Best of 2010: Eric's Picks

Five Favorite Books that I Read in 2010

Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr – Classic noir style meets Nazi-dominated Berlin. What’s not to like?

The City and The City by China Mieville – Classic noir style meets weird Eastern European literature and an original sci-fi premise. What’s not to like?

Bodyworld by Dash Shaw – Trippy, disturbing, beautiful, disgusting.

Mathilda Savitch by VIctor Lodato – The voice of the title character dominates this novel – a voice that is ferocious, naive, witty and teetering on the precipice of some kind of myth-tinged darkness.

Nothing by Janne Teller – Danish tweens try to prove that life is not meaningless. Starts off simple and almost sweet, but things slowly veer into frightening and violent territory. A timeless parable.

Five Favorite Albums of 2010

Hidden by These New Puritans – Booming percussion fused with contemporary classical music fused with post punk, all stemming from an ambition too big to ever possibly be sated.

At Echo Lake by Woods – They are sort of just another indie band from Brooklyn, but somehow they hit all the right notes.

Minotaur by The Clientele – A minor work by a band capable of distilling longing and loneliness and slow wonder into sublimely beautiful pop songs.

Your Future, Our Clutter by The Fall – This is about 40% as good as the music The Fall was putting out in the early 80s, which means it’s still better than just about anything else.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West – Actually this is quite awful. Or is it genius? I can’t tell and I’m not sure that it matters.

Best of 2010: Megan's Picks

Books

Fiction:

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Egan elegantly weaves together a collection of characters bound through rock ‘n’ roll, then ravaged and saved by the caprices of time. It’s written with Egan’s exquisite empathy, keen insight, and astounding range.

Nonfiction:

Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens

Life by Keith Richards

Serious, vicarious fun from two people who have crammed several fascinating lifetimes into their respective at-bats. Think of it as a neat compendium of guitar tips (Richards), tax and legal advice (Richards), dangerous international travel tales (Hitchens), word games (Hitchens), a physics primer (Richards), and howlingly witchy insults (Richards/Hitchens).

Music, Movies & Television:

Album:

Congratulations by MGMT

Don’t let the neon face paint and Rambo-meets-Pee Wee Herman outfits fool you: MGMT is one of those bands with millions of ideas and lethal execution. While this album doesn’t have the immediate dance floor stompers found on Oracular Spectacular, it has spooky surf rock (“Someone’s Missing”), riffy prog-rock (“Brian Eno”), and precisely maudlin ballads (“I Found a Whistle”, “Congratulations”). Vocals interchange nicely between Andrew VanWyngarden’s wizardly falsetto and Ben Goldwasser’s plum weariness. Somehow, it works perfectly.

Drama:

A Prophet

This (very) gritty French crime drama has much to say about France’s immigration issues, not to mention the universal problems of recidivism and redemption. Unflinchingly acted and boldly directed by Jacques Audiard, also known for The Beat that My Heart Skipped.

Comedy:

The Other Guys

This perfectly silly and insidiously smart comedy stars Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell as a mismatched, often misfiring cop duo that takes down a financial kingpin. Steve Coogan, Eva Mendes, and a surprisingly good Derek Jeter co-star.

Documentary:

The Art of the Steal

Ridiculed by the Philadelphia Establishment during his lifetime for his “primitive” taste in art, inventor-turned-collector Albert C. Barnes legally mandated that his works remain in the educational institution funded by his fortune. Today, his collection is worth an estimated $25 billion and includes 181 Renoirs, 59 Matisses, and 49 Picassos. Through a series of dramatic betrayals and political wranglings, it’s also set to become one of the world’s most impressive museums. Though the film is distinctly--and rather deliciously--one-sided, it raises interesting questions regarding the ownership of art and the will of the people versus the powers that be.

Television show:

Bored to Death

Jason Schartzman plays Jonathan (as in Ames, the novelist and creator of this series), a struggling writer turned novice private detective in this lively, idiosyncratic HBO series. A spry Ted Danson and absurdly deadpan Zach Galafianakis provide noble support.

