2021 Book List

A list of all of the books I read in 2021 with summaries and my ratings and impressions of them.

1. Julio Jurenito by Ilya Ehrenburg

Summary:

A mixture of mockery and prophecy, the book savaged every ideology and religion while foreseeing both the Holocaust and Hiroshima. (Ehrenburg himself predicted the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union to the day -- his intimacy with history always bordered on the telepathic.) - Richard Lourie, The NY Times, August 25, 1996. The book deals with the adventures of a Mexican dreamer Julio Jurenito and his wanderings about Europe along with his seven disciples (Ehrenburg himself is the first disciple and the author-narrator). "He was the first to say the things he said, but said them badly" - Dmitry Bykov Rating: 7.5/10 Impressions: The novel's scope is very large, it feels as though it's attempting to explore and comment on just about everything to do with culture, religion, and ideology. This causes the storyline to be quite unfocused at times while still often poorly utilizing its plot and character developments. It has some quaint and apt commentary, includes various historical figures, and predicts historical events with incredible accuracy, which grounds the reader firmly into our own world, but often lacks focus and unifying threads. 2. Severance by Ling Ma Summary: Severance is a 2018 satirical science fiction novel by the Chinese-American author Ling Ma. It follows Candace Chen, an unfulfilled Bible product coordinator, before and after Shen Fever slowly obliterates global civilization. Rating: 8/10 Impressions: Reads very easily and incorporates multiple themes, resulting in an apt critique of today's globalized society characterized by consumerism. Ending can be unsatisfying, but fits into the novel quite well. Could have used some of its moments to develop its main themes more deeply, it would have been more focused then. Still, a very engaging read, and is incredibly relevant, as to a world ravaged by COVID, as to one ravaged by consumerism and indulgence. 3. Viper (Гадюка) by Aleksey Tolstoy Summary: The story focuses on Olga Zotova. In the summer of 1918, bandits break into her house, kill her parents, and try to rape seventeen-year-old Olga, but she fights back. While fleeing, the attackers set fire to the house. Olga wakes up in the hospital and within a few days her character completely changes. She vows revenge. Rating: 7.5/10 Impressions: Very contained, reads more like a short story. Nevertheless, the main character feels very thoroughly developed and embodies universal traits, making her very relatable and the book itself very engaging. Could have been longer and likely even more enjoyable because of it, but would have perhaps lost some of its quaint charm. 4. Flood (Наводнение) by Evgeny Zamyatin Summary: Trofim Ivanovich and his wife Sofia lived together for 12 years without being able to conceive a child. After the death of their neighbour, the couple take in his 12 year old daughter to care for as though she were their own.

Rating: 9.5/10 Impressions: Fantastically unpredictable. Simultaneously jarring and relatable. Economically written, but says everything it needs to say without confusing the storyline by going off course. Develops two major themes of Russian literature - the incestual relationship and the dead child and is very well-written.

“He was taking bread out of the bag, bread was more unexpected and more rare than death.” Without Bird Cherry (Без Черемухи) by Panteleimon Romanov (short story)

Summary: This short story explores the love lives of proletariat youth and the "new" Soviet people's vulgar ideas regarding morals. Rating: 9/10 Impressions: Very charming and relatable. Sets the tone and explores the theme of navigating relationships and sex lives very well. Makes you feel simultaneously alone and understood.

5. Brisbane by Evgeny Vodolazkin Summary: Gleb Yanovsky, a virtuoso musician at the peak of his success, loses the ability to perform due to an illness and attempts to find a new purpose. His past helps him with this - he tries to gather up memories from his childhood in Kiev in the 1970s, his youth in Leningrad, and his present in Germany and again in Kiev in the 2000s. The only place missing from these travels is Brisbane. Rating: 8/10 Impressions: Does not have much of a plot, but instead masterfully develops the main character. Very well-written and compelling even when unfocused. A bit unrealistic and monotonous at times, but that’s easy to overlook because the actual writing is very good. 6. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Summary: It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill. Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment--find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions: The entire time I was reading it I kept feeling like I’d read all of this somewhere before, which makes sense, since this was published in the 1960s. For a contemporary audience this is not very compelling because it has since been redone in better ways, but for having been published in the ‘60s it is good, as it appeals to some of the anxieties of the time, and would have been very relevant. Was surprisingly contained, did not expand its plot very much, so the world it set up did not seem very elaborate, but allowed the reader to understand the experience of the main character more. The pace was strange and somewhat unbalanced, and the ending seemed very abrupt, but it’s a good novel to read to have context for the novels that followed it. 7. The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya

