The blog of The Top Ten author J. Peder Zane.
Why These Ten?
Monday, March 19, 2007
One of the best responses to "The Top Ten" appeared on the website Chekhov's Mistress. It not only offered the writer's Top Ten list but also explained why he picked those ten and not others.
This is the same challenge I issued to Mary Gaitskill, who explored the complexity of my simple request in a brief essay for the book titled, "Only Ten?" I'll post her essay tomorrow and then some thoughts on my Top Ten.
The person I really want to hear from is you. How did you choose your ten? What were your criteria and considerations? What was the hardest part?
I'd also love to know the stories behind your picks. When did you first encounter them? What was it about them - above and beyond all the other works you've enjoyed and admired - that made such a strong impression?
The best lists are not just a series of titles. They are reflections of the listmaker's life and sensibility. As rewarding as they are to their readers, they are even more valuable to their creators, who learn about themselves through the books they love.
It only sounds like I'm asking you to write a doctoral thesis. I'd just like you to hit the comment button on this or any of my other posts and share some thoughts on your list.
Thanks
Posted by J. Peder Zane at 12:08 PM
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Previous Posts
- Forces of Evil
- Your Top Ten
- Reviewing "Books People Actually Read"
- Even More Books!
- Is David Foster Wallace Serious?
- Lorrie Moore's List
- Katharine Weber's Top Ten
- Reading Across the Ages
- Congratulations Judy Budnitz
- New Top Ten Lists
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I like this idea. I'll bite.
Book 1: Light in August/William Faulkner
Faulkner's a writer very near my heart. He portrays the part of Mississippi I'm also native to, and despite the fact we weren't contemporary I can still see the Mississippi he wrote about. 'Light in August,' is one of the most huge-hearted portrayals of inter-racial relations in all of literature. Faulkner says crucial things about humanity in a way that's pointed, but also very funny. He's not on the soapbox, but you know what he's saying. It's a deeply moving and very important book.
Book 2: To the Lighthouse/Woolf
Up until about 1.5 years ago, I was a stay-at-home mom. I have three children who are very close in age, and as a result I had many pull-my-hair-out moments. Still do, actually, but I digress.
Around the time my older two were preschoolers, and my younger an infant, I realized my steady diet of PBS children's programming wasn't really keeping me awfully sharp. An online group was reading this particular Woolf book, and though I was a little frightened I thought I'd take the plunge. As soon as I read the first line I knew this was unlike anything I'd read before. The beauty inspired me, and Woolf is now one of my favorite writers.
Book 3: Anna K/Tolstoy
I love fallen woman novels, which may sound like a terrible aspersion to cast on my own sex, but ah well. I love novels in which women rally very hard against the constraints of society, and Anna K is one of these rebelious women. The book's gorgeously written, and whoever started the idea Tolstoy was inaccessible should be slapped. He's not at all. He just wrote really BIG books, which to my mind is an asset.
Book 4: Great Expectations/Dickens
I was an early convert to Dickens, starting to read him sometime around high school. GE was one of the first of his novels I read, and I re-read it regularly. It has everything, a gripping storyline, humor and pathos, and wonderful characters. And Estella fascinates me.
Book 5: Madame Bovary/Flaubert
Another "fallen woman" novel, this one just as brutal as Anna K. I'm not even sure how many times I've read this one, but it never fails to move me. Poor Emma Bovary! She married so young, and thought it would all be a big adventure. When that turned sour she turned to other men, with disastrous results. Flaubert's very sympathetic to Emma, turning the convention of the typical Frenchman and his mistress around to show women may actually have these feelings, too. Quelle horreur!
Book 6: Middlemarch/Eliot
Oh, Middlemarch, that huge, sprawling epic British novel. It's mostly about love and marriage, and a bit about politics. It's also about being heartsick, marrying the wrong person, and still managing to live with integrity. George Eliot was a giant intellect who could have stood her ground with anyone. I admire her so much.
Book 7: Ethan Frome/Wharton
This is perhaps one of the most perfectly crafted novellas ever written. Unrelentingly grim as it may seem, there are lights of hope within the story. The ending, yes, I know, but sometimes life just works out that way.
Book 8: Other Voices, Other Rooms/Capote
Sheer poetry, start to finish. This is a "weep at its beauty" novel.
Book 9: Pride and Prejudice/Austen
I came to an appreciation of Austen fairly late. I had a really bad experience with a HORRIBLE college class on Women in Literature that put me off all things Austen for over a decade. We were practically flogged over the head with 'Northanger Abbey,' and came to really despise the name Jane Austen as a result. But I eventually relented and tried again, and saw the true depth, wonderful satiric wit and real humanity of Jane Austen. I love all her novels, but P&P reigns supreme with me. Every word is sheer pleasure. I read it slowly to savor it.
Book 10: The Blind Assassin/Atwood
I feel like a broken record. Every time I talk about Atwood I declare she's this century's answer to George Eliot. She is brilliant, truly brilliant. I've read TBA two or three times, and every time I find something new. It's so deep, and so complex, yet it can be read on a somewhat more superficial level, too, for the story. There's more there if you'd like to plumb the depths, but a good story if that's what you're looking for.
And those are my top 10.