We’re at the beginning of 2024. This year I have six year-end awards to give out. Instead of ‘top ten’ or ‘favourite books of the year’, I’m going to give out awards to different books because they are brilliant and enjoyable in different ways. The six awards are favourite supporting characters, favourite protagonist, favourite audiobook, favourite novel, favourite non-fiction and at the end, my book of the year 2023.
Favourite Supporting Character
First of all, for my favourite supporting characters, I have two winners. Feel free to argue with me whether these two characters are actually ‘SUPPORTING characters’ or are one of the many protagonists. But I’ve decided, the winners are Emilia from Othello and Odysseus from the Iliad.
- Emilia from Othello
If you know Shakespeare’s Othello a bit, you’ll know that it’s mostly about how Iago destroys Othello and Desdemona’s marriage and life by poisoning the jealous husband against the innocent wife. Emilia is Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s companion and servant. She doesn’t appear until Act 2 Scene 1 and says and does very little in the first half of the play. She’s definitely just a supporting character at the beginning. When I read it for the first time, I didn’t think she was important enough to die in this tragedy. I thought she would survive! But as the story develops, she plays an increasingly vital role: think about it, the success of Iago’s plot with this handkerchief depends entirely on Emilia’s silence. Her friendship with Desdemona comes more and more to the forefront as the marriage falls apart, and she is killed in the end to vindicate Desdemona. She could have lived but she chooses death, because she will not be silent under a tyrant husband anymore, what’s the point of living when the only person she loves and cares for is dead, what’s left in the world is a disgusting husband who’s the murderer that destroys her friend.
I’ll give you one example. Emilia has been in obedience to Iago all her life, but when he threatens to kill her if she speaks the truth, she says
EMILIA
Thou hast not half that power to do me harm
As I have to be hurt. O gull, O dolt,
As ignorant as dirt! Thou hast done a deed —
I care not for thy sword, I’ll make thee known
Though I lost twenty lives. (Act 5 Scene 2)
I love the change I see in Emilia. I love her wise and heartfelt little chats with Desdemona in private, I love her courage to stand against evil and power, a helpless and desperate woman fighting alone. She’s such a hero.
- Odysseus from the Iliad
The second one is Odysseus. I read The Iliad this year and was pleasantly surprised at how accessible and fun it was. I wrote a series of posts on individual characters from The Iliad, including Odysseus, Helen, Achilles and Hephaestus. I think the main characters of The Iliad are Agamemnon, Achilles and Hector. So I class Odysseus as a supporting character. He has a book all for himself, called The Odyssey! The Odysseus I like is probably more of my interpretation of the character in the story, because there’s a lot of room for interpretation when you read ancient text like this, maybe that’s why there are so many retellings of ancient Greek and Roman myths.
I explained in this blog with many examples why I like Odysseus more than all the other heroes in the Iliad. I love him as an intelligent and capable warrior who has to do a lot of the dirty work and suffers under a useless commander. I imagine there’s a lot of under-the-breath swearing and eye-rolling. I love that he is powerful in battles, but does not ask for trouble or fight with a death wish for fame or glory. I love it when he’s overwhelmed by the flood of the enemy, he accepts the defeat and death coming his way calmly, still reflects on the situation with a clear head, and stands his ground to fight. And best of all, he lives!
Favourite Protagonist
Next, my favourite protagonist. A possible contender for my favourite protagonist is Richard III. Reason 1, he’s a complicated character in Shakespeare’s play, there are plenty of reasons to hate him, but also enough evidence for me to see the sad side of his story and feel sorry for him. Reason 2, I love both the look of Ian McKellen and Benedict Cumberbatch. Reason 3, the historical Richard III was proven to be a kind man and a good king, in Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time.
But alas, ladies and gentlemen, the winner of my favourite protagonist is the one and only Peter Grant, from ‘Rivers of London’ series. I had to think hard to decide what’s the best award to give Rivers of London. It could be my favourite fantasy – though I haven’t read that many fantasy novels this year; it could be my favourite novel series – but to be honest it’s the only novel series I read in 2023; it could be my favourite author – I definitely read more Ben Aaronovitch than any other authors and I liked every one of his books. Its audiobook can easily be one of the best as well – it adds so much energy and humour!
But I decided on my favourite protagonist because I think that’s the biggest reason I love the Rivers of London stories – because Peter is such a likeable person! Reading the stories is like hanging out with Peter and I enjoyed hanging out with Peter since book 1! He’s so ordinary as he shops in supermarkets and eats in pubs, when on duty, he’s often clueless and useless, as one of you commented, he can’t keep his eyes off women and he swears constantly; but he can also rise to situations when quick thinking and brave actions are required and be a complete hero.
Peter Grant is a wizard apprentice police constable from a department of London Metropolitan Police that deals with crimes that involve magic and supernatural things. Two things about him stand out specifically. Peter has a built-in sympathy and concern for the ‘abnormal’ or the minority or the neglected, like the jazz vampires or people permanently in the sewers or teenagers. What do you do with them? The easiest way to solve the problem is to ignore them, get rid of them, and lock them up. But Peter Grant disagrees, not from a moral high ground, but from the gut, he feels that’s not right. He makes a difference for the vulnerable and voiceless. He’s a better person than I am.