Summary: Everyone talks about falling in love, but falling in friendship can be just as captivating. When Neela Devaki’s song is covered by internet-famous artist Rukmini, the two musicians meet and a transformative friendship begins. But as Rukmini’s star rises and Neela’s stagnates, jealousy and self-doubt creep in. With a single tweet, their friendship implodes, one career is destroyed, and the two women find themselves at the center of an internet firestorm.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions: This novel masterfully develops themes of professional jealousy, female friendship, hegemony, systemic racism, and social media among others. Sometimes feels too on the nose, but captivating all the same - was very easy to read. An interesting insight into some of the nuances of major contemporary topics. Does not adhere to the standardly one-dimensional likeable female character tropes - none of the characters are particularly likeable, which results in realistic and nuanced relationships between them. Some parts are developed incredibly and others are not developed enough, and the pace and transitions are sometimes unbalanced. 8. In Stalingrad’s Trenches by Viktor Nekrasov

Summary: The described events occured during a period of war actions ranging from July 1942 - February 1943. During that time, the Red Army made and left defence lines around Kharkiv and Oskol River and retreated behind the Don River due to pressure from the Germans. Their goal was to gain footholds around Stalingrad and fight the Germans there. During this period, Stalin signed the order that called on the Red Army to not take any steps back.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: A very real account of some of the most significant time of the second World War for the Red Army. Provided some unique perspectives on the war that later echo in some Soviet poems - very culturally significant and very well-written. 9. The Aviator by Yevgeny Vodolazkin

Summary: A man wakes up in a hospital bed with no idea of who he is or how he came to be there. As he starts to write everything that happens to him and everything he begins to remember, out pours a kaleidoscope of images, faces, and events, reconstructing the story of a young man in Russia in the early twentieth century through the turbulence of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. As he begins to build a vivid picture of his former life, only one question remains: how is he able to remember the start of the twentieth century when the pills by his bedside were made in 1999?

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions: The whole book is written in the format of diary entries, which doesn’t get stale and fits the storyline well. Bounces between the beginning and the end of the 20th century, slowly putting together a puzzle of the main character’s life while describing the events of the Russian Revolution and the conditions in the infamous Solovki prison camp. Better than Brisbane in my opinion. 10. The Clown by Heinrich Böll

Summary: Acclaimed entertainer Hans Schnier collapses when his beloved Marie leaves him because he won’t marry her within the Catholic Church. The desertion triggers a searing re-examination of his life—the loss of his sister during the war, the demands of his millionaire father and the hypocrisies of his mother, who first fought to “save” Germany from the Jews, then worked for “reconciliation” afterwards.

Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions: Beautiful and painful. Explores the themes of religion and nationalism through the lens of a socially-awkward, observant man whose wife abandoned him due to their mismatched views on religion. Perceptive and relatable. “I am a clown and I collect moments”. 11. The Stranger by Albert Camus

Summary: Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd”.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions: Seemingly simple, but incredibly perceptive and shrewd. Quite contained but explores the main character brilliantly and is very relatable. Beautifully existential. “I recognized the familiar smells and colours of a summer evening. In the darkness of my mobile prison I rediscovered one by one, as if rising from the depths of my fatigue, all the familiar sounds of a town that I loved and of a certain time of day when I sometimes used to feel happy.” “I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign indifference of the world”. 12. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Summary: In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war’. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier’ experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions: Very monotone, so the title is fitting. Depicts the routine way in which war disillusions young men. Marvelously illustrates how the lost generation came about. There is no elaborate plot, but it doesn’t feel necessary - the novel is instead an existential confrontation of young men with the senseless brutality of the war.

