The Edible Woman

Deep in this highly readable and entertaining first novel by Margaret Atwood is a statement that I take to be its thesis: A person doesn't live by principles; a person lives by adjustments. That is true of the protagonist, Marian, a young woman in Toronto on a path toward a "normal" life of marriage and children. Atwood subverts what could have been a dreary domestic novel with a text that is just slightly off-kilter and studded with oddities. The old social and sexual patterns are very much in evidence in this 1969 book, but they are straining to break the leash.

A Sketch of My Life

Written after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1929, this short biographical sketch by Thomas Mann reveals both the person and the intellectual. Most rewarding are the sections on his youthful school days and the publication and reception of his 1901 novel, Buddenbrooks. His philosophical thoughts are somewhat dense and, I suspect, not made less so by the translator.

Footsucker

Geoff Nicholson's novel reads briskly and contains enough academic information on its subject, fetishism, that the reader is left with something beyond the improbable plot twists. It is a dispassionate, typically British, I suppose, look at a subject that could easily have handled emotively or erotically, and all the better for it.

Decline and Fall

Evelyn Waugh's first novel (and second book, after a biography of Rossetti) finds the hapless Paul Pennyfeather thrown this way and that by forces beyond his control. As such, he stands in for us all, but his story is specifically situated among the upper classes of England, which Waugh uses to great comic effect. Thus, a serious and very funny book.  

Silence

This historical novel by Shusako Endo examines the meaning of faith, the problem of doubt, and the message of Christianity. A quibble centers around the concept contained in the title: The priest who resists apostatizing and who sees Japanese tortured and killed because of his resistance is bewildered by and eventually angry at the "silence" of God in the face of these travails. But isn't this a primitive position for a trained Jesuit, even considering the action takes place in the 17th century? What would the much-desired absence of this "silence" look like? A miracle from the heavens, say a bolt of lightning killing Inoue, a Japanese magistrate? It seems a false choice when silence is framed in this way, with no real answer possible. But elsewhere, the theological dilemmas and the weaknesses (and heroism) of humans are presented in a deeply affecting way.  

Almost Blue

This detective story set in Bologna provides some suspense and local color. It doesn't leave a strong appetite, however, for more by the author, Carlo Lucarelli. 

The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini

The so-called artistic temperament reaches its apotheosis with the great Benvenuto Cellini. Headstrong, dedicated, and supremely gifted, this Florentine will take guff from no man — be he king, pope, duke, artistic rival, or street tough. His adventures make wannabe tough guy artists like Hemingway look like prim schoolmarms. The highlights of this timeless account include Cellini's imprisonment and escape in Rome for murder and the casting of his great bronze, Perseus. Along the way he gets into many arguments, draws his dagger, impregnates a model, suffers heartbreak and sickness, and endures.

The Lime Works

The point, as Thomas Bernhard says about halfway through this novel, is to simply sit down and write what you have to say. The inhabitants of the lime works, a older man, Konrad, with a gift for natural sciences, and his incapacitated wife, are a case study in routine, obsession, and missed opportunities. Konrad's magnum opus, The Sense of Hearing, ultimately exists only in his mind. What a shame that is, Bernhard says, inviting the reader to look at himself through Konrad's experience.

Loitering with Intent

Muriel Spark is irresistibly witty, sly, and funny in this novel about biography and writing.

The Unseen

This stark novel by the Norwegian writer Roy Jacobsen is centered on a family's life as the only occupants of an island. The style is compact and direct, but without the elegance of, say, similarly minded works by Par Lagerkvist. At its best, The Unseen can put one in mind of As I Lay Dying with its exploration of flawed and struggling characters.