The second thing is his tendency to self-sacrifice – it’s so cheesy but it gets me every time. I’m going on a tangent feel free to skip to the next section. This reminds me of the Japanese animation film Weathering with You. Rain is the norm for Tokyo in this future climate disaster world. This girl has the supernatural power to stop the rain, but every time she uses the power, it weakens her and in the end, she is going to die. Her boyfriend wants to save her obviously but the conflict is, what are you going to do if her death is the way to solve the world’s problem? He goes to this altar and a sacrifice is required. Then there’s this climax and I thought he is going to die for her, on her behalf as a sacrifice, on this altar, in order to save the world and to save her! But nope, there’s no sacrifice, there’s no solution, they just let the rain fall and the world get flooded. It’s A solution. It’s a way of thinking and living. What has the rest of the world to do with me? Why would I die for strangers? Fair enough. But it makes the story so unsatisfying! It feels SO cold at the end, no one cares, no one loves, let the whole world drown. I’d hate to live in a world like that and I’m so glad Peter would not let the world go down that way.
Favourite Audiobook
Next, my favourite audiobook. For this award, I’m thinking of the voice actors’ performance more than the story itself. I have to be able to say, ‘listening to this book is much more enjoyable than just reading it off the pages.’ I mentioned Rivers of London series earlier. The voice actor makes Peter’s frustration so much more frustrated, his quick wit and slow wit so much funnier. But enough of Peter Grant!
The winner is One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time written by Craig Brown, narrated by Mark McGann, Kate Robbins and Craig Brown.
Favourite Novel
Next, my favourite novel of 2023. The winner is Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. I chose this one because it gave me the most complicated feelings when I read it. I loved it and hated it; I loved the story, the way she tells the story, and her writing style; I hated some of the immediate reactions it triggered, it brought back memories from SARS and COVID, the fear of uncertainty for the future, the fear of sickness and death because the world she builds feels so real. I felt so sad and devastated about ‘the collapse’ as it’s called in the novel, but magically, at the same time, I felt surprisingly hopeful. The writing and the story are quiet, beautiful and powerful. It often brought tears to my eyes and made my heart full. And if someone happens to walk into the room when you’re reading, you don’t want to explain how good it is or how much you love it, you don’t want to talk to them at all, because you want to savour the moment, just you and the sad and beautiful world.
The novel is written from the perspective of a few protagonists and it’s narrated from different points in time. Some from before the disaster hits, some during the initial stage and some a few years after. I shared in my October wrap up how much I enjoyed the novel partly thanks to a misunderstanding of the summary of the story before I started, so I’m hesitant to tell you what the story is about because I really loved the surprises in the twists and turns. And when I really care about a novel, I try harder not to spoil it for you. I’ll just say it’s about when the world as we know it is plunged into the dark, how would humanity respond collectively and what would individuals do to survive, what in society and culture would disappear and what would remain.
Favourite Non-Fiction
I have two favourite non-fiction books from 2023. A New Name is a memoir by Emma Scrivener published in 2012. It’s Christian non-fiction telling the story of her years struggling with anorexia. I met the author and heard her personal story – she is an incredible speaker, many of us in the audience came away in tears, because we saw the power and beauty come through in her weakness and brokenness, I wanted to know more about her so I read her memoir, in one day. It’s brutally honest. It’s beautiful. Reading the book is like listening to her, sitting across you in a room, I couldn’t stop halfway and I just wanted to keep listening.
My other favourite non-fiction book is 1599: A year in the life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro. This is not a biography that covers the whole life of Shakespeare. It’s about one year of his life. The book is arranged by seasons and shows what happens over the course of one year: the wars and rumours of war with Spain and Ireland struck a chord when the Chamberlain’s Men performed Henry the Fourth part two for the Queen and the court at White Hall at Christmas; how the gathering thunderstorm over an English army on a spring day worked its way into Julius Caesar; the complex relationship between the Arden in As You Like It and the Arden of Shakespeare’s ancestry he pursued that summer; how during that autumn his interest in a new literary form made his, plot-wise, least original play Hamlet shone the brightest. Those are just a few examples. What was going on in the world, in London left fingerprints in those plays and in the characters’ words.
I never knew any of it. And now I do. It was an eye-opening experience. I loved it! It completely changed my habit of reading and understanding Shakespeare’s plays out of context, independent of time and space. That’s also partly why I want to start reading his contemporaries in 2024, it’s one of my reading goals for next year..
Book of the Year
Finally, here’s my book of the year: 1599 by James Shapiro. It’s certainly the best non-fiction about Shakespeare I read this year and it taught me the most. It’s one of those amazing books that gives me so much: information, knowledge and insights, and at the same time makes me think there’s so much more I don’t know and I can’t wait to find out.
A Day of Small Things 