#11 – Memorial by Bryan Washington (2020) – Washington’s first full-length novel, was an interesting read. There were times throughout the book where I grew impatient and wasn’t sure I was enjoying it, but by the third and last section, it all came together for me, and I felt it was ultimately a successful and moving story. Benson is a black man, raised in a middle class, fractured family, who is involved in a relationship with Mike, a Japanese man whose parents are also divorced and carrying a lot of baggage. When Mike learns that his father is struggling in the last phases of terminal cancer, he invites his mother to come visit them in Houston, and the day she arrives, he leaves to return to Osaka to see his father from whom he has been estranged from for years. While Ben and Mitsuko begin an awkward dance getting to know one another under less than ideal circumstances in Houston, Mike is dealing with a similarly awkward reunion with his father. All of this while Ben and Mike’s relationship appears to be unraveling.
Memorial explores difficult relationships all around, treating the gay relationship with the same complexity as both of their parents. Culture, race, and struggling with homosexuality are all themes the various characters endure, and while there is no easy resolution there is a sense of relief and things long unspoken are revealed and brought to the surface. A powerful first novel.
#10 – Sex with Strangers by Michael Lowenthal (2021) – To be honest, a short story collection with the title, Sex with Strangers, made me a little wary. I wasn’t really in the mood for a series of stories focusing on tawdry hook-ups, whether they might be sexy, or funny, or dark. Thankfully, and I should have known better, Michael Lowenthal uses sex… or perhaps more accurately, desire, as the starting point, or perhaps, the driving force behind the motivations or actions of the characters in this handful of stories, some written specifically for this collection, others collected from his career. In fact, there’s actually very little explicit sex in the book at all.
The characters in Sex with Strangers span the Kinsey scale, gay to straight, and include men and women. The stories that I enjoyed the most, in fact, tended to be the ones about heterosexual relationships, or at least ones where the protagonists were straight. Occasionally the stories about two men ventured into territory I often roll my eyes in both fiction, and life, but I suppose that speaks more about me, than it does the writing style, because Michael is a strong writer. He handles language very confidently, and his prose is eminently readable. There’s a strength behind the words and the structure, and not in a macho, male way, but more the strength of a tree, knowing when to bend.
Overall, I ended up enjoying Sex with Strangers much more than I expected, which makes me very happy. I’ve enjoyed Michael’s work throughout the years, and as I said, reading about sex, or more broadly, relationships, is always good self-therapy as well.
#13 – If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Aging and Power in Failure by Jann Arden (2020) – Jann Arden is a Canadian pop star, and an accomplished writer, who has written a memoir, and collections of essays. She talks about aging, and how she is embracing her Crone as she enters that phase of her life. She talks about the difficult relationship she had with her father, who was an alcoholic. She discusses her own battles with alcohol and self-esteem. She talk about lots of difficult experience she had when she was younger, and how they have all contributed to the person she is today, her success, but more importantly, her failures. While Jann’s trademark humor is not as up front as in some of her other work, her conversational language makes it’s seem like you’re just having a chat with her. The book is filled with platitudes, but Jann makes them meaningful, and you can’t help but believe in her.
#12 – The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson (2019) – I know G. Willow Wilson from her work with comics; her creator-owned Invisible Kingdom, her Vertigo series, Air, and her Marvel superhero landmark series, Ms. Marvel. Recently learning of her prose work, I picked up her latest novel. This delightful fantasy tome takes place in the area that was to become Spain under the conquering Spanish monarchy. Fatima is a concubine in the royal court of the sultan of Granada. While she lives comfortably and has certain benefits form her station, she is essentially the sultan’s property. Her one true friend is Hassan, the palace mapmaker, who has two secrets that become a huge danger to his life when when an envoy for the Spanish monarchy comes to negotiate the terms of the sultan’s surrender to their new power. It turns out that this envoy, Luz, is part of the Spanish Inquisition, and Hassan’s penchant for lying with men, and more importantly, his unexplainable ability to draw maps that become reality target him for conversion or death.
#14 – Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne (2020) – Maryland-based author, Karen Osborne released her debut novel, Architects of Memory in 2020, part one of the proposed The Memory War Trilogy. Ash lost everything during the intergalactic war with the alien Vai. Now struggling with a terminal illness, the salvage pilot encounters something that could change the course of humanity, and must do everything she can first to understand it, then to keep it out of the hands of those whose best interests are perhaps not shared by many. Deft, gritty, hard sci fi, Architects of Memory does an imaginative job at creating a life form so alien to humanity that actions and motivations are nearly impossible to discern. I look forward to reading volume two, Engines of Oblivion, soon.
#2 – The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin
#1 – The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
I also want to call out three graphic novels, and one play that I read this year that stood out above the rest. After thoroughly enjoying the network television show, I had to go back and read Greg Rucka Matthew Southworth’s Stumptown, Vol. 1: The Case of the Girl Who Took Her Shampoo and was reminded what a great writer Rucka is. Also thoroughly enjoyed the magical fantasy by David Wiesner and Donna Jo Napoli, Fish Girl. Finally, G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward’s intricate and fascinating world-building tale, The Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 1: Walking the Path is definitely setting me up for wanting more. The play that most impressed me out of the dozen or so I read in 2020 was one of Ken Urban’s early efforts, published in 2014, The Private Lives of Eskimos. It’s a play I hope to direct when the world settles down a bit, a provocative allegory for grief, isolation, and an overabundance of information.