The 10 Best Books I Read in 2018

IS THERE any Christmas gift that is as good as a book? Books entertain and books educate. Books make us laugh and make us cry and make us learn. Books teach us about the world and about people. Books take us to faraway places. Books whisper secrets of the past to us, and books help to predict the future. Books show us who we are, and books show us who we can be. Truly, there is no gift as quite as good as a book.

There There” by Tommy Orange, Knopf, 2018 – Image via Goodreads

For this reason, in this final ‘best of 2018’ list, I have compiled the 10 best works of literature I have read this year. As always, an appearance on this list does not mean the book was published in 2018. It just means that I encountered and read the work in 2018. In this way, you, the reader, are introduced to works that are current and contemporary, while also being introduced to past works that deserve more, or continued, recognition. Here, in random order, are the 10 best books I read this past year.

1) “Blasted” by Sarah Kane – I actually got this book as a present and it is truly one of the most remarkable plays I have ever read. “Blasted” introduced me to Sarah Kane who works within a realm of theatre called In-Yer-Face Theatre (also new to me). The play exhibits tenets of both In-Yer-Face Theatre and Kane’s characteristics as a playwright in its stark presentation of a hotel room in the middle of what appears to be a war zone. Within the hotel room, characters engage in smaller, and, perhaps, more meaningful, wars with each other. Violence, rape, cannibalism and many other gruesome aspects of the human condition find their way into the play, but that should definitely not prevent it from being viewed as the impeccable work of literature that it is.

2) “Ponti” by Sharlene Teo – Teo’s novel juggles the growth of characters, Szu and Circe, with the aging and fall of the former actress, Amisa Tan. Hot with angst and the ripe heat of Singapore, Teo’s work explores girlhood, womanhood and the transition from one to the other. The failure of the artist, South Asian folklore and the relationships between women are all among the complex themes that are tackled in the work. After reading “Ponti” one comes away feeling as if they have just read a good story, sure, but it also feels like one has been a part of an experience, dreamlike and dark, lasting all the way from page one to the very end of the text. “Ponti” is an example of both beautiful and beguiling writing.

3) “Skin Folk” by Nalo Hopkinson – This short story collection is what every Caribbean millennial has always wanted for the region’s folklore. We were the last group to grow up on night-time gatherings and stories told in the moonlight, and, therefore, Hopkinson’s sometimes scary, sometimes funny, always cool, stories – with their updated iterations of traditional Caribbean nuances and figures (such as the ole higue and Anansi) is something I enjoyed very much. The collection has all the freshness and vitality of the 21st Century, even as the rippling undercurrents of the past linger in each tale.

4) “Ubu and the Truth Commission” by Jane Taylor – The ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ was something that emerged in post-Apartheid South Africa that allowed victims and perpetrators of violence and other human rights violations to speak about their experiences. It is a concept that fascinated me, particularly with regards to its application to a country like Guyana that has its own history of violence that is yet to be dealt with. However, would a Truth Commission be applicable to our society? This play uses real testimonials as well as puppetry and animation to offer peculiar, interesting, and devastating insights into such a Commission, while also offering valid commentary that almost all postcolonial societies the world over will find applicable to their own environments.

5) “Everyone Knows I am a Haunting” by Shivanee Ramlochan – This collection of poetry from Trinidad and Tobago’s Shivanee Ramlochan is a slim volume that seems to burst with the combined energy of everyone wronged in the history of the entire Caribbean. Its anger is sharp and cutting and smart, and its imagery is rich, vibrant and pulsing with the poet’s intelligence, confidence, and invocations to the spiritual. It is a collection applicable to the #MeToo movement and many other great fights that we, in this region, have known and experienced, but it is a work that does not limit its advocacy and awareness to the Caribbean only – despite its own Caribbean-ness.

6) “There There” by Tommy Orange – How many times have we read stories about Native Americans? How many times have we read stories about Native Americans written by Native Americans? The truthful answer is: not as often as we need to. Tommy Orange’s debut novel has that multiple-narrative-strands style that I like, and because of this we get a multitude of Native American voices (a great-aunt doubling as a grandmother, a recovering alcoholic, a woman fleeing an abusive husband, etc.) each one offering some perspective of what it means to be Native American today. Each voice brings pain, loss, and anger with it. But each voice also brings some love and some hope, and although that is not enough to prepare the reader for the sadness of the novel, it is enough to let us know how truly skilled Orange is at representing people in his work.

7) “Doubt” by John Patrick Shanley – So I finally read the play that the fantastic movie starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, and the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman was based on. Shanley’s play is quite short, but it packs an emotional punch that one never forgets – particularly when it comes to the Donald Miller character and his mother (played by Davis in the movie). The play tears at your mind as you fervently try to figure out the truth of the central conflict at hand, but, like Sister Aloysius, we, the readers, also come to the end riddled with doubt.

8) “We Mark Your Memory” edited by Maria del Pilar Kaladeen, David Dabydeen, Tina K. Ramnarine – This collection has fiction, poetry and non-fiction from various authors from all over the world (including Guyana’s Gaiutra Bahadur, who wrote “Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture” and Trinidad and Tobago’s Kevin Jared Hosein, the two-time winner of the Commonwealth Prize). It was conceived to mark the centenary of the abolition of Indentureship within the nations colonised by the British and features writing from writers descended from indentured immigrants. The book is important, of course, because of the anniversary it is meant to represent. However, it is also important because it draws on the contemporary works of writers whose ancestors were once not allowed to read or write within the British colonies. The effort of writing back, of giving histories to ancestors, names to places, and identities to the past and present is the collection’s true value.

9) “Champions of the Gayelle: You Can Lead a Horse to Water And Other Plays” by Winston V. Saunders, Dennis Scott, Godfrey Sealy – This collection of Caribbean plays was edited by Judy Stone and published as part of the Macmillan Caribbean Writers Series. It features work from three important playwrights: Winston V. Saunders (Bahamas), Dennis Scott (Jamaica), and Godfrey Sealy (Trinidad). I enjoyed this work because Caribbean plays are harder to find than both Caribbean prose and Caribbean poetry. Therefore, works such as this one which presents and preserves the region’s theatre through the publication of our stories, told in our voices, hold a very significant place in my heart.

10) “Children of Blood and Bone” by Tomi Adeyemi – Set in a world where magic is forbidden, a young girl is forced to set off on a perilous quest that sees the return of magic and the return of hope. Reminiscent of many of the staples of my childhood, such as the iconic “Avatar: the Last Airbender” TV show, this YA novel by Nigerian-American author, Adeyemi, has a lot to offer. The author has managed to create a world that is at once sublime, new, and thrilling, while also paying homage to, and incorporating many, African influences into her work. The style reminds me just a little of the “Black Panther” movie, and like the movie, “Children of Blood and Bone” offers people of colour the opportunity to finally read an astounding, exciting piece of fantasy literature, where they occupy all of the roles and not only just the supporting ones.

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