Rapid Fire Reviews of Every Book I Read This Semester

Looking back on my reading log for this past year is a little depressing. Since the semester started in January, I have read all of two books on my own time (which are, for the record, Sonora Reyes’ The Broposal and James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk). I don’t mind my degree being so time-intensive, but my TBR is unbelievable these days; hopefully, the summer will give me some more time to focus on reading for myself and the market.

So, here we are, at the end of the semester. Let’s go through every book I had to read for my English degree.

Graham Greene’s The Third Man: I’d read Greene before (The Quiet American) and was quite impressed by him. This was on the more commercial side of things I’ve had to read for school, with a clear hook and a propulsive plot, and it was relatively short. Easy reading, relative to what came next: would recommend!

Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners: Another pretty short read, though denser. Incredible atmosphere and some very interesting things going on with point of view. Perhaps consider reading Dante’s Inferno beforehand, though— I didn’t, and missed quite a bit of referencing, which was embarrassing.

Ann Quin’s Berg: This became an in-joke with my seminar because of how much we all hated it. I mean, it was a work of literary genius, but Jesus Christ. Read this one if you 1) like extremely complicated prose, 2) enjoy deeply fucked-up main characters, and 3) don’t have any emotional attachment to cats.

Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: Colored, perhaps, by the relief of coming out of Berg, but this one was very good. Incisive satire, easy to get into, and less of a headache than most of the other books I read.

Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf: All cards on the table, I only skimmed this one. Heaney’s translation is very, very good, though, and if you’re going to read Beowulf, this is the book I’d recommend. I stole a descriptor from this one (“ice-clad”) for the book I’m drafting. Can you blame me? What a great little line.

Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children: A gorgeous, funny, and extremely long book. I would absolutely recommend it, but it’s impossible to skim and requires a heavy-duty attention span, but it’s never boring or even particularly hard to get through (at least it wasn’t for me.) For those in the publishing sphere, the introductory bit where Rushdie talks about the publication process is great— the industry looked so different in the 80s!

Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day: A bit of a slower read, but it went down easy. There’s a reason everybody and their mother has read this book. I was most struck by how it showed the politics of a setting we often divorce, these days, from its actual historical context; Downton Abbey and Bridgerton don’t really touch on the fascist implications of their own subject matter.

Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty: This one was among my favorites of the semester. It was dauntingly long, but beautifully written. I listened to it on audiobook, narrated by Joe Jameson, and I really enjoyed the way it was done. (And, yes, I was playing farming simulator games while listening to the audiobook, so now I have lovely memories of watering plants and running around my farm set against this pretty bleak narrative.)

Martin Amis’ The Zone of Interest: A brutal, compelling read. It was very difficult to get through at times just because of the sheer horror of the events depicted. The three narrators were all extremely well-executed, and it was some of the strongest narrative voice I think I’ve ever read. But heavy caution is needed. This is not a nice book.

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey: This one wasn’t technically assigned to me. I read it because I wanted to write an essay about Austen’s use of free indirect style in her novels, and Northanger was the one that a friend recommended. Regardless, I loved this book, and it was a really nice break from the Horrors. Austen holds up as pure solid entertainment, no matter the century.

And that’s all, folks! Pick these up if they sound like a good time; I think my writing has improved significantly because of the amount of extremely good prose I’ve been immersed in.