Friday, October 23, 2009

Tracy Kidder: best books

Tracy Kidder is the Pulitzer–winning author of The Soul of a New Machine and House.

His new book, Strength in What Remains, follows a refugee from ethnic violence in Burundi and from genocide in Rwanda who returns to Africa to open a medical clinic.

For The Week magazine, Kidder named his six best books.

One book on his list:
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (Vintage, $15).

To me, this is Nabokov at his very best. Among Pale Fire’s astonishing contents is a long and rather lovely poem written by a principal character: a poem written by Nabokov, of course, but not by Nabokov, as it were. This is one of the strangest and funniest novels I know.
Read about the other five books on Kidder's list.

Pale Fire
is the novel Charles Storch would save for last. It is one of "6 Memorable Books About Writers Writing" yet it disappointed Ha Jin upon rereading.

--Marshal Zeringue