San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
LOOKING BACK AT 2021 BOOKS
In a long year when escapism was appealing, our favorites included a thriller about plagiarism and a ‘feminist epic’
There haven’t been many silver linings these past two years, but if the pandemic had one upside it was that people got back in the habit of reading. Stuck at home and binged-out on streaming, many San Diegans (myself included) returned to fiction as a means of escapism from the real world. I read more books this year than I ever have, wrote about many of them on these pages, and have a few favorites that truly stood out.
1
“Great Circle” by Maggie Shipstead (Knopf )
At over 600 pages, it’s easy to be intimidated by the size and scope of Shipstead’s “feminist epic,” a book that took her seven years to write. Don’t be discouraged. It’s a decidedly readable pageturner about a mid-20thcentury woman pilot and a present-day actress set to play her in a movie. As the story progresses, it becomes clear how the women are connected, kindred spirits as they navigate within professions that are toxically misogynistic. When I profiled Shipstead back in June, I called the book “both poetic and precise, grounded and glorious,” but it is so much more; it is a tribute to any woman who blazes her own path despite all that is stacked against her.
2
“Hell of a Book” by Jason Mott
(Dutton)
This novel flew under the radar, and even its author was shocked in November when he won the revered National Book Award for fiction. Shifting between two unnamed characters — an author and a dark-skinned boy known simply as “The
Kid” — Mott has woven a devastatingly brutal, highly surrealistic look at Blackness, trauma and, ultimately, what it means to be (un) comfortable inside your own skin. It’s not an easy read, both in its depictions of racism and in its inordinately experimental layout, but the reader will put it down feeling both haunted and humbled.
3
“How Beautiful We Were” by Imbolo Mbue (Random House)
Set in the late 20th century, Mbue’s devastatingly beautiful sophomore novel centers on a fictional African village that has been devastated by a callous oil company. When the village’s children begin to get sick and even die, the village decides to take some of the oil company’s representatives as hostages. But this incident is simply the opening salvo of a decadeslong struggle between the village and the company. This is that rare book that will make readers burn with anger and flush with empathy, all within the span of a few pages.
4
“The Plot” by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Celadon) Readers may already be familiar with Korelitz’s brand of mystery-thriller from her bestselling “You Should Have Known,” the basis of the Hugh Grant/ Nicole Kidman miniseries “The Undoing.” Her latest, “The Plot,” is even better and centers on Jacob, a once promising writer-turnedprofessor who steals the plot of his new novel from a student who has died. But someone knows and is sending Jacob cryptic messages. The reader tags along as he unravels the mystery, and the result is a smart, gripping yarn that’s already been optioned for a limited series starring Mahershala Ali.
5
“Of Women and Salt” by Gabriela Garcia (Flatiron) Following multiple generations of Cuban and Cuban American women over three centuries, Garcia’s debut novel is as assured and engrossing as any family saga I’ve ever read. Equal parts charming and humorous, heartbreaking and haunting, the story shifts seamlessly from one character’s perspective to another as they collectively deal with issues such as poverty, addiction and abusive relationships. Yes, it’s a tragic novel, but one that is filled with tender resilience on every page.