Books of the year

My five favourite books of 2008:

5. Tahir Shah – In Arabian Nights

 After the wonderful Caliph’s House, Shah reflects on the importance of stories, in particular the oral tradition of storytelling, in the Arab world. Shah comes from a family of storytellers and recalls his father and grandfather. He travels around Morocco meeting storytellers and searching for his own story, with the Caliph’s House and its surrounding community at the centre of the book.

Initially I was a little disappointed with the book but the more I reflected the more it revealed. I saw it as a meditation on so many things – the art of travel in a modern age; our relationship to those around us (how we need them but also need our space – yet when we have our space we realise how much we need them again); a yearning for days when things were simpler - not just in the replacement of stories by Egyptian TV but also the shoes (“every one uses rubber soles”) the toys (children amused by cheap plastic), the travel etc; a need to find the “right place” but without knowing what we are looking for until we find it; the relationship between the storyteller and the listener (Tahir himself says he values his audience, replies to every email, but then cannot stand it when people intrude on his life). I also saw it as a tribute to Chatwin.

4. Mischa Berlinski – Fieldwork

 A freelance American journalist, who shares the author’s name, accompanies his girlfriend to Thailand. He hears from an expat about an American anthropologist, Martiya, who has recently committed suicide at a Thai prison where she was serving a sentence for murder. The journalist sets out to understand the motives and to learn more about the anthropologist and her victim, a missionary. Parts of the book read as an anthropology study (a criticism is that maybe there is too much of this – Berlinski had originally intended the book to be a non-fiction account of a Thai tribe). But Berlinski keeps the story interesting and moving along. He lets the western, the missionary, and the local’s beliefs and customs sit equally, never passing judgement. An excellent debut by a very promising young writer.

3. Tom McCarthy – Men In Space 

 2. Tom McCarthy – Remainder 

  Tom McCarthy is a young (39) British novelist who has attracted a lot of praise for his two novels. Remainder, his debut, is the story of an unnamed narrator rewarded £8.5million compensation after an accident with “something falling from the sky”. He spends the money obsessively reconstructing and re-enacting events and memories – initially those concealed somewhere in his past, then more recent events, and finally events that have no direct relationship to him. Men In Space (his second novel, but actually started before Remainder) follows a group of characters of mixed backgrounds and nationalities in Prague following the collapse of Communism and the imminent split of Czechoslovakia. Like the countries around them the characters are searching for identity and a role, and aspiring for something better. The characters are connected by a Byzantine painting which the mafia have hired one of the group to paint an exact replica of in order to smuggle the original out of the country.

Both books are novels of ideas, powerful images, and hidden messages, and  have repetition as a central theme. There is a playfulness in both (McCarthy is an artist – founder of the International Necronautical Society). Remainder has a tighter focus; Men In Space has too many characters whose relevance is never clear. But Men In Space is more likely to benefit from a second reading. Both though are highly readable and recommended.

  1. Daniel Kehlmann – Measuring the World

  A novel about two 18th Century German scientists from very different backgrounds but with similar goals – to push science forward. Humboldt, a fearless explorer travels the world crossing oceans, climbing mountains, hacking through jungles, in a bid to measure everything. Gauss, an astronomer and mathematician, prefers to do his measuring from the comfort of his own home.

Kehlmann has a wonderful light touch to his writing. There is a constant undercurrent of gentle humour and energy. Both scientists, and a host of more minor characters, leap off the page. There is a hint of magic realism (in interview Kehlmann said he had wanted to write a Latin American novel). One chapter where Humboldt suffers from altitude sickness whilst climbing, is particularly superb. It is a novel that covers science, exploration, human ambition and weaknesses, not least the decline of the body and mind, friendship and much else.

Half way through I thought it was one the best books I’d read this year; by the end I believed it to be one of the best books I’ve read. Kehlmann (still only 32) has written 4 or 5 other books. I eagerly await their translation.