27/12/15: Richard Flanagan – The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013)

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is the story of a surgeon who endures time in a Japanese PoW camp in WWII, helping to oversee the brutal construction of the "Burma Death Railway". He's a complex man who becomes regarded as a great hero almost despite himself. The narrative moves forwards and backwards in time, telescoping the years brilliantly, examining how the defining relationship of his life changes everything that follows. The book works on multiple levels. It's especially good at conveying the utter wretchedness of life in the PoW camp – the insane cruelty that somehow became ordinary routine. It takes an elegiac tone as it follows up on various lives after the war ended, showing that for many of the individuals scarred by these experiences it never really ended at all.

It's a deep book that takes some getting into – moving slowly in places and then racing through the years in other sections. It's a wise book, too, understanding that the moral choices we make are never simple.

As a work of literary construction it's impressive. It won the won the 2014 Booker Prize and you can see why. It's not "difficult", by any means (although you might want to look away during some scenes of brutality), but it's rich enough that you would probably get more out of it on a second reading.

13/12/15: Jacques Bonnet – Phantoms on the Bookshelves (2010)

Fascinating reflection on the joys – and challenges – of owning a huge collection of books. The minutiae of how to file them is examined with joyous detail. If you love your books (rather than soulless electronic "files"), and find it hard to part with them, this is a stimulating and inspiring read. The only gripe is that there's not more of it. After 123 pages, you wish for additional collector-obsessive detail.

10/12/15: Norman Collins – London Belongs to Me (1945)

Superb, sprawling saga about the residents of no.10 Dulcimer Street, Kennington, London, with England in the shadow of World War II. In particular the focus is on Mr and Mrs Josser and their family, who form the emotional core of this mini-community. We also meet their landlady Mrs Vizzard, the well-meaning petty criminal Percy, the ravingly politicised Uncle Henry and the devious "spiritualist" Mr Swales. There’s also flamboyant nightclub attendant Connie and food-loving Mr Puddy. The book follows the lives of each character, circa 1938–1940, interweaving the strands brilliantly with both comic and serious moments.

In Ed Glinert's introduction to the Penguin Modern Classics edition, there’s an almost apologetic note about this not being a “complex, sophisticated novel” (i.e., a “serious” work of literary fiction). “It exists simply as soap opera,” he writes. This sells it short. Yes, it’s unashamedly populist and very easy to read, but that’s not to say it’s in any way shallow or formulaic. Far from it: over 830 pages, Norman Collins weaves a huge tapestry that continues to surprise and delight. A huge range of life and experience is presented here and the human truths the author explores are no less relevant now than when this was first published in 1945.

Note: a film, a.k.a. Dulcimer Street, was made in 1948 (featuring Richard Attenborough and Alastair Sim) with significantly altered plot elements.

17/10/15: Nicholson Baker – Traveling Sprinkler (2013)

An amiable sequel to The Anthologist, switching the musings on writing poetry to musings on writing songs. Much of the book involves descriptions of day-to-day life – smoking a cigar, driving the car, learning to use music software, trying to win back a girlfriend – and as a novel it's almost plotless, allowing you to focus on the narrator's voice and personality. It lacks the intense detail of his earlier writing style – those ultra-detailed digressions – but gains something in worldly wisdom. As with Kurt Vonnegut, his warm, wise voice is a pleasure to spend time with.

26/09/15: Jordan Belfort – Catching the Wolf of Wall Street: More Incredible True Stories of Fortunes, Schemes, Parties, and Prison (2009)

For some reason I assumed this sequel to The Wolf of Wall Street would be about Jordan Belfort's time in prison. In fact, he doesn't go to prison until the very end of this book. The bulk of it details his legal case, with lengthy recaps detailing how he came to be the Wolf in the first place. The lengthy recollections of his earlier life allow for further stories of excess, and also a strong sense of how he slowly develops and matures. There's also some moving writing about his growing relationship with his children, who come to symbolise hope for his (post-criminal) future.

At the end he talks about how reading Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities helped him find his writing voice, and you can certainly see the influence – larger-than-life characters are often built up into nicknamed caricatures, from his second wife ("The Duchess") to his Russian girlfriend ("KGB"). Then there's "OCD", "Magnum", "The Witch" and so on.

If you liked the first book, you should find this every bit as enjoyable. He writes so well that he is entertaining and insightful whatever the subject matter.

26/07/15: Sergio De La Pava – A Naked Singularity (2008)

"Precision in language is the most critical of human endeavors."

I disagree with those critics who said this huge novel was in need of a strict editor. It's precisely the sprawl of it that appeals, allowing witty detours into everything from boxing to theology. Dazzling language and all sorts of philosophical thinking sit alongside the plot – successful young lawyer finally loses a case, plans perfect crime, and tries to save a man on death row. It's clever and funny, but warm too – not a cold postmodern experiment. The scenes with Casi's family are warm and moving. There's so much in it – such richness – that it's definitely a book that would be worth reading twice. The author delights in the use of language and the exploration of ideas. The dialogue is sparklingly witty. And what seem like digressions are arguably just as important as everything else.

A masterpiece.

24/05/15: Tim Parks – The Server a.k.a. Sex is Forbidden (2012)

An interesting and not-quite-great novel. The detail of the Buddhist retreat is well handled, and the complex character of Beth is well constructed. The title change was a bad decision: The Server works on several levels and it's a shame that this was replaced with something more tabloid-friendly for the paperback. The story is fairly minimal, but that isn't the point. It's really a book about identity: what makes us who we are? Although I enjoyed it a lot, I don't think it revealed the wit or intelligence of Europa, the novel that made me interested in Tim Parks. That said, I will definitely read more of his books.

