2002 NOVELS These debuts stand out in the crowd
Discovering a new writer comes with an element of surprise.
By MICHAEL UPCHURCH
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
I'll say it straight out: 2002 was, for me, a terrific reading year, and one reason was the abundance of stellar first novels.
How can there be so much good stuff out there?
My guess is that there are always first-class manuscripts in circulation. But it is on first-time writers that publishers are most willing to take a chance. With only their own tastes (rather than a writer's sales record) to guide them, editors are able to convince themselves that the books might sell.
Of course, veteran writers turned out impressive work this year, too. Among them: Andrea Barrett's "Servants of the Map" and Annie Proulx's "That Old Ace in the Hole." Worthy books -- but lacking that crucial element of surprise that comes with discovering a new writer.
My favorites of 2002 were:
U"Prague" by Arthur Phillips (Random House, $24.95). Four Americans and one Canadian, all seeking adventure and opportunity at the end of Cold War, flock to Budapest -- then wonder if they've chosen the wrong Eastern European capital. Eastern Bloc history collides with Western capitalism in this witty, seductive first novel.
U"2182 kHz" by David Masiel (Random House, $22.95). Raucous debut novel about a contract worker losing his grip on Alaska's North Slope, in Seattle and on the perilous seas in between. Extraordinary physical description and a wild sense of humor make this a high Arctic "Apocalypse Now."
U"Mervyn Peake: My Eyes Mint Gold: A Life" by Malcolm Yorke (Overlook, $37.50). A definitive biography of the British author-illustrator ("The Gormenghast Novels"), vividly placing him in his cultural context and subtly illuminating the sources of his imaginary worlds.
U"Revere Beach Elegy: A Memoir of Home and Beyond" by Roland Merullo (Beacon, $24). This memoir about growing up in a Boston blue-collar neighborhood and then leaving it behind is one of the best books on American class differences and loyalties to have come my way in a while.
U"When the Emperor Was Divine" by Julie Otsuka (Knopf, $18). In terse but eloquent prose, this debut novel explores the reality of the Japanese-American internment camp experience during World War II. Otsuka's gift for compression is remarkable, as are her dry wit and neat sidestepping of predictability.
U"After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti" by Edwidge Danticat (Crown, $16). The Haitian-American writer takes a pithy, probing look at Haitian society through the revealing lens of its Carnival celebrations. A perfect little book, bigger in scope than its size suggests.
U"Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano" by Christopher Miller (Houghton Mifflin, $23). Deliciously macabre formalist fun: a first novel about murder, jealousy, ambition and family mayhem, told in liner notes to an odd composer's career.
U"Weeping Susannah" by Alona Kimhi, translated by Dalya Bilu (Harvill, $14). A mordant comedy set in 1990s Tel Aviv, about a neurotic gal who's the "dubious apple" of her mother's eye and the improbably charismatic American cousin who turns their household upside down. Through the distorting lens of Susannah's mood swings, Kimhi gives us a startling glimpse of contemporary Israel.
U"The Art of Travel" by Alain de Botton (Pantheon, $23). A meditation on where we go--and why we go. De Botton brings his usual reader-friendly erudition to his investigation, and in the process makes you think about the experience of travel in a light you may not have considered it in before.
U"Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar, Straus & amp; Giroux, $27). Eugenides ("The Virgin Suicides") trips up in the very last lap of his second novel -- but most of what he pulls off in this Greek-American family saga, narrated by a heartbreaker of a hermaphrodite, is flat-out wonderful.