The End of Eddy

Edouard Louis's autobiographical novel takes the reader where he or she has likely never been before. Tourists have seen Paris, or the chateaux of the Loire Valley, or maybe Nice; newspapers and opinion columns have explored the insular Muslim communities outside the city centers; but what of the poor native French villager? This is the person who is most likely to vote for Marine Le Pen, to be disdainful of both Arabs and the French middle class.

Louis's novel focuses on a boy growing up in a northern village, in a tumbledown house, with an alcoholic, unemployed father and no apparent way out. The fact that the boy is gay only multiplies his challenges. The story is grounded, at times brutal and always unflinching, in the best tradition of, say, Balzac.

The House of Wittgenstein

Alexander Waugh's history of the famous Vienna family in the first half of the 20th century focuses on Paul, the pianist, and Ludwig, the philosopher, with other members getting (sometimes juicy) supporting roles. In addition to the personal rivalries and disputes, Waugh provides a look at life in Austria, the trauma of two world wars, the nature of identity (the Wittgensteins were classified by the Nazis as Jews even though they had been in practice Christians for a century), and classical music. Other than when it gets bogged down during an account of a financial dispute, the story rolls along swiftly with rich detail.

The Dark Flood Rises

With Margaret Drabble, the term "discursive" loses all of its negative connotations. This novel about aging and death provides a wealth of insights and detours.

Darke

Rick Gekoski has tried to create a classic misanthrope in James Darke, but the character's heart just isn't in it. He's too soft, too human to fit the bill, and paradoxically the extent of his failure is the extent to which this novel succeeds.

The Pure Gold Baby

Margaret Drabble's 2013 novel is an episodic narrative, told by friends, of the life of a woman and her mentally disabled daughter. It is to Drabble's credit that while not much extraordinary happens, her perceptive touch and agreeable prose make The Pure Gold Baby worthwhile.  

Winter is Coming

Garry Kasparov makes a strong case not just against Vladimir Putin, which is easy enough, but against the Western accommodations that have allowed this Russian tyrant to expand his reach, first to Georgia, then Ukraine, and finally, although outside the scope of this book, to the U.S. presidential election. Kasparov's call for a tough response and a morality-based foreign policy is unlikely to be heeded in the next four years, at least, and so the problem of Putinism will likely only get worse.

The Man Who Watched Trains Go By

Georges Simenon's novel, an effort to move beyond Maigret toward more "serious" work, nonetheless contains themes found in his crime novels. The story, in fact, has all the hallmarks of a Maigret story and features Lucas, Maigret's deputy, in a cameo as chief detective. The story, of a man chucking everything and running away from a respectable life, has been told before, but Simenon makes it particularly chilling and believable. 

The Plot Against America

It is unwise to draw too many parallels, especially given that this Philip Roth novel is speculative historical fiction, but The Plot Against America achieves a sobering relevance in the United States of 2017. The prose, firstly, is impeccable; the plot, believable; and the warning, a source of sickening dread. There is nothing that ensures that democracies will endure. Indeed they can't in the face of an ignorant or bigoted citizenry, not for long anyway.

The Whistler

It takes John Grisham 100 pages to get this leaden tale off the ground, after which the reader has only to endure another 250 pages of his awful prose.

Les Enfants Terribles

The strangeness of Jean Cocteau's novel derives from its honesty and perceptiveness about human behavior. That strangeness, therefore, becomes a commentary on the pettiness and parochialism of other novels, against which this one shines.