Books of 2023: Escapist Fiction

Happy new year!

 For many years, I held to strict categories in recommending books from my year's reading.  But now that tons of people wear pajamas and slippers in public (I like to picture them changing into morning suits and spats when they go home), it's clear that there are no rules.  Of if there are, I get to make them up.

In a strong year for fiction, I'm sharing my escapist books today before focusing on more literary books tomorrow and finally sharing my book of the year, which is a hybrid.  See how I'm building up the narrative tension there?  I learned it by reading spy and mystery novels when I need a break for more learned pursuits.

Books of the Year: Escapist Fiction

Kingdoms of Savanna, George Dawes Green, 2022

Shame on me for being surprised that George Dawes Green, founder of The Moth, can tell a rip-snorting fictional story as well.  More accurately, I would downgrade that "surprised" to "uncertain" going in to reading The Kingdoms of Savannah, his fourth novel.  Here, we meet a Savannah family full of characters with big personalities.  Although the matriarch of the family owns a detective agency, the mystery they need to solve still comes to them via a circuitous path.  A dark, gothic, Savannah path.  Green researched his story deeply, but it's a credit to his talent and care that I didn't know that until I read the historical notes at the back.  He writes good sentences in good paragraphs in good, long chapters that continually intrigue the reader.  Although clearly in the mystery genre, the events and attitudes come across as authentic and current. Although Kingdoms hooked me early on, I still thrilled at the moment where the plot's energy kicked up a notch, and I didn't really want to do anything but finish this book.

Spook Street, Mick Herron, 2017

Few things provide as reliable an escape for me these days than the skilled characters, turns of phrase, and plots of a Mick Herron slow horses novel. The novels are being turned one-by-one into seasons of a Slow Horses show on Apple TV+ (recommend, but read the books first).  This fourth one builds on the pattern of some event catching up the MI5 rejects at Slough House.  Herron keeps each story energized by introducing new characters - not just baddies but within the Service itself.  So Spook Street both gives us known operators and makes our acquaintance with new people.  Here, River Cartwright's grandfather is starting into his dotage, a surprising liability for a career spy and those around him.  Something from his past creeps - leaps - into the present.  Of course, that means Slough House needs to deal with it.  While reading some slower non-fiction, I took a break with this book for a long weekend trip to CA and the next weekend, which was Thanksgiving.  I finished reading it the morning of Small Business Saturday.