A Literary High - 2021 Round-Up

 

Here we are again, another year of reading against the dark background of the pandemic, failing democracies and world leaders fiddling while the world burns, oh, and an engagement (my own). Reading is a fine way of grounding oneself while such events come and go, perhaps the best way. It's been a year of either starting or finishing off trilogies. I completed the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, finally reading Cixin Liu's Death's End (2010), which proved to be not only the best book of the year, but also one of the greatest science fiction novels I have ever read. I read two novels of Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy - Suldrun's Garden (1983) and The Green Pearl (1986), both were excellent and also made me want to read more fantasy. I began Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy with Red Mars (1992), which I also rated as Sublime, joining Colm Toibin's The Magician (2021) and Don DeLillos' Zero K (2016) as among the best books I've read this year. 

In hindsight it was quite a good year for reading, with other notable books being Walter Tevis' brilliant novel The Queen's Gambit (1983) and Curtis Sittenfeld's alternate history novel, Rodham (2020). It was also great to read two Iain M. Banks books, with the short story collection The State of the Art (1991) compelling me to read The Culture novel The Hydrogen Sonata (2012), which was both excellent and a lot of fun. There's always a book that doesn't measure up, and although regular readers will know that I am not a harsh critic, the Alfred Bester novel, Tiger Tiger (1956) was absurd and bloated science fiction, and a very disappointing read. As for the year ahead? I look forward to completing the trilogies I began and my aim will be to read more classics. Reading The Magician about Thomas Mann has reminded me that there's a whole range of classics I've never read, Mann himself and also the Russian greats. I just need to prepare myself for all of the extremely long names and intense existential themes, which shouldn't be a problem, as it will be light reading compared to the daily news...

The Queen's Gambit - Walter Tevis (1983)

 

Rating: Excellent

Like millions of others I watched Netflix's adaptation of The Queen's Gambit (2020) and enjoyed it immensely, unlike many others, however, I did not take up playing chess as I'm simply too obsessed with Scrabble to undertake improving on my pathetic abilities untested since my twenties. I had no idea at the time that the series was based on a novel, a novel by the amazing Walter Tevis no less. Firstly, the novel and the series are remarkably similar, which is unsurprising considering the novel is almost perfect. Despite knowing what was going to happen and re-experiencing scenes and dialogue that was repeated in the series, The Queen's Gambit was a superb read. Beth Harmon, orphaned at an early age and exposed to the game of chess by the orphanage's resident janitor, Mr Shaibel, grows up both struggling with addiction and flexing her prodigious talent for chess. Chess? Who would have thought that the game could be so compelling? Tevis manages to totally enthral despite reguarly describing the technical machinations of the game as Harmon climbs the chess compitition rankings. My advice is to not worry about trying to understand the game, rather let yourself get caught up in the tension and drama of the competition and simply enjoy what Tevis called his "tribute to brainy women."

Benny and Beth: style and substance

Harmon is an intriguing character, intelligent and, on the surface at least, emotionally cold; she is also a fragile and sympathetic protagonist who easily evokes within the reader a sense of protection and the wish for her to succeed. Although the plot sees Harmon struggle with her demons, she does not suffer too greatly and the narrative rewards the reader with some feel-good scenes without overdoing it. Tevis was an accomplished and economical writer, nothing is wasted and the narrative is never bloated with excess description or character over-development. Support characters, such as fellow chess genius Benny Watts, are rendered vibrant and fascinating within a few paragraphs. In the case of Watts, it is no wonder the series recreates him precisely, as he is absolutely perfect in the novel. As I touched on earlier, although I basically knew how the novel was going to pan-out, I still felt caught up in the tension, which is testament to Tevis' story-telling genius. The Queen's Gambit also has one of the most satisfying and well written end-games ( I couldn't help myself...) that is tense, succinct and satisfying. Despite having read The Man Who Fell to Earth (1963) and the short story collection, one of the best I've ever read, Far From Home (1981), I had no idea that Tevis wrote The Hustler (1959) and The Color of Money (1984). I'm not particularly interested in pool sharks, but, like with this novel, I might read them for the brilliant storytelling abilities of Tevis alone.