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

Essentially, this novel is comprised of a mixture of two elements: 1) a near-future dystopian setting and, 2) a cheesy love story. I picked up this book mostly because I was interested in the crazy sci-fi elements, but it was the two main characters and their relationship that actually won me over.

Shteyngart throws us into a world where all the most absurd elements of our culture are amplified to a piercing howl – China basically owns the US and everyone shares every single last thing about their superficial, youth-obsessed selves using various facebook-esque technologies. All of this is, I suppose, intended to be intensely humorous. But it all falls totally flat.

However, at the center of the novel is Lenny Abramov, an ugly, book-loving schlub in his late-30s who can’t for the life of him fit into this ludicrous, ludicrous world. He meets Eunice Park, the damaged daughter of Korean immigrants, who is much, much younger and much, much better looking than he is. He falls for her immediately and, though it takes a while, she somehow eventually falls for him too.

And it all ends horribly, and absurdly, and it turns out that Schteyngart is pretty good at breaking your heart. I came to really care about these characters, but I could never bring myself to become interested in the world in which they live.

-Review by Eric

Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour by Rachel Shukert

Rachel Shukert takes Europe after landing a non-remunerative part as a male elf in an experimental theatre troupe. While this is less a “European Grand Tour” than a modest survey of tall, eccentric countries that aren’t Germany (i.e. Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands), Shukert’s sharply maniacal remembrances make for an inspired, inventive romp.

This work is the provident intersection of a delightfully deranged imagination, history-engorged cities and their bizarre inhabitants, and a candid tale about finally taking responsibility for your own happiness. It bears mentioning that the scatologically averse should steer clear, but just about everyone else will revel in Shukert’s honesty and absurdist humor.

-Review by Megan

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Please note: This review contains spoilers

The most hyped novel in recent memory picks up where Jonathan Franzen always leaves off: with the souring of an upper-middle class Midwestern family. This time we get a guided tour of the last decade per Franzen’s priggish Liberalism, where complacent self-satisfaction turns to bereavement, rage, suffocation, near-constant betrayal, and the faintest glimmer of relief.

Our story unfolds on the backs of the Berglunds of St. Paul. We have the recklessly bored Patty, the resolutely virtuous Walter, and their morally divergent children. Lest you worry that the Berglunds perish in a snowbank, there is one Richard Katz to heat things up. Richard is a college friend of Walter’s and a rocker of the old school. That is to say, he is cliché of womanizing, self-loathing, coke benders, and smirky philosophizing. He’s also a dead-ringer for Muammar el-Qadaffi, so ladies should consider themselves warned. Of course, Katz and Patty succumb to their insistent loins, which leaves Walter free to obsess over corporate and governmental malfeasance, another Franzen motif.

The equally familiar Franzen narration is assisted by Patty, who chimes in as part of her therapy. This does little to establish a character that is, quite frankly, both unconvincing and a bore. It’s hard to believe that the charmingly diffident Patty is a college basketball star, let alone a smug stay-at-home mom who turns into a drunken harridan when she discovers that her son has taken up with the poor girl next door. Part of the problem lies in Franzen’s contempt for Patty. See, she’s a dumb jock without discipline, gratitude, or empathy. It’s difficult to understand why we have to spend so much time with her; though Franzen does indicate that she’s quite pretty.

Part of the problem lies in Franzen himself. There is an inarticulate bitterness that permeates all of his writing. I’m fine with caustic, nihilistic, etc., but peevish didacticism without fresh insight quickly becomes draining and ultimately repellent. He is unsubtle, often crude to the point of puerility, and lacking in both the acuity and generosity needed for rewarding reading. In my humble opinion, of course.

It’s the book of the season (if not the next three years), so go on and read it. I hope you find a place in your heart for Franzen that I lack.

-Review by Megan