Reid鈥檚 Year in Books

What did you read this year?

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2024

10,993

pages read

books read

Reid

Shortest Book

pages

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Longest Book

715

pages

Average book length in 2024

343

pages

Most Shelved

975,298

people also shelved

Least Shelved

1,143

people also shelved

Reid鈥檚 average rating for 2024

3.8

Highest Rated on 欧宝娱乐

4.46 average

Reid鈥檚 first review of the year

really liked it

Redemption. All fiction is tied up with this concept; the arc of the story either leads to redemption that is roughly in proportion to the problems and conflicts introduced, or the internal logic of the story points to why redemption is not possible. Of course, death is sometimes the nature that redemption takes, though this is easier to justify if one believes in an afterlife.

I begin my review of The Covenant of Water with that statement because Redemption. All fiction is tied up with this concept; the arc of the story either leads to redemption that is roughly in proportion to the problems and conflicts introduced, or the internal logic of the story points to why redemption is not possible. Of course, death is sometimes the nature that redemption takes, though this is easier to justify if one believes in an afterlife.

I begin my review of The Covenant of Water with that statement because somewhere around three-quarters of the way into it I began to seriously doubt that the author could pull off any act or acts of redemption proportional to the degree of suffering imposed on his characters. It seemed as if every time someone might be approaching happiness or peace, yet another tragic event occurred to tear them apart, or another foolish decision was made that led to the disruption of harmony.

This novel checks one of my favorite boxes: I love stories with broad historical sweep. This one takes place over more or less the entire 20th century, with three generations of one family occupying the family compound at Parambil in southern India. This family has a peculiar affliction that seems to be hereditary鈥攁 morbid fear of water and penchant for dying by its hand. One of the great things about a Verghese novel is that conditions such as this turn out to be medical mysteries he gradually unravels.

The family at Parambil is a loving one. They live on their hereditary lands and are served by lower caste workers who, while they are treated well by their masters, are still regarded as untouchable within the rigid caste system which still permeates Indian society. But within those limits, it is a kind and gentle place. Yet tragedy seems to stalk them always.

Of course, authors owe us nothing. Still, writing and reading are a sort of contract between us, a promise that what an author has undertaken is worth the emotional labor and personal commitment invested by those who consume it. Whereas it is true that life is filled with cruelty, sorrow, tragedy, and pain, fiction is a world in which we expect there to be some redemption or, if not that, then a clear reason why redemption is not possible. Or, to put it in simpler terms, if all we read is pointless, relentless sadness, why should we bother? Life contains suffering enough without inflicting fictional damage on ourselves. I recognize there is a certain masochism in our willingness to read that which horrifies or grieves us, but in the end we expect to be able to see the internal logic in, to take perhaps the most famous example, Anna's fateful meeting with the wheels of a train.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I had serious doubts that any author, even one as talented as Verghese, could write an ending sufficiently redemptive to dig himself out of the hole he dug. But, my friends, he did exactly that. I still think he perhaps laid it on a bit thick with tragic deaths, maimings, addictions, disappointments, betrayals, and missteps. But the final 100 or so pages of this novel are some of the most beautiful I have read, and the final image is so very deeply affecting and, yes, redemptive. (Resist the temptation to skip ahead to it, because it won't make nearly as much sense or have nearly the same effect without what comes before).

Oh, by the way, Verghese reads the 31 hours (!) of the audio book himself and does an amazing job of it. It's almost unfair that so much talent should be given to one person, but there you have it.
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搁贰滨顿鈥橲 2024 BOOKS

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

it was amazing

Perdido Street Station by China Mi茅ville

The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

it was amazing

it was amazing

it was amazing

Post-Apocalyptic Nomadic Warriors by Benjamin Wallace

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

Reid鈥檚 last review of the year

really liked it

Such a sweet yet melancholy book, just what I needed in these fraught times. A young man must find a new home for his beloved cat. In the process of driving around the country (Japan) seeing if various friends are a good fit for Nana, we find out the backstory of his relationships with them, and the history of how Nana came into his life. Nana also has a role in narrating the story and, in a very cat-like way, expressing his opinions about what i ...more

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