Thoroughly recommend for a first, or second, read. Either because I was aware the organizational project was soon going to break me or because I needed a distraction, I found myself spending the rest of the weekend with the curmudgeonly Barney Panofksy, self-described “wife-abuser, an intellectual fraud, a purveyor of pap, a drunk with a penchant for violence and probably a murderer.” It is an exceptionally fun book to read, and from a craft perspective, Richler’s mastery of both voice and unreliable narration still feels surprising. I remembered the very end of the book scene by scene I also remember finishing the book exactly at my subway stop and uncontrollably crying, much to the absolute terror of everyone around me.

I am not a huge re-reader, but in the middle of a rainy weekend bookshelf alphabetization disaster I uncovered Mordecai Richler’s Barney’s Version, a book I read a decade ago in an MFA class called “The Hysterical Male” taught by Gary Shteyngart. Mordecai Richler, Barney’s Version (1997) So here are the older books we’ve been reading this year, whether for the first or the tenth time. And hey, sometimes you’re just in the mood. They can be revisited, loaned out, traded, forgotten and found. Also they are fun.) But as your father says, age before beauty, and so before we take the measure of the new kids on the block, the Lit Hub staff would like to celebrate some non-2021 books that we discovered (or re-discovered) this year.Īfter all, one of the great things about books is that they don’t disappear after the first year of their publication-barring floods and thieves, they can loiter forever on your shelves, waiting to be picked up and rediscovered, manic publicity cycle be damned.

(No shade to book lists, end of year or otherwise they are, as Eco reminds us, a cultural bulwark against death. I know, I know, it’s December, we’re all contractually obligated to tally up the Best Books of the Year That Was-and don’t worry, we will.

Pizza frenzy serial