Buy An Unfinished Life at Amazon
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (Penguin, $14). Here is a novel of sheer honesty in its depiction of a struggling man thrown up against the political and social canvas of his culture. Honest, too, in depicting how, like all of us must, he comes to paint his individual story.
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Plainsong by Kent Haruf (Vintage, $14). There is no writer I’ve read who can stand with Kent Haruf when it comes to the making of perfectly precise prose, and of characters of such generosity that readers must strive more diligently to better understand all the possibilities of what it means to be human.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (Broadway, $15). Tim O’Brien walks into the dark and confused heart of human brutality and gives it a face that any of us will recognize. It is our face that looks away in tears, as we drift into dreams of how our reflection could be improved. I know of no more honest book of war.
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (Perennial, $13). I read this book once, and then five more times right in a row, because I did not want it to ever end. I wanted so desperately to remain transformed by the language and the magical complexity of Momaday’s world.
Joe by Larry Brown (Warner, $19). This book is a masterpiece of place. Rarely have I read a novel that so transformed my sense of region. Rarely have I read a novel in which the complexity and honesty of the characters so transformed my sense of self.
All the Pretty Horses