13/05/15: Andy Miller – The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books Saved My Life (2014)

The concept is good: an attempt to read 50 life-enhancing works and document that experience. The author does this in a highly readable manner and the book starts well. The first half covers the first 13 books in detail (as per his list on p.297). After that, something odd happens to the structure. He dedicates the second half to the remaining 37 books, but some of them barely get mentioned. Of course it's the author's right to structure the book however he likes, but it does feel imbalanced. Plus, this falsifies the "fifty great books" part of the project: you expect to read his thoughts on all 50 entries, not just a selection of them. I was looking forward to hearing how he related to On the Road, Catch-22, Lord of the Flies, Frankenstein and many other classics, but – confusingly – he ignores them completely.

Another issue is the tone of voice. Again, this becomes less satisfying as the book progresses. On p.201 he writes: "I did not join a book group to talk about my feelings. I wanted to talk about books: how they fit together, why they worked, the occasional miracle of fiction." So why, then, is so much of this book about his feelings rather than the books he read? There are countless personal digressions and too often he veers into chummy "blokey memoir" territory (see also Stuart Maconie, Mark Radcliffe, Andrew Collins) despite commenting at length on the "blokeishness I find disconcerting" in other men. Again, this confuses matters.

The Year of Reading Dangerously is at its best when the author writes in detail about the books themselves and what it feels like to read them – sometimes pleasurable, sometimes excruciatingly difficult, and sometimes both.

16/04/15: Dominic Cooper – The Dead of Winter (1975)

Set in the remote Scottish island village of Cragaig, this short novel has an elemental power that the author draws from his profound descriptions of weather and landscape. Fisherman Alasdair Mòr has hung on to a traditional way of life that has vanished around him, and seems content leading a solitary life in harmony with nature. Then a newcomer arrives and changes everything.

Cooper writes with real intensity. His descriptions of the sea and land are beautiful, but never merely decorative. It is a book that will stay with me.

05/04/15: Tim Parks – Europa (1997)

Booker Prize-shortlisted, Europa is a ferociously intelligent and witty novel. The brilliantly sustained first-person stream-of-consciousness narration comes from Jerry Marlow, who – struggling with a mid-life crisis of sorts – finds himself on a coach to Strasbourg with other Milan University staff (including a woman with whom he had recently had an intense affair) to petition the European Parliament about employment rights.

The characters are extremely well drawn. You can read this as political satire and/or as a study of excruciating human situations. I was sorry when it ended and am now keen to try out more by this author.

28/03/15: Carrie Fisher – Shockaholic (2011)

Considering all the electro-shock therapy she endured to combat depression (detailed, unflinchingly, in the first chapter), it's incredible how sharp and witty this (sort-of) memoir is. What a great writer. As with the previous book, Wishful Drinking, it details a series of episodes and recollections from Carrie Fisher's professional and personal life. It's far from a full, chronological memoir, and reading the reviews on Amazon, it seems many were disappointed by that brevity. I thought it worked well, as the prose is so rich with wit and anecdotes. There are chapters on her relationships with her father, her stepfather, her one-time stepmother Elizabeth Taylor and so on. There's a very insightful reflection on her friendship with Michael Jackson: she shows real understanding of his problems without taking the easy tabloid route of portraying him as either monster or saint.

The topic she keeps returning to is that of her father, and how she came to know him better in his final years. She recalls him with much humour and love, and never lets sentimentality get in the way of realism: her father was hardly ever there for her, but she adored him anyway. It's touching stuff.

15/03/15: Albert Cohen – Her Lover (Belle du Seigneur) (1968)

This is a novel of such richness that it is hard to describe. Across 974 pages Albert Cohen builds an astonishing creation. All human life and emotions are here, and yet the story is a simple one. There are many stream-of-consciousness passages in which you get one character's thoughts. There are no paragraphs in these sections, just a continuous flow of flitting ideas. Don't let this put you off: these passages are insightful indeed, and highly readable. Cohen is superb at capturing the way the restless mind works. There's also comedy in the antics of Solal's pompous but well-meaning uncles. And there's tragedy, too. He moves so well from the farcical to the profoundly poignant (and often back again). But at the core of this book is a study of the life-span of a relationship: attraction, seduction, obsessive love and what happens afterwards.

As soon as I finished the book, I wanted to start it all over again. It takes time to read, but it's worth the effort. In fact, the real story doesn't begin until about a third of the way in. Before this, there are brilliant satires on those in pursuit of upward mobility at the expense of all else, and a close look at what Alain de Botton called "status anxiety". The chapters dealing with Deume and his family are priceless: it was a surprise when these characters then dropped out of the novel. The use of language is dazzling, so full credit to David Coward for his translation from the original French text. This book resonates with truth. Bear with it and you will be rewarded with real glimpses into the human soul.

06/02/15: Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman – Annie Hall (1977)

Annie Hall is rightly regarded as a classic film. Such great acting. Such a great script. So many great lines. It's a joy to read them again here. You can really "hear" Woody Allen and Diane Keaton speaking the words. The story – a clever tale about the various stages of a relationship – has a universal, timeless element that transcends the topical references to 1970s USA. And it remains very, very funny.