Books

Tomes for the Holidays

Don’t-Miss Reads for Book Lovers

    Fretting over your holiday shopping list? If there’s a reader on that list, look no further than Engleby by Sebastian Faulks.
    Its opening line, “My name is Mike Engleby, and I’m in my second year at an ancient university,” quickly insinuates a voice into the reader’s mind that is both spare and lyrical. Mike is in school during the 1970s, and Faulks places us in England, at that time, with masterful subtlety, judiciously using song lyrics to describe a character either sad and contemplative or full of vitriol at the state of England—and by extension, disgust with himself.
    The reader follows Engleby because his tale is so personal, so confessional. And by the time you discover that Engleby may not be the most reliable narrator—when you become aware that all is not as it seems—you cannot help but continue to watch as the train wreck takes place. The last two pages of Engleby are so wrenching, are such a beautiful elegy for a story that could have been—but wasn’t—that you’ll not soon forget this charismatic, brutal character.
    Engleby by Sebastian Faulks (Doubleday, 2007, 319 pp. $24.95)
    For the person on your list who may not have the time to devote to a novel, and prefers to browse through those delightful books full of information and miscellany, don’t miss Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley by Richard Schwartz.
    Schwartz makes East Bay history come alive with his colorful tales. Emperor Norton is here, reviewing university cadets in Berkeley, “sword in one hand, cane in the other … gallant to the ladies as ever,” but Schwartz has also unearthed lesser lights who still blaze with the absurdity of Norton. There’s the cursed Mary Thompson, a successful widow—or “a blot upon the neighborhood, a supporter of drinking and gambling;” and John Boyd, Berkeley’s town poet, under threat of arrest for calling E.A. Schmidt “divers vulgar names after an altercation over the settlement of a bill.” 
    These characters and dozens more populate a book that any fan of local history will be sure to welcome.
    Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley by Richard Schwartz (RSB Books, 2007, 244 pp. $24.95)
    And then, for that someone who appreciates undiscovered gems, you won’t want to miss A Golden Age, an impressive, eloquent debut by Tahmima Anam.
    The book begins as Rehana Haque must deal with the devastation of losing custody of her two children. The law has decided that the widow cannot provide for them, and Anam sketches her heartbreak in scenes that are understated but powerful in their simplicity.
    The novel, already suffused with Rehana’s quiet desperation, takes up many years later as she wakes early on the first day of March to plan the party she throws every year to commemorate the day she was reunited with her children. All would bode well, except this is Pakistan in the early 1970s and the war of independence soon to be waged in Bangladesh will have repercussions for Rehana and her family that they can’t envision.
    Anam allows the victories and defeats of one family to color the broader backdrop of history—a history many of us know little about, but one that is beautifully limned by an author you should meet here, for the first time.