well worth your time.

"The City & The City" by China Mieville

Year of Publication: 2009
Number of Pages: 373
Genre: Fantasy, crime, detective

The city is Beszel and the city is Ul Qoma, two cities in two different countries, but each occupying the same geographic space. The cities are built in and around each other, however anyone in one city (resident or visitor) is forbidden to take any notice of anyone or anything in the other city. Any failure to do so incurs the wrath of the mysterious and all-powerful "Breach". When the body of a murdered student is found in Beszel, it seems like a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad, but the investigation proves more complex and dangerous than Borlu could have imagined, leading him from one city to another and to the even more mysterious places in between.

This 2009 novel from British author China Mieville works as a complex and intriguing fantasy tale in a well-realised world, the rules by which the two cities exist together and function are well worked out and believable, but this also works as an exciting detective novel, and it delivers anything you might want from a crime novel. A gruesome murder, investigation, no shortage of suspects, action, chases, and a likeable and troubled protagonist. It also makes a point about how people deliberately ignore the more troubling aspects of where they live.

"I Am Behind You" by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Year of Publication:  2014
Number of Pages:  405
Genre:  Horror

This horror novel is the sixth book from Swedish stand-up comedian turned author John Ajvide Lindqvist to be translated into English.  Four families on caravan holidays wake up one morning to find the rest of their campsite has vanished. In fact everything has vanished, they are totally alone in the middle of a seemingly endless blank, flat field, where, despite clear bright blue summer skies, there is no sun, and the grass is the exact same height.  Where are they?  How did they get there? Why are they there? and, more importantly, how can they get back?  Running low on food and supplies, their situation is desperate, but there is something else out there.  Something that knows their worst mistakes and deepest desires, and will confront them with their darkest dreams and worst fears, and something even worse.

Lindqvist is still probably best known for his debut novel, Let the Right One In (2004) which was  adapted as an acclaimed Swedish film in 2008 and a successful US remake, Let Me In (2010).  With Let the Right One In and his subsequent books, there can be little doubt that John Ajvide Lindqvist is one of the most interesting modern writers working in horror.  The characters in this book start off wondering where they are and how they got there, and are little the wiser by the end of it.  For every question that is answered, another is posed, and it really seems to just stop dead.  However, this is the first volume in a planned trilogy, so presumably we'll find out what happens later.  The ending, though is a fairly minor issue when this is such a chilling, gripping novel and genuinely disturbing.  It's full of dark humour and often graphic gore.  The frequently surreal happenings in the book work because the  characters are interesting and well-drawn, with their past lives depicted in flashback.  Lindqvist is frequently compared to Stephen King, and this has a lot of King-like elements to it, with the disparate collection of ordinary people having to band together against horrific adversaries, although it's more like if Stephen King had ever collaborated with Ingmar Bergman, because it has a very strong philosophical element to it.  Lindqvist his a particular gift for writing about children and one of the child characters, six year old Molly is one of the most terrifying characters you're likely to read about this year.  This is definitely recommended.

"A Legacy of Spies" by John le Carre

Year of Publication:  2017
Number of Pages:  264
Genre:  Thriller, espionage

Moving between past and present, the novel follows Peter Guillam, retired British spy and former right-hand man of legendary spymaster George Smiley, living peacefully on his family farm in Brittany, until he is summoned back to London by the Secret Service who are investigating an operation Guillam was involved in over fifty years ago.  Forced to rake over his murky past in Cold War espionage, Guillam is forced to reckon with the consequences of a life of personal and professional betrayal.

This fine novel returns to the world of Cold War spying that made John le Carre's name and features the return of his best-loved character, tubby, bespectacled, soft-spoken, but ruthless spymaster George Smiley.  The novel is a kind of follow-up to le Carre's 1962 breakthrough novel The Spy Who came in From the Cold, and also calls back to his other best known book Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1973).  Written in spare terse prose, this is nevertheless complex and emotionally devastating.  As with many le Carre novels, this deals with the psychology of a spy, and the moral and psychological consequences of that lifestyle.  This is John le Carre at his best.   

"Rivers of London" by Ben Aaronovitch

Year of Publication:  2011
Length:  392 pages
Genre:  Fantasy, crime

Police Constable Peter Grant is a rookie in London's Metropolitan Police, and is tasked to guard a headless corpse discovered on the street, and ends up taking a witness statement from a ghost.  He is approached by Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who shows him a secret side to London, a world of magic, ghosts and vampires.  Becoming Nightingale's magical apprentice, Peter finds himself working with Nightingale to police the supernatural world of London.  Peter soon finds himself embroiled in a family feud between two human personifications of the River Thames.  However, London finds itself gripped by a bizarre series of unexplained violent attacks, and Peter has to solve the mystery before it claims the lives of his friends.

This novel is a thoroughly entertaining blend of urban fantasy and police procedural.  It manages to work as both, it's detective story elements are suspenseful and intriguing and the fantasy elements are gripping, and the two blend together well.  It's sometimes dark but, told through the first person perspective of Peter Grant, there's a strong vein of laconic humour running through the book.  It's an imaginative tale, with well-drawn characters and an engaging protagonist.  Sometimes uneven in tone, it tends to veer between light comedy and quite graphic horror, this is still a well-written, fast moving tale that appeal to both fantasy fans and thriller fans looking for something different.

    

"The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac

Year of Publication: 1958
Number of Pages: 204 pages
Genre: Travel, spiritual, drama

Summary: Late October 1955: Aspiring poet Ray Smith arrives in San Francisco and meets Zen Buddhist poet Japhy Ryder, who inspires Ray with his spiritual views, and vision of a "rucksack revolution" in which the young people of America, fired up by Buddhist philosophy, would walk and hitch-hike through America. Ray Smith joins Ryder on his journeys through the High Sierras, but finds that his enthusiasm for the spiritual life severely tested by the all-night poetry sessions, wild wine-fueled parties and orgies that make up bohemian life in San Francisco.

Opinions: This book is one of the classic works by "Beat Generation" author Jack Kerouac. The book is strongly autobiographical, all the characters were real people very thinly disguised. Ray Smith is based on Kerouac himself, Japhy Ryder is based on poet Gary Snyder (at one point in the novel Kerouac refers to Ryder as "Gary"). Fellow Beat Generation luminary Allen Ginsberg appears in the book as Alvah Goldbook, and one of the early scenes in the novel features the famous Six Gallery poetry reading at which Ginsberg first presented his classic poem Howl (which is named "Wail" in this novel). There is not much of a conventional plot in the book, it's written in a stream of conciousness style and tries to capture more his experiences and emotions. There is some beautiful, lyrical writing when he describes his mountain-climbing and some of the transcendental experiences. There are also plenty of amusing and interesting anecdotes of his hitch-hiking and travels cross-country. The book has been criticised for being inaccurate about Buddhism and Zen. Also, with the exception of Smith and Ryder, none of the characters have much of an in-depth treatment. By modern standards the book is quite politically incorrect at times. However it is one of Kerouac's most famous and influential works and is a must-read for anyone interested in one of the most important and influential American writers of the 20th Century. It is also very thought-provoking and powerful and contains passages of truly beautiful, poetic writing.