More Good Book Ideas

The following is a list of a couple of books that I found to be quite good. I’m sure that, as with anything, these novels will not be to everyone’s taste – for they are both pretty grim in their outlook. Nonetheless, I found them to be quite well written. They’re worth a look, if you’re in the mood.

A Prayer for the Dying - By Stewart O'Nan
Set in the town of Friendship, Wisconsin, not long after the American Civil War, O’Nan focuses his novel on the character of war veteran Jacob Hansen, and on the social ramifications of an outbreak of disease.

Hansen serves as the town’s minister, sheriff, and undertaker, and this short novel follows him on his duties as he visits, ministers to, and buries the sick. It is a grim book, incorporating bleak meditations on the issues of good and evil and the questionable place of faith in an almost hopeless situation.

The novel employs the rare 2nd-person narrative format (in which the narrator is referred to as ‘you’), and while this takes some getting used to, it is effective in making the story’s action immediate. The book is very well written, and is worth a read – but be prepared: it is not a happy story, and the ending is especially bleak.

The Sorrow of War - By Bao Ninh
I once had to teach this book back when I was in grad school, and the process was something of a nightmare – not because the book is a bad one, but because its structure is complex and, as Publishers Weekly noted in its review of the novel, a bit messy. Leaping back and forth in time, often switching perspectives, it is occasionally difficult to keep track of where and when the action takes place. Not everything works.

So why, if this is the case, am I recommending the book? Because despite the occasional structural hiccup and odd unconvincing bit, the book has an emotional power that is undeniable. Set during the Vietnam War, the novel focuses on Kien, a soldier for the North Vietnamese who is forced to revisit haunting memories of his childhood and wartime experiences.

Some critics have made much of the fact that the novel takes the perspective of a North Vietnamese soldier; while this is a shift in perspective that will undoubtedly be interesting for American readers, it is not the point of the novel. Indeed, politics have very little to do with the book's point, which has instead to do with the horrible toll of war.

A brutal novel, and a bit messy in parts, but memorable.