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Death, drama and cannibalism
The finest books of a decade filled with dark and light
By Seth Muller
Published on 12/24/2009
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Editor’s note: Each month, Seth Muller is the one who chooses
the book selection for Book Beacon in Northern Arizona’s
Mountain Living Magazine. Usually, it’s a local or regional
favorite. But, Muller is a book weenie in general, having served on
the Northern Arizona Book Festival and having written a book or
two himself. So, to help fill out yet another one of those end-of-the-
decade deals, we asked him to name his top favorite reads from the
2000s, both fiction and nonfiction. Here’s what he came up with.
10. “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” by Luis Alberto Urrea (2006)
This novel is based on the true life story of Teresita, the real-life
Saint of Cabora. She was born in 1873 to a 14-year-old Indian girl
impregnated by a prosperous rancher near the Mexico-Arizona
border. In Urrea’s hands, the novel is poetically lyrical, dark,
humorous and profound all at the same time. While dirty and
violent, the novel also explores a world of profound beauty
summoned by a woman with an unwavering spirit. Why Oprah
Winfrey did not pick this one is anyone’s guess.
9. “The Shell Collector” by Anthony Doerr (2003)
One of the best short story collections in ages and one of two in
this list, “The Shell Collector” is an incredible mosaic of wonder and
mystery. While each story mesmerizes, “The Hunter’s Wife” is
possibly the best short story written this decade. It tells the story of
a woman with psychic abilities, her relationship with a hunter and
their deep winter spent in the mountains. Doerr captures the
refracted light between the human and natural worlds and makes it
real on the page.
8. “The House of Sand and Fog” by Andre Dubus III (2000)
Who would have guessed that the greatest thriller of the decade
would be centered on a real estate dispute? “House of Sand and
Fog” tells the story of the fight between Iranian immigrant Massoud
Amir Behrani, who buys a house at auction.
The house previously
belonged to Kathy Nicolo, who wants it back. Anyone who has read
the book or seen the movie (which is pretty good) knows that things
do not go well. In our age of real estate meltdowns, it will make
anyone think twice about those foreclosed home deals and
auctions.
7. “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” by David
Eggers (2001)
This also wins for best title of the year. As one of three nonfiction
entries on the list, this memoir about David Eggers’ life after the
death of both of his parents is equal parts hilarious and
heartbreaking. Eggers is left to care for his younger brother, the two
confronted with a strange freedom after being orphaned (as a hint
to Egger’s comic genius, be sure to read the copyright information).
The book became the launching pad for the career of Eggers, who
went on to write other books, pen screenplays and become editor
of the humor magazine McSweeney’s. Flagstaff was blessed
to have Eggers appear in town as part of the 2003 Northern
Arizona Book Festival, where he read an essay that shared the
real-time thoughts of an Irish setter.
6. “Close Range: Wyoming Stories” by E. Annie Proulx (2000)
What E. Annie Proulx did to capture the cadence, nature and
humanity of Newfoundland in “The Shipping News” she matches in
her collection of stories about Wyoming. Every title in this book
shines, but “The Half-Skinned Steer,” “The Mud Below,” and, of
course, “Brokeback Mountain” are powerhouse yarns worthy of
many re-reads. The latter about two secretly gay ranch hands was
adapted as one of the more intriguing films of the decade, with a
breakout role for Heath Ledger. Proulx marks another literary master
who came to Flagstaff, as she participated in the 2005 Northern
Arizona Book Festival. This book helped secure Proulx’s place as
one of the great living female authors.
5. “Seabiscuit: An American Legend” by Laura Hillenbrand
(2003)
It is a challenge to not draft a list of great books from a decade
without casting thought to sports biographies. They carry action,
drama and have their own built-in story arc, no matter who the
person is. In this case, the biography is not about a person but a
racehorse named Seabiscuit. Few nonfiction books this decade
proved as engaging and as fascinating as “Seabiscuit” (note: don’t
judge a book by its movie), which is more than just about an animal
that can run fast. It is about the times, the Great Depression and
how the underdog racer became a champion and a national icon.
Hillenbrand is herself a national treasure. She is a writer with a keen
sense of taking history and making it immediate and real. And, she
managed to write this book despite suffering from chronic fatigue
syndrome.
4. “Finding Beauty in a Broken World” by Terry Tempest Williams
(2008)
Here is the third nonfiction book on the list and the third example of
an author who visited Flagstaff. She arrived in February to speak as
part of an event sponsored by the Grand Canyon Trust and
Museum of Northern Arizona. “Finding Beauty” marks the Southwest
writer’s best book since “Refuge,” which launched her career. This
most recent book is about Williams’ journey after the Sept. 11
attacks. She considers herself a lost soul after the attacks, and she
looks for “one wild word” to follow. That word becomes “mosaic.”
From this, she travels to Italy, Rwanda and to places in her home
state of Utah to learn about the darkness and light of the world,
and how to find its illuminating places.
3. “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro (2006)
The top four books on this list all represent, in some way, the
anxiety building in our changing world. Kazuo Ishiguro explores this
well—but in a roiling-under-the-surface way—in “Never Let Me Go.”
He is a novelist who knows how to break a reader’s heart delicately
and precisely (as seen in the quiet devastation of his 1989 novel
“Remains of the Day.”) We follow the life of Kathy H. as she comes
to understand her own humanity and the magical coincidence of
the world. At times, the story’s focus on the character has one
forgetting that she has been cloned to provide donor organs.
Ishiguro proves himself as an author who finds powers in subtlety
and in the ability to gently unfold a story from one person’s limited
perspective.
2. “The Corrections” by Jonathan Franzen (2001)
No novel explores the dark and hideous corners of family
dysfunction and human isolation in the modern world the way
Jonathan Franzen does in “The Corrections.” It follows the Lambert
family and its three grown children as the mother, Enid, works to
bring the geographically divided family home to the Midwest for one
last Christmas. Each life of the family is explored in painful detail.
Few authors have produced more harrowing prose than Franzen’s
description of father Alfred wrestling with Parkinson’s disease and
dementia. Again, here is another novel for our times. One that
takes a typical modern American family and eviscerates it, skewers it
and exposes its underbelly for public display. Probably not the best
novel to read while home for Christmas, but still one of the best
written of the decade.
1. “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
America’s greatest living author is Cormac McCarthy. If he only
wrote his Border Trilogy, with “All the Pretty Horses” and “The
Crossing,” two of the greatest modern Western tales, that would be
enough. But no, he went and wrote other incredible novels and
released his best written, most profound and most disturbing novel,
“The Road.” The best novel of the decade is a simple tale of a
father and son, never named in the book, walking a road through
post-apocalyptic America. What caused the apocalypse is never
revealed. It does not matter. What matters is the father and son are
left to survive in a gray world that snows ash and is filled with
wandering bands of cannibals. This ultimate horror novel burrows
into the marrow of anyone who reads it. Unlike the movie “2012,”
this is a painful examination of what could really happen. And deep
down, we all know it.
Additional photos for this story:
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