“We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces.” 13. The Women of Lazarus (Женщины Лазаря) by Marina Stepnova

Summary: Lazarus Lindt comes to Moscow carrying with him nothing but lice and a notebook. The Women of Lazarus tells a big part of Lazarus' life story, following three important women in it: his mentor's wife, his own young wife and their granddaughter. Set against the background of the twentieth century, Moscow and the fictional city of Ensk, Marina Stepnova depicts several generations of characters and the emotional and familial upheavals they experience.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions: Is very effective in grounding the reader in the time periods in which it’s set. Non-linear, constantly changes its narrator and constructs the storyline around one character so that the story comes together like a puzzle. 14. Before Sunrise (Перед Восходом Солнца) by Mikhail Zoschenko

Summary: An autobiographical novel that Zoschenko considered his most important work. In it, Zoschenko analyzes his life, unravelling the causes for his recurring depression.

Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions: Absolutely blown away by this. Zoschenko spent much of his life in fear and depression and managed to pull himself out of it by analyzing the false associations his brain established in his childhood. This is an account of his journey. It starts out with his memories from his youth and childhood, then explains the ways in which a child’s brain, during a scary incident, creates symbols that it associates with fear and danger. Subsequently, in adulthood, those symbols remind the person of danger and make them feel scared and depressed. Zoschenko managed to dig through his past, memories, dreams, and subconsciousness and identify the symbols that caused his adult self to feel scared and depressed. He then disrupted those connections and learned to control his depression. This book is not a guide for doing the same, and the author actually warns the reader against following in his steps without the supervision of a therapist, but it is a source of hope that indicates that everyone has an innate power to establish the causes of their fears and control their emotions. This is a brilliant mix of entertaining memories from Zoschenko’s life and of the science and steps behind gaining the ability to control one’s consciousness. In addition to all of that, there are constant stories of encounters with other prominent Russian poets and writers, which provide insights into their worlds.

15. In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje

Summary: Patrick Lewis arrives in Toronto in the 1920s and earns his living searching for a vanished millionaire and tunneling beneath Lake Ontario. In the course of his adventures, Patrick's life intersects with those of characters who reappear in Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning The English Patient.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions: Beautifully written, feels like a puzzle, each piece of which provides an intimate insight into the mysterious landscape of 1920s Canada. A bit difficult to follow at times, and might be leaning too much into a sort of hallucinatory aesthetic, but was still enjoyable to read. Could have been a collection of short stories, and would probably read just as well.

16. Daisy Miller by Henry James

Summary: The young Daisy Miller, an American on holiday with her mother on the shores of Switzerland’s Lac Leman, is one of James’s most vivid and tragic characters. Daisy’s friendship with an American gentleman, Mr. Winterbourne, and her subsequent infatuation with a passionate but impoverished Italian bring to life the great Jamesian themes of Americans abroad, innocence versus experience, and the grip of fate. As Elizabeth Hardwick writes in her Introduction, Daisy Miller “lives on, a figure out of literature who has entered history as a name, a vision.”

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions: Very economically written and very apt. Combines social criticism with literary devices very well, juxtaposes America and Europe while constructing a very compelling story. Also includes some interesting allusions to and parallels with other prominent works of literature, which contextualizes it in its time.

17. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Summary: A very young woman's first job: governess for two weirdly beautiful, strangely distant, oddly silent children, Miles and Flora, at a forlorn estate...An estate haunted by a beckoning evil. Half-seen figures who glare from dark towers and dusty windows- silent, foul phantoms who, day by day, night by night, come closer, ever closer. With growing horror, the helpless governess realizes the fiendish creatures want the children, seeking to corrupt their bodies, possess their minds, own their souls... But worse-much worse- the governess discovers that Miles and Flora have no terror of the lurking evil. For they want the walking dead as badly as the dead want them.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions: A nesting-doll style ghost story, which builds suspense and leaves the reader in doubts all the way up to the surprisingly abrupt ending. Very rich in themes of feminism, class inequality, and suggested pedophilia, masterfully intertwining all themes together to create a compelling story. The pace felt uneven at times, but, nevertheless, was very enjoyable to read.

18. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Summary: The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story is of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his new love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions: This was a re-read for a class, but allowed me to discover so much more of the novel, proving how rich it is. Marvelously describes 1920s New York and creates an incredibly engaging story full of symbolism and hidden gems. Nearly each sentence is crafted with depth and beauty, which caused me to pause multiple times and re-read many of them, simply marveling at the sentence structure.

19. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Summary: The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation, The Sun Also Rises (Fiesta) is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: Very monotone and has little plot beyond the aimless wanderings and circular interactions of the characters, which very precisely depicts the lives of members of the Lost Generation. Full of symbolism and intertwining themes such as racism, the complexity of masculinity, and post-war trauma. The lack of plot and the repetitive interactions are very fitting for the lifestyles it attempts to illuminate, and, due to the occasional richness of the language and the fully-developed themes, it is a very enjoyable read.

“you can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.”

20. Nature and Art by Elizabeth Inchbald

Summary: A novel of social protest, in which the primitive is opposed to the civilized and which culminates in the condemnation of a seduced girl by a judge who is also her seducer. Hazlitt comments on Inchbald's 'power over the springs of the heart', describing the book as distressing to the feelings and haunting the memory. Readers today will find in it a reflection not only of the politics but also, in its emphasis on Nature and love, of the literary revolution of the time.

Rating: 6/10

Impressions: Somewhat conflicted about this, the plot and symbols are incredibly engaging and compelling, but the actual writing felt dry and dull at times. The main issue I had with this is that the author seems unsure of the ending, falling short of making any recommendations or tying up storylines in a way that would expose any morals. Perhaps would have been more compelling with a stronger ending and a more firm viewpoint of the French revolution - as it stands it feels unfinished and unconfident.

21. Passing by Nella Larsen

Summary: Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly light-skinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing for a white woman after severing ties to her past--even hiding the truth from her racist husband. Clare finds herself drawn to Irene's sense of ease and security with her Black identity and longs for the community (and, increasingly, the woman) she lost. Irene is both riveted and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret, as Clare begins to insert herself--and her deception--into every part of Irene's stable existence. First published in 1929, Larsen's brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to "pass," is as timely as ever.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions: A very compelling and suspenseful story, masterfully eliminating complex and multi-layered issues of racial identity and jealousy. The main character provides a unique insight into certain double standards that light-skinned women of colour may embody or experience, but beyond developing these issues with impressive depth and perception, it is also a very engaging story.

22. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence

Summary: Widely regarded as D. H. Lawrence's greatest novel, Women in Love is both a lucid account of English society before the First World War, and a brilliant evocation of the inexorable power of human desire. Women in Love continues where The Rainbow left off, with the third generation of Brangwens: Ursula Brangwen, now a teacher at Beldover, a mining town in the Midlands, and her sister Gudrun, who has returned from art school in London. The focus of the novel is primarily on their relationships, Ursula's with Rupert Birkin, a school inspector, and Gudrun's with industrialist Gerald Crich, and later with a sculptor, Loerke. Quintessentially modernist, Women in Love is one of Lawrence's most extraordinary, innovative and unsettling works.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions: This is a long read of about 550 pages, but reads surprisingly easily and is very engaging throughout. Develops an incredible amount of ideas, only some of which are religion, the meaning of life, identity, and sexuality. The storyline tends to jump from character to character, resulting in a very rich depiction of each one, allowing the reader to take a break from them for a few chapters, and, with that, avoids monotonous storytelling. Very human and compelling, presents the characters' struggles in a very relatable way, while still battling with very grandiose ideas and themes.

23. Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Summary: "My satire is against those who see figures and averages, and nothing else," proclaimed Charles Dickens in explaining the theme of this classic novel. Published in 1854, the story concerns one Thomas Gradgrind, a "fanatic of the demonstrable fact," who raises his children, Tom and Louisa, in a stifling and arid atmosphere of grim practicality. Without a moral compass to guide them, the children sink into lives of desperation and despair, played out against the grim background of Coketown, a wretched community shadowed by an industrial behemoth. Louisa falls into a loveless marriage with Josiah Bouderby, a vulgar banker, while the unscrupulous Tom, totally lacking in principle, becomes a thief who frames an innocent man for his crime. Witnessing the degradation and downfall of his children, Gradgrind realizes that his own misguided principles have ruined their lives.

Rating: 6/10

Impressions: Plot is largely driven by the dynamic, though somewhat caricature-ish characters. Has compelling social commentary and wit, but ultimately felt a bit flat and underwhelming.

24. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Summary: A story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: Perceptive, grim, and funny all at the same time. Portrays alienation through the absurdist lens of a transformation of a man into an insect, but, despite the subject matter, remains very relatable and compelling. Beautifully and ironically existential. Easy to read despite some loaded language, and short enough to be read within a day or two.

25. Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Summary: In 1864, just prior to the years in which he wrote his greatest novels — Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov — Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) penned the darkly fascinating Notes from the Underground. Its nameless hero is a profoundly alienated individual in whose brooding self-analysis there is a search for the true and the good in a world of relative values and few absolutes. Moreover, the novel introduces themes — moral, religious, political and social — that dominated Dostoyevsky's later works.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions: Manages to make you relate to a character you would not want to relate to - I actually had to take a couple of breaks from reading this to avoid feeling completely like him. Very gritty, dark, and lonely, this aesthetic is constructed with impeccable precision, with plot, language, and symbols all working toward creating it.

26. The Dead by James Joyce

Summary: Joyce's story details a New Year's Eve gathering in Dublin that is so evocative and beautiful that it prompts the protagonist's wife to make a shocking revelation to her husband—closing the story with an emotionally powerful epiphany that is considered one of the best in modern literature.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions: The main payoff of the story comes at its end, at which point the buildups that had before that seemed directionless make sense. Reads well as a short story - it's very contained, yet manages to comment on universal themes. The monotonous nature of the majority of the novel and its lack of plot are ultimately the reason for its somewhat low rating - the way it ends ties everything in very well, but the actual experience throughout feels somewhat uneven. Nevertheless, it's worth a read!

27. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Summary: The tragedy of the Compson family features some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions: This was a wild experience - the first two sections of the novel are frustratingly confusing, but the last two are incredibly emotional, and illuminate lost aspects of the previous two. Can hardly be grasped on first reading or without discussion with someone else (ideally, someone who has read the novel multiple times and has a PhD in English Literature). Each sentence is so packed full of meaning that the reading is both a rich and a shallow experience - every treasure you make out in it simultaneously amazes you and makes you realize how much of the novel you must have accidentally missed.

28. Pylon by William Faulkner

Summary: Published in 1935, Pylon is set in New Valois, a fictionalized version of New Orleans. It is one of Faulkner's few novels set outside Yoknapatawpha County his favorite fictional setting. Pylon is the story of a group of barnstormers whose lives are thoroughly unconventional. They live hand-to-mouth, always just a step or two ahead of destitution, and their interpersonal relationships are unorthodox and shocking by the standards of their society and times. They meet an overwrought and extremely emotional newspaperman in New Valois, who gets deeply involved with them, with tragic consequences.

Rating: 5/10

Impressions: Fell short of The Sound and the Fury - not nearly as impressive in writing and plot. Perhaps the best thing that might be said about it is that it illuminates Faulkner's range as a writer, but it ultimately was not a very enjoyable read.

29. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Summary: Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle—yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.

Rating: 4/10

Impressions: This book was very frustrating. The entire time it feels as though it is leading up to a big reveal that might tie up all of its plotlines, but the ending falls short of any satisfactory resolution and leaves everything it set up completely unfinished. Incredibly repetitive and monotone and lacks descriptive language that would make the events compelling. Secondary characters feel strong urges to help primary ones that are not explained in the slightest, which makes the prime characters' successes and advances seem completely unjustified and meaningless. Overall, very strange, unexplained, unsatisfying, and disappointing.