This was a monumental year of change for me, but browsing through write-ups on literary topics has remained a pleasant cornerstone of my daily routine. From soul-bearing interviews with charismatic authors to recommendations for locale-specific books that transport curious readers overseas, here are my favorite book and author articles from the last two months of 2021.
Top 10 Books about Calcutta (Abir Mukherjee, The Guardian)
Two of my favorite courses in college gave me the opportunity to explore the incredibly vibrant, multicultural, ever-evolving, and often tumultuous history of India. In my very first English course, I immersed myself in the tragic plot of The God of Small Things, a novel that describes how the rigid rules of the caste system and stifling anglophilia saturate an upper-class Indian family in the 1960s. Later, in a history course on the British Empire, I read primary sources that documented the clashing and blending of traditional Indian cultures with the norms and customs of the colonizing European powers. I was delighted to come across Mukherjee’s list of recommendations for books about Calcutta; these extraordinary novels cover everything from individuals grappling with the implications of India’s violent partition to second-generation Indian-Americans in the diaspora feeling trapped between two cultures. If you’re looking to travel overseas through the pages of a book during these upcoming winter months, might I suggest visiting Calcutta?
Funner, Stupider, and Other Words That Are in Fact Real (Merriam-Webster)
Hmm…where do you stand on some of these controversial words? Regardless of your take on “ain’t” and “anyways,” this article dives into the etymology of several uncertain words that have slipped into everyday usage over time. Did you know, for example, that the word “irregardless” was printed in plays and gazettes as early as the late 1700s? Additionally, the commentary from ordinary people who have taken it upon themselves to rant against these words is outrageously funny. The article combines historical facts and contributor opinions to demonstrate the flexibility with which the English language has matured over time.
Claire Keegan: Writing as an Act of Faith (Shelf Awareness, Dec 2rd, 2021)
My interest in Irish literature has only expanded with the emergence of up-and-coming novelists whose fresh ideas for presenting the people and cultures of their home country are a joy to investigate. Claire Keegan is one of these writers, and after reading this Shelf Awareness interview, I’m absolutely adding her latest novel, Small Things Like These, to my never-ending reading list. Keegan is refreshingly honest about her process of prose writing, which she describes as “You’re writing about something, and you don’t know what it is” and “If themes emerge…I try to stay blind to them.” It reminds me of the research and rough-drafting I underwent while working on my senior honors thesis: beginning with a few vague concepts and characters I wanted to study, then gradually forming a critical mass of quotations and ideas, often by chance. The result of Keegan’s improvisational writing style this time around is a beautiful depiction of a coal miner and his family contending with forces of religion, nature, and history in 1980s Ireland.
*Check out my review on Small Things Like These here!
Christmas parties that never happened: the best festive revels in literature (David Barnett, The Guardian)
While the underlying intention of this article is to poke fun at the crowded holiday parties that took place among members of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s administration last year, I enjoyed scrolling through Barnett’s selection of exuberant Christmas gatherings in literature. While familiar with many of them—the March sisters’ breakfast in Little Women; the extravagant holiday meal in the first Harry Potter—it’s nice to remember that the bountiful joy of the holiday season is a powerful enough theme that writers of all genres and time periods often pursue a festive passage or two to give their characters’ lives more color.
