Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing)

The Guardian has just released their ‘100 best novels’ list compiled by putting together the Top 10 lists of 170 novelists, critics and academics. I won’t repeat the list here – you can go click on the link and see it at source for yourself – but I will refer to many of the books on the list and my thoughts about them and the idea of the list itself.

I do like ‘top 100’ lists. Top 10 lists are pointless. With literally millions of books out there, the view of the very, very best is entirely subjective. I’m pretty certain that many of the 170 chosen to compile the Guardian’s list had completely different top tens with zero overlap. A Top 100 is still pretty subjective but I like such lists because they give me inspiration for what I should have on my bucket list to read. At my age, avoiding the good (and below) and reading only the very best is vital. I simply don’t have enough years left in me to waste on epics that should be consigned to the dustbin of history.

I get great encouragement from this list that I’ve read many of them – particularly in the 10-40 range. There are several already on my ‘To Read’ list with many sitting on my shelf awaiting my time and energy to begin.

I also find myself slightly disheartened by how many I’ve not read – and, indeed, not even heard of, in some cases. It feels like the TBR list is a road to Hell that never ends and leads only to torment. While it is true that no one, on their death bed, ever said, “I wish I’d worked more at the office” it is likely I will, on mine, say, “I wish I’d read more on my TBR list”. I don’t know if that makes me a very sad man (#firstworldproblems) or someone who has got the right perspective? I suspect the answer depends entirely on your own perspective in life.

I’ve seen many of these kinds of lists come and go over the years – for music and films as well as books – and I notice that all lists are screwed a little bit by the difference between a book that is a true classic and one you’ve read recently and really, really enjoyed. There’s several in this list written in the last twenty years – or at least this century – and I somewhat feel that time will tell if they deserve a place on any must-read list. This list repeated in twenty years time will, I’m certain, see many of them disappear as quickly as they came.

There are some, however, that continue to be hailed as classics that I really feel shouldn’t be on anyone’s reading list. Controversial, I know, but Moby Dick at number 15 is laughable. Likewise, Heart of Darkness at number 41 shouldn’t be read by anyone, ever, despite its influence on related versions such as the excellent Apocalypse Now. In fact, all of Joseph Conrad’s works can go in the bin, as far as I’m concerned. I’m really not that keen on One Hundred Years of Solitude either, which did absolutely nothing for me, yet there it is at number 17. On the list, fair enough perhaps, but not so high. I feel rather queasy that Lolita remains on the list too – at number 25. That’s disturbing, frankly.

There are others that should be considered much higher than they are. What on earth is Heller’s Catch-22 doing at 97? It almost didn’t make it on the list at all! The Color Purple too, at number 65, should be considered much more highly.

And, of course, there are some terrible omissions. Are you really telling me that none of Khaled Hosseini’s novels should be on the list? No room for fun with Terry Pratchett? I know he’s persona non grata at the moment, but I feel some of Neil Gaiman’s works should be here too. No Asimov? No H.G. Wells? William Gibson? Rudyard Kipling? Not even a Steinbeck?

But there you go; that’s the point. Everyone’s list would be different and that’s just as it should be. Novelists, critics and academics don’t have the monopoly on wisdom here; in fact, the opposite may well be true. I say that knowing full well that I am all three. But I certainly don’t present myself as the definitive expert; there’s no such thing. Everything I critique, I do so from my own set of values and bias and I’m open about that. So should every critic and academic. There is no underlying set of reasons for why a book is a classic or not. There is merely your set of reasons. At the end of the day, no one is reading the book for you. You have to read it and no amount of literary criticism is going to make you love it or hate it more.

So, acknowledging that we’re all coming to novels with our own subjective experience, I’m pleased to see so many of my favourites on this list; it does at least tell me my tastes in reading are not completely loopy and that I still have a little in common with my fellow human beings. There’s Wuthering Heights, for instance, at number 20 – my all-time favourite novel. The Remains of the Day at number 24 was a relatively recent find for me and should have been read long ago. Kafka gets two – Metamorphosis (48) and The Trial (27) – both excellent. And Half of a Yellow Sun is there too, though at 62 it is not being considered highly enough, in my opinion. But all that is just my opinion and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The most important job of a list such as this though, as far as I’m concerned, is to inspire you to check out books you either wouldn’t have bothered with, or perhaps were on the fence about. My daughter is a ferocious reader and regularly recommends books to me (or even thrusts them into my unwilling hands, to be added to the TBR pile and left untouched). One such she’s mentioned often is The Vegetarian, which is on this list at number 85. That might just tip the balance for me and make me actually read it, even if just to shut her up from going on about it. Clearly, others think it is worth a read too and that puts it in the ‘worth a try’ pile.

That’s why I write reviews. It’s fine if you violently disagree with me (though I’ll return violence for violence), at least my review helped you to remember just why you did or did not like the book I’ve critiqued. You might find my words inspire you to read something you were on the fence about. Or perhaps you will be thankful I’ve saved you from a fate worse than death. And if you agree with me about a book you’ve read yourself, it might inspire you to dig it out and read it again. That’s an experience I couldn’t countenance as a young man, but now one I appreciate more and more.

Reviews and ‘Top 100’ lists such as the Guardian’s are just tools to guide us to the novels that are going to move us the most. That’s why we write and why we read: to feel, to be a part of life. Long may both reviews and lists continue – even if the items on the lists change regularly and the reviews contradict. That’s healthy, challenging and often inspiring.

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 7.9 million times.

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