Top 5... Love Stories

I've given you mysteries. I've given you fantasy. Next up on my canon of countdowns is that most curious of literary creatures: the love story.

In real life, I like romance as much as the next man.  But I hate to read about it.  It rings false, it jars on the page, and it is often so sickly sweet that it makes my teeth hurt.  And let's be honest; a book whose entire plot revolves around two people being in love is kind of boring, right?  (Twilight, I'm looking at you.)  But in the hands of a capable author, two people can share something profound and emotionally rewarding that contributes to the potency of the story without it being the be-all and end-all. 

Here are my five.

5. Drawing Blood by Poppy Z. Brite (1993)
Possibly the most reader-friendly of her earlier horror novels before switching to food-lit, Drawing Blood is rich with Brite's trademark prose, a swampy, Southern lethargy, and characters that are so bizarre and yet so real that they seem to jump off the page and grab you by the throat.
On the run from the law is Zachary Bosch, a hacker with a lust for life and lots of other things.  Returning to his childhood home is Trevor McGee, the sole survivor of a family bloodbath years before.  Both men are damaged goods, but when they cross paths in a haunted house in North Carolina, they soon discover they may be able to help heal each other.
Drawing Blood boasts an enjoyable cast of supporting characters and a sinister backdrop of paranormal intrigue against which the young men's relationship is able to grow.  Fairly violent in parts and sexually graphic in others, Drawing Blood is the perfect romance for horror fan - and her vampire novel Lost Souls is a refreshing antidote to the namby-pamby bloodsucker fare of today.

4. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (1958)
Let me be clear about one thing: I'm talking about the novella, not the Hepburn-starring film adaptation.  While the movie is one of those rare occasions where I actually enjoyed and appreciated the tacking-on of a conventional Hollywood ending, which brings emotional satisfaction to an audience who have spent two hours watching George Peppard and Audrey Heburn dance around each other, the book is a different animal entirely.  Holly Golightly is, as is often repeated by critics and fans alike, "top banana in the shock department".  In other words, she's no ordinary girl.  And as such, Truman Capote would never allow for her to settle down with her upstairs neighbour, no matter how much they loved each other.  She's too much of a free spirit, you see.  Also, he's poor and cash is king in Holly's world.  But that doesn't stop Miss Golightly from sharing a deep connection with the nameless narrator over the course of one year in New York, before she vanishes off into the sunset on her next adventure.

3. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (1598-ish)
Yes, I know it's not technically a book, it's a play.  But I am including it for the simple reason that Beatrice and Benedick's witty, acidic banter is hugely enjoyable, and their realisation in the final act that they love each other is so matter-of-fact, so very in keeping with the characters: "I love nothing in the world so much as you; is not that strange?"  Not to mention that the pair whose mutual antipathy masks a mutual attraction are essentially the blueprint for Lizzie Bennet and Mr Darcy in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, that most famous of romances (which is not on the list for the simple reason that I prefer its companion novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies).

2. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (2008)
This is one of my favourite books for a number of reasons, and I've mentioned it already on more than one occasion on this blog.  The Gargoyle is, in many ways, the perfect love story for me.  Neither of its two central characters are perfect.  In fact, they are both hard to like at times.  The narrator is a former playboy, pornstar and addict whose life is turned upside down by a car accident that leaves him permanently disfigured.  Marianne Engel is an intensely religious artist who begins to visit him in his hospital room, telling him stories to pass the time, much like Scheherazade in the Arabian Nights.  Her tales include that of an Italian blacksmith, an English farmer's wife, a Japanese glassblower and a Viking artisan, all of whom suffer and ultimately die for love.  Interspersed with these stories is the history of how Marianne first met the burn victim, hundreds of years before in another life.
The Gargoyle is part fantasy, part historical thriller, part sheer fever dream.  But at its core, without ever once being sentimental or overly emotional, is a love story.

