The Top Ten List of the Best Fiction I’ve Read in 2013

Here are the books that made 2013 a great reading year for me.

1. “Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk” by Ben Fountain (2012) – This over-the-top black comedy about ‘honoring our soldiers’ at a Dallas Cowboys football game is the ideal plot to capture the absurdities that exist between the comfortable upper-class supporters of the Iraq War and the dirt-poor multi-race soldiers who had little choice but to go to Iraq.

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2. “Life After Life” by Kate Atkinson (2013) – An affectionate portrait of an English family with a twist.  If something goes wrong for this family, they get to do it over with hopefully better results the next time.

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3. “City of Bohane” by Kevin Barry (2012) – This is probably the novel with the most original plot and the most dazzling language.  The story is not limited by the constraints of realism.

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4. “The Story of a New Name” by Elena Ferrante (2013) – Part 2 of the Naples trilogy.  The two girls who were the smartest students and best friends in grade school, Lila and Elena, are sixteen now and take two very different paths in growing up.

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5.“The Flamethrowers” by Rachel Kushner (2013) – Here is an edgy novel about the 1970s art world that begins with our young female protagonist trying to set the world land speed record for a motorcycle on the salt flats in Reno.

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6. “The Dinner” by Herman Koch (2012) – Here is a vivid story about a dinner in a restaurant with two brothers and their wives.  I gaurantee you it will provoke a strong reaction.

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7. “The Circle” by Dave Eggers (2013) – A dark story about an Internet company which believes that all that happens must be known.

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8. “Tenth of December” by George Saunders (2012) – Absurd humorous stories with an emotional payoff.

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9. “The Days of Abandonment” by Elena Ferrante (2002) – An unflinching blunt depiction of a woman dealing with abandonment.

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10. “The Other Typist” by Suzanne Rindell (2013) – An enchanting 1920s story about a typist in a police precinct station.

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Here are some excellent novels I read in 2013 that are older.

“Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert (1866) – A wonderful version of this adultery classic translated by Lydia Davis.

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“The Fancy Dress Party” by Alberto Moravia (1941) – A merry romp of a novel which makes fun of the fascists.

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“The Cocktail Party” by James M Cain (1977, 2013) – A sleazy nightclub murder mystery novel by the writer of ‘Double Indemnity’.

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 “Lucinella”by Lore Segal (1977) – Her one night stand with the Greek God Zeus at a writing conference.

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“In Love” by Alfred Hayes (1953) – The intense record of a break-up between a man and a woman told by the man.

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