2022 has been a mixed year. Good for fans of no covid restrictions, Conservative party self-immolation, and Daniel Craig's Southern accent. Bad for global stability, anyone with any form of living costs, and a certain billionaire. However, 2022 was also the year I got really back into reading. I'm going to pick out some of my favourites from the year.
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
Starting with a Booker prize winner is hardly the paragon of critical literary insight, I'll admit. But on reading, it's easy to see why it was so highly acclaimed. Telling the story of the eighties through Nick, a middle class post-graduate who finds himself growing ever closer to the Fedden family, headed by an ambitious and aristocratic Tory MP. He juggles his increasing entanglement in high society, with the reality of his sex life and the ominous shadow of the AIDS epidemic. Hollinghurst questions whether homosexuality can ever be apolitical, especially in the face of the increasing, and the hypocrisy at the heart of Conservative family values. There's a scene where Nick comes face to face with Thatcher, the embodiment of evangelical moralism, whilst around her all sorts of debauchery is taking place, just unseen. And, whilst not being a comment on the book itself, my boyfriend took great enjoyment from it being categorised as bisexual erotica on Amazon.
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
Sticking in the same decade but at the other end of the class spectrum is Douglas Stuart's debut novel. Set against the post-industrial despair on Glasgow in the eighties, we follow Shuggie as he grows up, whilst his mother plunges into ever tightening grip of alcoholism. As relatives, lovers and neighbours all come and go, the story develops into a stark tale of reversed responsibilities and meaning of masculinity, especially as Shuggie begins to discover more about himself. Beautifully written, yet the novel nevers shies away from the raw reality of life on the poverty line. And, as in life, tragedy and comedy are often close bedfellows, and the book does have its fair share of laughs. I'm already looking forward to Stuart's next novel (Young Mungo - paperback out 2023).
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - Alan Sillitoe
It's with great shame that despite living in Nottingham, UNESCO City of Literature, for years, I'll admit I'd only read Alan Sillitoe for the first time this year. In his seminal debut, we follow Arthur Seaton in his care and consequence free existence revolving around women, work and getting drunk. The story is told through a tapestry of smoke-filled pubs, the grimy terraces of post-war Nottingham and Arthur's cynical optimism that he is owed a good time. But Saturday night turns into Sunday morning, and there are inevitable consequences of his actions. The fingerprints of the novel are noticeable throughout British popular culture, especially Arthur's defiant rant: I’m me and nobody else. Whatever people say I am, that's what I'm not...
Cheer the Fuck Up - Jack Rooke
Catapulted into the spotlight through his fantastic Big Boys series on Channel 4, Jack Rooke's memoir was the most profound and funniest read all year. The book tells Rooke's story from losing his dad just before going to university, through to making his first steps on the professional comedy circuit. It's candid and intimate, and makes the reader feel like a close confidante of Rooke. It deals with important yet challenging issues surrounding mental health, as well as coming to terms with sexuality. But above all, it is hilarious. There's also practical information on how to support yourself or others about mental health, suicide, coming out, etc. Never has such a useful resource been so funny.
Free - Lea Ypi
Lea Ypi's memoir on growing up in Albania whilst communism collapsed was eye opening. Albania had spent decades in self imposed isolationism, rejecting the West, the Soviet Union, China and pretty much anyone else. Seeing how the cult of Enver Hoxha and the party permeated every mundane aspect of life through the eyes of a child helps explain how a tiresome doublethink is needed to survive in such an autocratic regime. The absurdities are also funny from a 21st century perspective, with the suspicion and accusations that arise when the family's prized cola can goes missing off the top of the TV set, and mysteriously appears next door. More sobering was that as communism falls, what follows isn't democratic freedom, but a corrupt show democracy, punctuated with visits from well meaning western advisors and charities.
And one I really didn't enjoy...
A Small Revolution in Germany - Hensher
On paper, I should've loved this book. Charting the lives and affairs of a group of friends across the decades between Sheffield and East Germany. But I ended up resenting it. Our protagonist, who starts out meeting a group of like minded anarchists and communists, relishes in smugly informing the reader how all but him have failed to stay the course, and subsequently have all died, or worse, prostituted themselves for aims of communism. Part Militant Labour nostalgia trip, part Alan Partridge's "Needless to say, I had the last laugh"; the book takes an unexpected and unashamedly transphobic turn in the latter chapters. Had I done a bit more research into the author, I probably could've anticipated that I may not get on with some of the views. But even without the repeated transphobic passages, the book is preachy and sinfully dull.
Books I read in 2022 (no particular order)
Dune - Frank Herbert
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
Heartstopper 1,2,3,4 - Alice Oseman
Nick and Charlie - Alice Oseman
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - Alan Sillitoe
The Sparsholt Affair - Alan Hollinghurst
Cheer the Fuck Up - Jack Rooke
Free - Lea Ypi
Have you Heard? - Marie Le Conte
The Power of Geography - Tim Marshall
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami
Dance Dance Dance - Haruki Murakami
Rollercoaster - Ian Kershaw
The Rise and Fall of the British Nation - David Edgerton
Capital - John Lanchester
Solar - Ian McEwan
A Shock - Keith Ridgway
A Small Revolution in Germany - Philip Hensher
Dancer from the Dance - Andrew Holleran
London Triptych - Jonathan Kemp
Whilst England Sleeps - David Leavitt
The Satsuma Affair - Bob Mortimer