Randy's Best of, 2019

I had a good reading year. I haven't hit north of 30 since 2015 (and the time before that, I was still a student!). But they were also, generally, a better batch of books. This made picking difficult.

I think the big 2019 story has to be my continued interest in Asian American thinking. Four of my books this year were toward that interest, and three of them made my list (sorry, Orientalism . . . . by the end I wanted to scream at you and your too-academic prose).

Before I get to my list, I want to note the dramatically improved Paris Review. Since Nicole Rudick took over as interim editor, and then Emily Nemens as editor, The Paris Review has gotten extremely good. Every quarter I look forward to reading it, and I consistently put it down having enjoyed most of it. In recognition, I note two stories I loved.

The Doors by Nick Fuller Googins (Spring 2019)

The vote is 210-1. Do I like it no I do not. But here is something I have learned working on the doors: no door man can succeed alone. We are a team my brothers and I. And our team has voted. Saturday at midnight we will walk off the doors. That means all of us.

Googin's bouncer--I mean, door man, shit--is a man of principle in a world going on strike. As the strike continues and our door man tries to find his place in it, the reader asks whether there is still space for principle and loyalty in this crazy world.

Why Visit America by Matthew Baker (Fall 2019)

Without speaking to each other or acknowledging each other whatsoever, she and he are said to have engaged in simultaneous conversations with Joselyn Fankhauser, the teenage clerk, about the ripeness of the bananas, Belle remarking upon how bananas tasted best when the peels still had a hint of green, Sam commenting upon how bananas tasted best just beginning to brown, which many of us present interpreted as a coded debate about politics and democracy and nationhood. Neither she nor he bought any bananas.

A town secedes from the United States, and then renames itself America. One person, Sam, opposes secession, leading to tension in the town. The feud between him and everyone else escalates until, well, you should just read it. It's extremely funny, with a heartwarming ending.

***

Alright, here's my list (a top 6 this year):

(6)  Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark by Cecelia Watson

Garamond' semicolon is watchful, aggressive, and elegant, its lower half a cobra's head arced back to strike . . . . We moderns have accumulated a host of characterful semicolons to choose from: Palatino's is a thin flapper in a big hat slouched against the wall at a party. Gill Sans MT's semicolon has perfect posture, while Didot's puffs it chest out pridefully.

The Paris Review blog--another part of the Review that has improved--had an excerpt of this book, and I knew immediately I had to own it. The book did not disappoint. First, Watson's style is itself beautiful and engaging; I was struck by the number of perfectly constructed sentences. Second, this is also the best kind of nonfiction: using one story, the semicolon's, to tell a much bigger story. Watson uses the story of the semicolon to show us that the idea of grammar "rules" is a recent invention, and we shouldn't let that invention prevent us from embracing a liberated love for language.

(5) The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

He's the best thing that could have happened to us, I said. And that was no lie. It was, instead, the best kind of truth, the one that meant at least two things.

 I know, I know, I know. Everyone and their mother read this book 8,000 years ago when it won the Pulitzer. I didn't. I'm catching up. As with end-of-year lists, better late than never.

Like many children of the 1980s, I don't spend much time thinking about the war in Vietnam. This novel made me start, and to think about an aspect I never hear anyone talking about: the waves of Vietnamese who had to come to the U.S. because of the war. Also a good exploration of racial identity, and half-Asian identity specifically (this is essentially required reading for anyone interested in Asian American things). Excellent book, and worthy of the accolades it received.

(4) Rusty Brown by Chris Ware

Chris Ware has a talent for capturing the victories and tragedies that make up a life. Rusty Brown is like Building Stories: we follow multiple characters, leading more or less ordinary lives. Except, Ware is able to show how remarkable and interesting and beautiful these "ordinary" live are, which is a reminder that "ordinary" is really not a good way of describing anyone's life. We see these characters interact in big and small ways and the scenes take different meanings depending on which characters' histories you've already encountered. I couldn't put this down and finished it within a couple days' of buying it.

(3) The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon

I sat through movies I could tell I wouldn't like just to be at Phoebe's side. While we strolled through campus, she kept a hand tucked in the back pocket of my jeans. The line between us relaxed its hold, the slack winding, like an exhausted snake, at our adjoined feet.

I don't know what to say about this novel except that it was really good. It reminded me of The Secret History: relative outsider starts college (here a once-very-pious but now nonreligious sophomore who has transferred from his Bible college), has transformative experiences as we work toward a tragedy that was unveiled on the first page. But, the novel is also very different, asking different questions: what is the nature of love? Possession? Faith? It's difficult to say more because much of the joy in reading the novel is in the slow, deliberately paced reveal.

(2) Strangers from a Different Shore by Ronald Takaki

Like immigrants from Europe, many Asians saw America as a place for a fresh start. They came here, as Filipino immigrant Carlos Bulosan expressed it, searching for "a door into America" seeking "to build a new life with untried materials." "Would it be possible," he asked, "for an immigrant like me to become part of the American dream?" The hopeful question also contained deep doubt, for Bulosan and his fellow Asian immigrants knew they were "strangers from a different shore."

The best history is story, and Professor Takaki successfully does it here, weaving together the jumble of identities captured by the idea of "Asian American." He has an ear for the poetic--knowing when to place a block quotation, or even include an entire found poem. But he also has a knock for writing his own poetic prose into the book, making what could be a very dry topic into an engaging one. A long read (500+ pages!), but I remained interested until the end.

(1) The Company They Keep by Neal Devins & Lawrence Baum

The dominant theories of decision making depict Justices as people who concentrate on achieving what they see as good social policy, good law, or a combination of the two . . . . For Supreme Court Justices, as we have argued, the need for respect and approval is one motive that can help considerably in understanding why they do what they do. Indeed, we think that Supreme Court Justices are especially interested in being held in esteem by other people who are important to their social identities.

The biggest factor in choosing my best-of is how much time I have spent thinking about a book, and also a prediction about how much more time I will continue spend thinking about the book. I have not stopped thinking about this book since reading it in May. The history of the Federalist Society coupled with the social psychology of Justices has left me thinking about the "legal elite," who is encompassed in that term, and how an elite might be created.

***

And 2020? Who knows. I've already finished two carry over books from 2019. But, other than the large and mostly random pile of books on my nightstand, I don't really have plans for 2020. It feels kind of nice to not have any plans. Still, I'd be pretty happy if my reading 2020 proves to be as satisfying as my 2019.

Cheers to another year of Fifty Books (and thanks, Christopher, for running this blog).