MICKUNAS NAMES FAVORITE FICTION TITLES OF 2017
Let’s keep moving through the inventory of my favorite books from the past year.
2017 was another superb year for fiction. Next week I’ll have my favorite crime fiction titles foryou.
Here are my favorite (non-crime) fiction titles from 2017:
“The Child Finder,” by Rene Denfeld (Harper, 273 pages, $25.99)
In this book we meet aw oman who is “The Child Finder” of the title. Locating missing children has become her occupation. And for her,
the work is personal — she had been the victim of a child abduction herself.
Her memories of that experience have been hidden away in some dark recess of her mind. As she searches for a child who vanished one day in a mountain forest while her parents were looking for a Christmas tree, our determined investigator pieces together scribbles and scraps of information. Each case is different. Some children won’t ever be found. Others died.
Denfeld’s novel packs so much raw power my heart was racing as I got to the end. Incredible storytelling.
“Five-Carat Soul,” by James McBride (Riverhead, 309 pages, $27).
James McBride’s novel “The Good Lord Bird” topped my year-end fiction list a few years ago. In “Five-Carat Soul,” his first collection of short sto- ries, readers will find a couple of tales that might remind them of that fabulous novel. McBride has a gift for
mining deadly serious themes while also grounding them in humor.
“The Good Lord Bird” is the funniest book about slavery that you’ll ever read.
There are so many standout stories here that it is tough to name just a few. There are a couple of story suites; one is a grouping of stories told from the perspective sof animals in a zoo. Another set deals with a group of kids who play music
together and have many adventures, some grim, others hilarious.
“Who is Rich,” by Matthew Klam (Random House, 321 pages, $27)
This is my sleeper deadpan humor choice. Matt hew Klam tells us the story of Rich, a guy who is going through a mid-life crisis. His marriage seems doomed. He doesn’t get much sleep because his young children keep waking him up. He’s excited about getting away from his family to teach at a summer workshop on the coast. This pathetic fellow is particularly thrilled at the prospect of engaging in acts of adultery with a woman who will be there. She’s married to a Wall Street tycoon and Rich is deluding himself that she will decide to leave her husband to be with him. Klam’s humor tends to be of the gallows variety. While Rich isn’t particularly likeable, he tends to get into ridiculous situations that can be quite funny. It is beautifully written.
“The Forensic Records Society,” by Magnus Mills (Bloomsbury, 182 pages, $26)
This novel is utterly wacky. It is the story of a group of obsessive record collectors. Actually, sev
eral groups of obsessive vinyl admirers. The initial group gathers every week in the back room of a pub. They listen to sin
gles. Nobody is allowed to speak as the music plays. Later on they engage in debates about the perfect length for a single: three minutes. Anybody who obsessively collects anything will appreciate this group of hardcore vinyl fetish freaks. The author’s humor tends to be bone dry. Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/booknook. Contact him at vick@ vickmickunas.com.