2007: A Year in Books

I spent the better part of 2007 perched on a bar stool in San Francisco’s fabled literary saloon, Vesuvio Cafe across the alley (that would be Jack Kerouac Alley) from famed City Lights Books. The circumstances that put me on a bar stool for 12 months is a long and often painful tale — painful literally and figuratively. I’ve written up an account of this adventure but haven’t had the nerve to post it yet. If a sufficient number of hands raise, perhaps I’ll post. Until then …

… here’s a quick rundown of some of the good and the bad in books acquired and devoured, along with many pints of Bass Ale, in ‘07.

1. Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”

I avoided this novel like the plague because “No Country For Old Men” was such a dissapointment to the McCarthy purist in me. But I finally relented and, Jesus, what a journey and what masterful use of language. There’s one thing I don’t understand: So many people told me the book was “not as dark” as, say, “Blood Meridian” or “The Orchard Keeper”. Say what? Did you overlook the passage with the headless baby roasting over a BBQ spit?

2. “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, Hunter S. Thompson

Anyone who thinks this blithe and hallucenogenic book is a testament to the glories of illegal narcotics is dealing from the bottom of a pretty skewed deck of cards. Thompson brilliantly dissects what the 60’s drug culture did to America and his conclusions are often startling.

3. “Factotum”, Charles Bukowski

I love Buk but the joke — Hank’s aimless inability to hold down a job in WWII-era America — simply wore thin after about three chapters.

4. “On the Road: The Scroll Edition”, Jack Kerouac

I was compelled to read this opus not once but about four times as I prepped a theatrical production commemorating the 50th anniversary of the book’s publication. Not Kerouac’s best, I am loathe to say, but it inspired Updike to write “Rabbit Run”, a far superior work with the same theme, so it all works out in the wash.

5. “Big Sur”, Kerouac

His best and perhaps one of the most intimate accounts of alcoholism and the price of fame ever put on paper.

6. “Terrorist”, John Updike

Contrived climax and denoument but the journey getting there is breathtaking at times.

7. “White Noise”, Don DeLillo

Jeesums. Did this man pen one of the greatest novels of the 20th century or what? Tremendous.

8. “On Chesil Beach”, Ian McEwan

Beautiful. Masterful. An artist in expert control of his words and thoughts. But you’ll have this overwhelming desire to off yourself when you get to the end.

Related: HBO As Modern Lit and Last Drink at Vesuvio, featuring a couple of photos and thoughts on my Kerouac production from a French photojournalist I met at Vesuvio, Pierre-Olivier Labbe.