Lessons In Authenticity

DECEMBERS ARE ALWAYS cheered on by the anticipation of holiday seasons and the melancholy that accompanies all ends. To look back is to see all that has been achieved, all that remains undone and to examine the countless what-ifs. One can revel in books read, but one will also bemoan all the books that piqued one’s inter­est, and were never started. However much one reads, there will forever be shelves that remain beyond one’s ken, there will always be authors left to discover, and conversations that stay out of reach. Given the surfeit of options, recommenda­tions become lodestars. We read what others have read before us, we read what others cherish.

I started this year with two books that were celebrated in 2022, Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors by Aravind Jayan (Serpent’s Tail) and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Penguin). Both made it to many top lists of 2022. They are set in entirely different times (the former is in the now and the latter in the 1960s). Teen Couple… tells of the stranglehold of a viral video clip on a middle-class Indian family, and Lessons… reveals the patriarchy a woman scientist (and television cookery show host) faces as she tries to establish a foothold in an all-male world. Though their contexts vary, both novels expertly detail the battles waged when an individual is pitted against society. There is humour in them, but it’s their bitter­sweetness that keeps the reader hooked.

I’ve been immersed in the novel this year, choosing fiction over nonfiction, make-believe over the news. And the novel has given numerous gifts. It has both comforted and disturbed, entertained and jolted. And it is for these reasons that one returns to fiction repeatedly. The most impactful novels are not those which carry placards. But those which show how politics colour our choices, our day to day, who we meet, who we don’t, where we travel, and where we don’t.

Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein (Granta Books) in its cool prose leaves the reader queasy and unsettled. Its folk horror forces the reader to reckon with questions of belong­ing and unbelonging, power and powerlessness, and the insider-outsider. With astute precision Bernstein captures the lack of air in tight communities, and the suffocation of dysfunctional relationships. This novel is not going to leave the reader with a warm, fuzzy feeling, but its disquiet makes it memorable.

If Study for Obedience hinges on a brother-sister relation­ship, Chetna Maroo’s Western Lane (Picador) beautifully tweezes apart the relationship of three sisters who are grap­pling with the death of their mother. This coming-of-age story set in London is told simply and poignantly. It chooses silences over speech, which is so true of so many of our fami­lies. It is special for how it brings together the game of squash and an immigrant’s struggle.

Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang (Borough Press) has most fervently been discussed in publishing circles this year. Twenty-seven-year-old Kuang has topped the bestselling charts for her book that reads as both thriller and thesis. The premise is simple; a bestselling author Athena dies in a freak accident, June (her friend and a struggling writer) steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. The new book becomes a massive hit. Yellowface shines an interrogation light on art and identity. With its satirical touch it deals with cancel culture and sensitivity readers, diversity and gender issues. It is smart and sharp, and the grip never slackens. You don’t need to be interested in the publishing industry to enjoy this book that is both scathing and unsentimental about art and artists, the industry and egos.

Like Yellowface, many deserving books become bestsellers. But then there are also so many less-known gems that ought to be celebrated. Anandibai Joshee: A Life in Poems by Shikha Malaviya (HarperCollins) is one of them. This slim biography in verse celebrates the extraordinary life of Joshee, not only India’s first female physician, but also the first Indian woman to travel across the ‘kaala paani’ to pursue an education in the US. Malaviya pulls off an extraordinary act of ventriloquism by giving us the voice of this remarkable Indian woman scientist. It is that rare book that uses the in­ventiveness of poetry to tell an accessible and important story.

The passing of BN Goswamy truly marks the end of an era in Indian art scholarship. This year the scholars’ scholar left us with The Indian Cat: Stories, Paintings, Poetry, and Proverbs (Aleph). This wonderful book personifies knowl­edge and whimsy. It makes us see both paintings and felines anew. Goswamy’s cultural portrait of the Indian cat shows how quirkiness and erudition make for wonderful partners.

In the coming pages, the reader will glimpse several extraordi­nary recommendations. These are books that have been selected from the numerous others, these are books that mirror our times, and more importantly, tell us who we are.

Aravind JayanBest of 2023Best of 2023 BooksSarah BernsteinShikha Malaviya