2021 titles strong, powerfully written
The pandemic may have hit most of the arts hard this year, but books emerged relatively unscathed, apart from the difficulty of in-person author tours.
The following are six of The Dispatch book reviewers' favorite titles from a year overflowing with strong contenders.
Four of the books have strong Ohio connections, though they would merit a spot on any national list.
Three of the favorites are novels which range from experimental to solidly old-fashioned. The other three include a memoir, a set of intertwined essays and a collection of poetry.
Anyone looking to explore the slate of books this year will find something to enjoy in the list.
• “Cloud Cuckoo Land” (Scribner) by Anthony Doerr — The ambitious, brilliant new novel (by the Clevelandnative author of “All The Light We Cannot See”) blends the stories of characters in five different time periods stretching over the centuries. The characters are united by an ancient Greek text that, in different ways, impacts all their lives. — Nancy Gilson
• “Klara and the Sun” (Knopf) by Kazuo Ishiguro — Narrated by the robotic, artificial friend Klara, the novel explores concepts of friendship and identity — especially what it means to be human — in a pandemic world. Ishiguro's previous works include “The Remains of the Day” and “Never Let Me Go.” — N.G.
•“The Lincoln Highway” (Viking) by Amor Towles — Three teen boys and an 8-year-old travel the Lincoln Highway from Nebraska to New York in 1954 in this rollicking adventure. Filled with indelible, haunting characters, the novel (by the author of “A Gentleman in Moscow”) is alternately humorous and heartbreaking. — N.G.
• “A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance” (Random House) by Hanif Abdurraqib — The latest collection by Columbus native Abdurraqib interlaces historical scholarship and deeply personal memories, as he connects the dots between, among many other subjects, “Soul Train,” magical Negroes, Black magicians, dancer Josephine Baker and the sock hops he attended at Beechwold
High School. Abdurraqib won a Macarthur “Genius Grant” for his work this fall. — Margaret Quamme
• “Playlist for the Apocalypse” (W.W. Norton) by Rita Dove — The former U.S. Poet Laureate and Akron native returned with her first book of new poetry since 2010. The richly rewarding volume plays deeply disturbing poems about history and contemporary problems against delightful ones about lighter subjects, and includes a personal set of poems reflecting on her experience with multiple sclerosis. — M.Q.
• “Punch Me Up to the Gods” (Houghton Mifflin) by Brian Broome — This powerful, sharp-edged memoir, in equal parts horrifying and bleakly funny, focuses on key points in the life of a writer who grew up gay, Black and poor in Warren, Ohio, in the 1980s. It's framed by the poignant story of a bus ride during which Broome observed the interaction between a young Black father and his toddler son. Broome won a Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction for the book. — M.Q.
negilson@gmail.com, margaretquamme@hotmail.com