MY FIVE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS 1"The Portable Chekhov" edited by Avrahm Yarmolinsky. I can easily carry it anywhere for literary solace.
2"Austerlitz" by W. G. Sebald. The final novel of a fractured and supernal mind in search of its own history.
3"Everything That Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O’Connor. This line electrified me: “Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog.” It made me want to write.
4"The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman. The most shattering and consoling book I read this year.
5"Winter in the Blood" by James Welch. A book of terse and desperate grace, perhaps the best novel about reservation life.
A BOOK TO WHICH YOU ALWAYS RETURN: “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys. Savage, strange and perfect.
A BOOK YOU HOPE PARENTS WILL READ TO THEIR CHILDREN: William Steig’s books, including the original “Shrek!” Simple, beautiful, funny, and an adult can read them without suffering brain damage.