1. Atonement by Ian McEwan (2001)
One day in the summer of 1935, young Briony Tallis becomes witness to an adult encounter between her older sister Cecilia and family friend Robbie - an encounter that she doesn't quite understand.  When she tells her version of events, which mutates into an outright lie, Cecilia and Robbie are separated - first by his imprisonment, then by World War Two.  Briony spends her entire life regretting the incident, and sets out to make amends to the couple who have since been reunited after the war.
SPOILERS FOLLOW:
The tragic twist in this tale is, Robbie and Cecilia are never reunited.  The scenes in Atonement where Briony visits them in their London flat, desperate to make things right, turn out to be a fabrication, yet another figment of her wild imagination.  In truth, Robbie died in the war and Cecilia was killed during the Blitz, leaving Briony with the awful knowledge that she single-handedly destroyed any chance they had at happiness together.  Only a handful of pages in this 371 page novel are devoted to actual scenes between the two of them; an exchange near a fountain, a tryst in a library, and a meeting in a cafe following Robbie's release from prison.  But every single word is charged with feeling, even if neither of them dares to acknowledge it.  Atonement's film adaptation remains loyal to the book, and this doomed love is played out perfectly by James McAvoy and Keira Knightly (it is a stroke of marvellous casting that Knightly closely matches Ian McEwan's physical description of Cecilia).

Other books about love, lust and relationships that nearly made the grade: Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, One Day by David Nicholls, Lisey's Story by Stephen King, The Night Watch by Sarah Waters.

Check out the first two instalments of my Top 5 series:
Top 5 Mysteries
Top 5 Fantasy Novels

Top 5... Fantasy Novels

Here goes, my round-up of the best fantasy fiction. Ever. It might piss off a lot of people that The Lord of the Rings isn't on here. I apologise in advance, but I figure that Tolkien won't mind being benched just this once in order to put the spotlight on a few other deserving authors.

5. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
When I first read this book in primary school, the cover proclaimed it was the first instalment of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. It was only later that I realised it was written much, much later than its supposed sequel The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe.  What I love about this book is that it can be read as a part of the larger saga, as it explains such anomalies as the presence of a Victorian lamp-post in another world, or it can be read in total isolation.  Like any other Narnia book, The Magician's Nephew is a children's story first and foremost, and as such is a rollicking adventure, but it provides endless enjoyment into adulthood too.

For other youngsters discovering new worlds, you may also enjoy: Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

4. The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice are often shelved as Horror or Romance, but I feel that they fit more into the genre of Fantasy, never more so than in the case of The Queen of the Damned.  While the central characters consist of vampires, witches, ghosts and paranormal experts, the novel's aim is not to deliver chills like a conventional horror novel.  Instead, Anne Rice uses these horror staple figures to spin an epic tale that begins with a curse in Ancient Egypt and climaxes at a rock concert in California.  The titular vampire, Queen Akasha, is awoken from her eternal slumber by the music of Lestat, the anti-hero of Rice's previous novels.  But this is only a small part of the plot.  An antiquated organisation, the Talamasca, have taken it upon themselves to record the activities of supernatural beings such as vampires, and their interference in events ends up being life-changing.  One of these investigators, a woman named Jesse, discovers just how closely she is connected to the vampire world.  Ancients begin to gather from around the globe, some to aid Akasha in her newest quest, others to stop her.  Told from multiple viewpoints (a rarity in this series), The Queen of the Damned is one of Rice's strongest, richest novels, with an engaging cast of supporting characters and fascinating historical detail.

You may also enjoy: Dracula by Bram Stoker, another rendition of the original vampire.

3. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Fairy tales are big business in Hollywood right now. Hansel and Gretel are being reincarnated as witch hunters, Red Riding Hood is getting a sultry reimagining and there are two "dark, gritty" remakes of Snow White in the works.  Movie producers are obsessed with upping the sex and violence of old Grimm favourites and serving them up to teenagers on a platter.  And it's easy to see why.  Fairy tales are often about, at their core, the loss of innocence, the journey from a world of children to a world of adults.  John Connolly takes this as his cue in The Book of Lost Things.  The young hero, David, has recently lost his mother.  His father remarries, and soon David's stepmother gives birth to a baby boy.  Feeling pushed out, David takes refuge in his books.  One night, a series of bizarre events lead David into another world entirely, one which may or may not be of his own making.  He encounters knights, wolves, hunters and the sinister, ever-present Crooked Man.  At its heart, The Book of Lost Things is a coming of age tale, but it is also a reminder of the immense power of stories.

You may also enjoy: Pan's Labyrinth, a film by Guillermo del Toro, in which a young girl escapes her own brutal wartime life and goes on a magical quest.

2. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
Published outside of the UK as The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman's vision of an alternative, steampunk Britain, populated by humans and their animal "daemon" counterparts, captured readers' imaginations the world over.  Young, feral, and relentlessly questioning of authority, Lyra finds herself at the centre of a plot involving missing children, a witch's prophecy, a journey to the North and a mysterious device that seems able to tell the truth and predict the future.  This is the first novel in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, which evolves into an ambitious, controversial, Blakean masterpiece over the next two books, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.  I first read this trilogy when I was thirteen or fourteen, but like every other entry on this list, it is a hugely rewarding read at any age.


For other remarkable children growing up, you may also enjoy: The Harry Potter novels by JK Rowling.

1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Shadow is released from prison, just in time to learn that his wife Laura has died.  Adrift in a world that he no longer understands, Shadow is employed by the mysterious Mr Wednesday to accompany him on a road trip across America.  Gaiman adeptly merges genres and creates a unique mythos here, by asserting that a country as new as America is built on the traditions and faiths of other lands - and as such, is inhabited by all of the gods, spirits and demons that true believers brought with them when they came to start a new life in the New World.  Mr Wednesday is an old soul, and he sees a war coming between the new wave of technology, media and science, and the gods who fear that without worship they will simply cease to exist.  The over-arching narrative is interspersed with tales of immigrant deities doing their best to make their way in the modern age (my personal favourite is the New York taxi driver who is also a Djinn).  American Gods is a hugely imaginative piece of fantasy, but it may also be the Great American Novel.

You may also enjoy: Neil Gaiman's loose sequel, Anansi Boys.

Some other fantasy titles that deserve an honourable mention: Wicked by Gregory Maguire, The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton (a well-executed piece of modern fairy folklore, sadly let down by its sexed up sequels).

Top 5... Mystery Novels

Whenever somebody asks me what my favourite book is, I find myself unable to answer.  What, exactly, is meant by "favourite"?  Is it the book that made me laugh the most, or the story that stayed me with longest after I turned the last page?

I love reading books of every genre, and I bloody love writing about them too.  So this is my first post in a series on my favourite five books in any given genre.  Sorry, but I can't pick one.  Not even a top three.  Five is my number.

Philip's Top 5 Mysteries

5
The Brutal Art by Jesse Kellerman

An engrossing thriller set against the backdrop of the New York art world, The Brutal Art is the story of Ethan Muller, a flawed but successful art dealer who stumbles across a vast work of unparalleled genius.  When he attempts to locate the artist who created this oeuvre, he is drawn into a world of violence and deception.

4

Light Before Day by Christopher Rice

After his first two novels, A Density of Souls and The Snow Garden, Christopher Rice took a step away from the modern Gothic genre and into noir with Light Before Day.  The first-person narrator, Adam Murphy, is a Los Angeles-based journalist, looking for his one time boyfriend who has seemingly vanished off the face of the earth.  His search takes him into the city's seedy underbelly, and Rice proves himself highly skilled at creating detestable figures in the drug dealers and sexual predators that Adam crosses paths with.

3
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

Less of a conventional crime story than Dennis Lehane's other novels, Shutter Island toys with the reader's perceptions throughout.  The hero is Teddy Daniels, a Federal marshall called to Ashcliffe hospital on Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a mental patient.  As a hurricane descends on the island and his migraines become more unbearable, Teddy becomes less certain of who he can trust.  I can't say much more without giving the game away - suffice to say it's well worth a read.  And much more rewarding than the film adaptation.

2

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

In this, the first of Private Eye Jackson Brodie's adventures, Kate Atkinson playfully entwines the genres of crime and literary fiction.  Detective and divorcee Jackson is contacted by Julia and Amelia Land to find out what happened to their little sister Olivia years before.  At the same time, he is harrassed by an old man who needs answers about his daughter's death.  Seemingly unrelated events propel the story's narrative, and while the conclusion is not necessarily climactic, it provides the reader with a huge sense of satisfaction.

1

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

This is it.  The big one, the daddy of noir.  Philip Marlowe is the original hard-boiled detective.  What else is there to say?  Considered by many (myself included) to be Chandler's magnum opus, The Big Sleep features pornographers, killers, femme fatales and one reluctant hero.  Classic.  Just classic.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. Do you think I've missed an important mystery novel off the list?  What are your suggestions for the next genre to be featured in the Top 5 series?  Let me know!