Inventive plots, characters help make 2005 memorable
It's a common refrain this time of year for those who write about books: What did I missâ¢
It's impossible to read every book that is published in a given year, and there are some regrets about touted volumes missed, especially E.L. Doctorow's "The March," which has earned almost universal praise, and Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking."
As the new year dawns, here's a look back at some of my favorites books from 2005:
1. "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" (Simon & Schuster), Doris Kearns Goodwin
It might seem there is little left to dissect of Abraham Lincoln's life. But Goodwin has found another way of viewing the 16th president's accomplishments: through Salmon Chase, Henry Seward and Edward Bates -- those who sought the Republican nomination for president in 1860 and were defeated by Lincoln's deft maneuverings.
Goodwin, who spent 10 years working on the book, masterfully marshals the material into an enthralling, even suspenseful narrative. The genius of Lincoln's life, his abilities as a politician and a leader, have never shone so brightly.
2. "The Power of the Dog" (Knopf), Don Winslow
A crime novel that is arguably the year's best work of fiction, "The Power of the Dog" is a powerful, compelling book that examines the war on drugs over a 30-year period. Filled with exceptional, finely drawn characters, Winslow's mesmerizing story features Drug Enforcement Administration agent Art Keller and his quest to make a difference.
Hamstrung by bureaucracy, Keller's idealism is tarnished but never abandoned even as he loses almost everything of value in his life. A superbly plotted novel.
3. "The Ha-Ha" (Little, Brown), Dave King
This remarkable, intelligent debut features one of the most unusual and original characters in recent fiction. Howard Kapostash is a Vietnam veteran who has not spoken in 30 years and communicates via a series of grunts and growls. King's story of how he re-emerges from a self-imposed exile from the world, with assistance from an unlikely support group, is remarkable.
4. "A Changed Man" (HarperCollins), Francine Prose
The premise of this novel sounds like a horrible joke: A tattooed neo-Nazi walks into the offices of a charitable organization run by a Holocaust survivor and asks for help. Prose skillfully handles this scenario, skewering ideas about racism and class, in a story that examines whether change, and ultimately redemption, is possible.
5. "Acts of Faith" (Knopf), Philip Caputo
A tale of mercenaries and missionaries, opportunists and zealots who converge on the Sudan, ostensibly to help the natives of the war-torn African nation, Caputo's story unfolds at a leisurely pace and is admirably ambitious in scope.
6. "Incendiary" (Knopf), Chris Cleave
Any novel that takes the form of a letter to Osama bin Laden had better be beyond good. Cleave's "Incendiary," which features a woman writing to the terrorist after her husband and son have been killed in a bombing at a soccer stadium in London, is touching, humane and heartbreaking.
7. "Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink" (Knopf), David Margolick
A riveting account of what was arguably the most important sporting event of the 20th century. Margolick recounts the encounters between Louis and Schmeling in exacting detail, but also remembers the essential element of storytelling.
8. "The Sea" (Knopf), John Banville
Winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize in the United Kingdom. Banville's stories never hurry, preferring a pace that some find exasperating. His precise wording, his attention to detail, his masterful setups, pay off for patient readers.
9. "The Narrows" and "The Lincoln Lawyer" (Little, Brown), Michael Connelly
"The Narrows" featured Connelly's longtime LAPD detective Harry Bosch. "The Lincoln Lawyer" introduced a new character, lawyer Mickey Haller, who represents some of the worst elements of society. These novels provide insight and illumination into opposite spectrums of the judicial process.
Of the two, "The Lincoln Lawyer" is slightly superior in that Connelly somehow is able to elicit sympathy for a character who, in real life, would be regarded as little more than an opportunist.
10. "Lunar Park" (Knopf), Bret Easton Ellis
This is a strange novel in which the author creates a character named Bret Easton Ellis who is not really Bret Easton Ellis the author, but close enough to blur the line between fact and fiction. Ellis has never been sharper as a writer, and even the book's transition from semi-confessional to camp horror is relatively seamless.
Honorable mention
"Little Fugue" (Ballantine), Robert Anderson; "Missing Mom" (Ecco), Joyce Carol Oates; "1776" (Simon & Schuster), David McCullough; "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" (Knopf), Gabriel Garcia Marquez; "Shalimar the Clown" (Random House), Salman Rushdie; "Conspiracy of Fools" (Random House), Kurt Eichenwald; "Kafka on the Shore" (Knopf), Haruki Murakami; "No Country for Old Men" (Knopf), Cormac McCarthy; "Blink" (Little, Brown), Malcolm Gladwell; "The Closed Circle" (Knopf), Jonathan Coe; "Never Let Me Go" (Knopf), Kazuo Ishiguro.
Local authors
Among books released by local authors, a few stood out. Philip Beard's "Dear Zoe" (Viking) was a surprise, an entertaining debut by a writer of promise. Natalie Petesch might be the best unknown writer in the region; the stories in her collection, "Senora Francesca Navarro and Other Stories" (Swallow Press/Ohio University), set during the Spanish Civil War, are vivid and wonderfully drawn.
Jennifer Haigh, a native of Barnesboro, Cambria Country, released "Baker Towers," her second exceptional novel.
