Are Your Ready?????????? Here Is What "The New York Times" Chose As "The Five Best Works Of Fiction For 2020!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

                                                     Just  to let you know, by now, I have read them all.  Here is my take:

                                                    

                                              1.  "Hamnet--" Heaven sent, a fictional rendering of how Shakespeare might have come  to write one of his best known tragedies.  Literary and  moving all at the same time,  I am surprised,  but delighted that "The Times" had the sense to put  this on their list!

                                                 2.  "A Children's Bible," by Lydia Millet--Oh, come on; you have got to be kidding me!  How the hell did this ever wind up on the list?  I can think of other books which should be in its place, and I will deal with that eventually. Millett's novel, well written and mercifully brief comes across like a redo of Golding's "Lord Of The Flies," and Richard Hughes' "A High Wind In Jamaica."  Oh,  and  yes,  Jesmyn West's "Salvage The Bones."  I have been down these paths before.  Evidently Millet has not.  Or maybe it just fit the paper's political agenda.  Putting this  on  the  list was a big mistake!

3.  "Deacon King Kong," by James McBride--I have not read any McBride, since "The Color Of Water," and,  for me, nothing tops that.  Many I know were crazy about this, but I was not. Coming  full circle, starting with the shooting of a drug dealer in a Brooklyn projects locale called Caution House,  in 1969, the novel has any number of gripping moments and characters, but keeps circling around and repeating things, elongating what should have been a shorter novel.  Sure,  it is good enough for the "Most Notable," but the "Ten Best?"   Who do these people think they are kidding???????????

4.  "Homeland Elegies," by Ayad Akhtar--Another right selection, one of "The Times' " few.  This absorbing novel  of being socially excluded from the society you feel you belong in, only to be shut out of, as well as providing great insight into the mind of how a Trumper sees things, as evidenced by the hero's father, makes this a must read.  It is worth it just to read the Trump passage, but the entire novel is  riveting.

5.  "The Vanishing Half," by Brit Bennett-- No argument here; this was one of the most satisfying reads of  the year, for me.  Two Southern Black sisters choose separate paths--the blacker one staying in the South, caring for those she loves; the lighter skinned sibling who can pass for White, goes north to live the privileged life.  Which sister is right or wrong?  You tell me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Another sensible choice from "The New York Times."

To paraphrase Meat Loaf,  "Three out of five ain't bad."  But, really,  so many better books deserve to be on here.  What about "A Burning?"  "Shuggie Bain?"  "A Children's Bible?" Give me a break?

So, that's how "The New York Times" sees things?  Does it jive with my viewpoint.  Read on, and find  out!

Will there be any overlapping?  Maybe!