From drag on the streets of Old London to whales at the depths of oceans, this is a list of Polari Magazine’s Favourite Books of 2013.
Far From The Tree • Andrew Solomon
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This is a rare book that looks at the lives of people born with medical conditions, such as autism and Down’s syndrome, and those born to social conditions, such as rape and crime. It explores what it means to be in a minority. It surveys the ways in which we form our identity, and what that process means to those on the fringes of society. It is a beautifully conceived, beautifully written, book that has the power to change hearts and minds. – Chistopher Bryant
This Is How You Lose Her • Junot Díaz
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If you’ve read Díaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao you’ll know it’s all about voice and the inventive use of language. This book of loosely connected short stories has the same fizzing, popping, linguistic fireworks combined with a cast of young characters dealing with the complications of their love lives. The stories also feature Díaz’s recurring protagonist Yunior, a kind of Latino everyman through whom the vagaries of feckless masculinity are explored with great humanity and more than a hint of exasperation. – Michael Langan
The Sea Inside • Philip Hoare
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The Sea Inside is, as the jacket states, “part bestiary, part memoir, part travelogue”. In it, Hoare travels the physical and literary worlds to explore how the idea of the sea exerts a grasp on the imagination. It is a place of possibility that is, in many ways, unknowable. Its truth is an imaginative one that strikes at the heart of what it means to be human. Hoare’s previous book, Leviathan, was highly praised, but I think this one casts a greater spell. – Chistopher Bryant
The Death of Lucy Kyte • Nicola Upson
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There is a touching, compelling melancholia that permeates The Death of Lucy Kyte, the fifth book in the 1930s-set Josephine Tey mystery series. When she inherits a cottage from her godmother, Josephine uncovers the truth about a century old murder. There is an intensity to her search for the truth, and although the pace is a considered one it is nevertheless riveting. It was, for me, easily the most beautiful book of the series so far. – Chistopher Bryant
NW • Zadie Smith
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Zadie Smith’s finely-tuned ear, and here eye for detail, brings to life a vivid and affecting novel set in north west London, with a cast of beautifully drawn characters and a real sense of place. This is a London novel in the best sense – not provincial but universal, in the way that only this city itself can produce the mix of life that gives the particular to the story, whilst being global in its outlook and themes. Smith’s best book yet. – Michael Langan
Mad Girl’s Love Song • Andrew Wilson
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I have from the age of seventeen (when else?) been captivated by Sylvia Plath. This biography of her early years reminded me why. It is a deftly and sensitively told story of a young woman struggling with her ambition, her genius and her mental instability. It is free of the psychobabble that so often defines tracts of Plath which, instead, render her an everywoman rather than an individual. The book excited me and sent me back to Plath’s work. – Chistopher Bryant
Art & Queer Culture • Catherine Lord & Richard Meyer (eds.)
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This comprehensive survey of queer visual art is beautifully produced, thoughtfully constructed and extremely well written. As well as the wide range of images and artists covered there is an informative and enlightening plethora of supplementary contextualising material – both academic and creative – that, over all, provides an essential and illuminating guide to queerness in art. – Michael Langan
The Luminaries • Eleanor Catton
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Eleanor Catton became the youngest ever Booker Prize winner this year, with the longest novel ever to win. It’s a truly immersive experience, set in nineteenth century New Zealand in the gold-rush town of Hokitiki. At its core is a murder mystery, but as the story develops the book becomes a meditation on fate and fortune, increasing in complexity. It’s a vast, dexterously woven tapestry of a novel that had me reading late into the night, flying through its 830 pages in no time at all. – Michael Langan
Fanny & Stella • Neil McKenna
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Frederick Park and Ernest Boulton, aka Fanny and Stella, were tried in 1871 for prostitution and female impersonation. This book is as glorious as the characters whose story it tells. It is history that uses the narrative techniques of fiction, and is a virtuoso achievement from a master storyteller. It is a Victorian England rarely glimpsed and recounts an episode of LGBT history that occurred around the same time the word homosexual was first coined. This is an outstanding, captivating and significant book. – Chistopher Bryant
