THANKS to Vrye Weekblad, 2024 was a big reading year for me. I could certainly trace this back to trends in the book industry – for me, the most noticeable was the greater availability of translated works from all parts of the world. By the end of the year, I had lost some momentum with my reading, but not my enthusiasm. Below is a list of the books I enjoyed the most.
To my mind and taste a masterpiece; her sentences are an index of cosmological discoveries, virile enough to impregnate your imagination.
Held by Anne Michaels was published by Bloomsbury and costs R420 at Exclusive Books.
A Rocky Horror Picture Show for the modern mind. Time is fleeting and madness wins the day. Enjoy this shindig of the mind!
Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi was published by Faber & Faber and costs R445 at Exclusive Books.
This debut is written in English, although the writer is Dutch. You would be mistaken to regard it as a novel about sex – it's a love story totally detached from the conventions of romance.
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden was published by Penguin Books and costs R435 at Exclusive Books.
A book about the sexual reawakening of an artist whose life and art show a remarkable correspondence with writer, filmmaker and actress Miranda July's. The author approaches human sexuality as a connoisseur of intimacy, as a fantasy virtuoso and as an exponent of the multiple orgasm by one's own or another's hand.
All Fours by Miranda July was published by Canongate Books and costs R370 at Exclusive Books.
The folks in this book give Chris Whitaker a chance to sign up as a great writer. It's a coming-of-age novel, but also an ordinary love story cast in crime fiction swagger, with a solid load of detective storytelling.
All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker was published by Orion and costs R455 at Loot.
A novel that speaks to the twilight chambers of your soul such that you have to read it in one sitting – you know if you pause halfway through, you will never have the courage to finish it.
Liars by Sarah Manguso was published by Hogarth and costs R359 at Graffiti.
For writers, a novel like this is a masterclass – Rooney's narrator is her dynamo. This is an unabashedly Irish novel, which means that in her portrayal of the central figures, Peter and Ivan, Rooney arrives at the great Irish social stratifications, and via their loved ones at all the parts of the Irish patriarchal skeleton.
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney was published by Faber & Faber and costs R390 at Exclusive Books.
The 2024 Booker Prize winner. Harvey takes possession of your imagination so swiftly that you're surprised when you notice. As one day passes on Earth, six astronauts experience daybreak and sunset 16 times. Harvey is quick to make you understand that the six find themselves in extraordinary circumstances, but what happens below on Earth is measured by how they react to impulses in their customary, habitual ways.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey was published by Grove Press and costs R229 at Takealot.
Everett tells the story of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn which we know so well from a different angle – that of the black slave Jim. The novel's language is particularly nuanced – if you can get your hands on the audiobook, you'll experience the full charge of Everett's tour de force.
James by Percival Everett was published by Pan MacMillan and costs R364 at Loot.
Teeuwisse records 101 corrections – and this makes for one of the most enjoyable recreational books of the past year. One question kept coming back to me: Who will one day compile a collection of corrections of Donald Trump's lies?
Fake History: 101 Things That Never Happened by Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse was published by W.H. Allen and costs R297 at Loot.
An account of the life of a woman whose husband convinces her that they should have an “open" marriage. It's a memoir, but written with the finesse of a writer who knows her readers' appetite will be whetted from the moment she begins to fantasise about a man other than her spouse.
More: A Memoir of Open Marriage by Molly Roden Winter is published by Doubleday and costs $16.30 (~R305) at Amazon.
Haidt identifies mental health as the area in which new technology has the greatest impact. The way children are raised has changed. Haidt suggests solutions, and it boils down to relearning how to be responsible parents. The new technology cannot be wished away. Haidt's analysis of the current human condition is frightening – his solutions are what make this book brilliant.
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt was published by Penguin Putnam and costs R641 at Exclusive Books.
Emily Slutsky entered into correspondence with numerous women under the pseudonym Ethan Schuman. She doesn't say anything about it on her website, but it's revealed in Anna Akbari's astonishing There Is No Ethan. Akbari, a sociologist, is one of a crowd of women who became emotionally addicted to him – until she managed to unmask him.
There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America's Biggest Catfish by Anna Akbari was published by Grand Central and costs $21 (~R393) at Amazon.
The irony underpinning a book like this is that the entertainment industry (music, TV, movies, computer games) has had far greater success in exporting the American empire since the advent of talk films than the CIA has. Somewhere in the background there will always be an American businessman who sees an opportunity to get much richer soon, and what useful fools such businessmen are! The CIA has helped many people become multimillionaires.
The CIA: An Imperial History by Hugh Wilford was published by John Murray Press and costs R470 at Exclusive Books.
This is a strange book. Callahan is a very good journalist. Her description of Jackie Kennedy's experiences before and after the assassination of JFK is among the best creative reporting I've ever read. Brilliant, actually. With Mary Jo Kopechne's death, she lifted her writing to an even higher level. Who would ever have thought that Ted Kennedy's struggle to spell the surname Kopechne for the police could produce an absolutely gripping piece of reporting?
Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan was published by Little, Brown Co and costs $22 (~R412) at Amazon.
A monument to Louis Wain, one of the most eccentric artists of the Victorian era and beyond. Hughes's book is totally riveting and leaves one under no illusions about the strange ways in which people thought and acted a century ago. The book overflows with their conception of cat language, how cat tails could be utilised as part of fashionable clothing, and such sillinesses. Hughes involves the great cat lovers of the 19th and early 20th centuries: Charles Dickens, Edward Lear, and T.S. Eliot, as well as literary figures such as Thomas Hardy and E.M. Forster. A strong team.
Catland by Kathryn Hughes was published by HarperCollins and costs R609 at Exclusive Books.
We get to know Elvis Presley's daughter and granddaughter inside out – both contributed text to this disturbing book. They carry the legacy – cultural and financial – of the great rock icon. The granddaughter is ideally placed to make one understand how unmanageable life is for someone who is not equipped to handle abundance. Michael Jackson takes to the stage, as well as a whole host of other unsavoury characters. Better than fiction.
From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough was published by Random House USA and costs R900 at Exclusive Books.
♦ VWB ♦
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Kerneels Breytenbach is a former publisher and journalist from Cape Town. He also authored the short story collection Morsdood van die Honger, the novels Glimlag, Piekniek by Hangklip, Ester, and Hond se Gedagte, and the cookbook Die Lekkerste Lekker. He often writes for magazines about food and restaurants, and as a journalist has also become known as an expert on pop music.
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