My 20 Favorite Reads of 2023 (Pt. 3: 2nd-4th place)

MY TEN FAVORITE READS OF 2023 (Pt. 3)
2nd place: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
3rd place: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
4th place: All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien

What can I say about the latest books by Barbara Kingsolver and Ann Patchett beyond the deep satisfaction I experienced while reading them? Unlike Tracey Lien’s novel, nothing has been left unsaid about these novels by two of our best writers. If you haven’t read them yet, try to get to them soon.

Well, I guess I do have a couple things to say about Tom Lake. 😉 As I read it in August, I knew it would be on my year-end list of favorites, but I didn’t think it would end up at number three. But looking back now, I really appreciated the warm hug it provided after four difficult years. It was a look back at the protagonist’s bittersweet coming of age, a love letter to theater and “Our Town” in particular, and a tribute to the importance of family during the Covid pandemic. I read the book, but many people raved about Meryl Streep’s narration of the audiobook.

All That’s Left Unsaid is Tracey Lien’s debut novel. I found it absorbing and well crafted. I cared about the complicated family of Vietnamese immigrants to Australia at its center and enjoyed following the twenty-something protagonist, Ky Tran, as she tried to figure out who murdered her brilliant but sheltered younger brother and, more importantly, why (when the police were doing a halfhearted investigation).

Lien’s novel offers a forensic examination of the Vietnamese immigrant community in the working class Sydney suburb of Cabramatta in 1996, from the parents who arrived as traumatized refugees from the war to their first generation Australian children caught between two cultures. They are struggling to become Australians but don’t feel accepted by the white population, the majority of whom treat them with wariness or hostility. By alternating between Ky’s voice and those of the witnesses she talks to, Lien gives us insight into a mosaic of characters shaped by the Vietnam War, living in an immigrant community bedeviled by drugs, gangs, and mental health issues, and trying to find their way forward.

Maybe you’ll start 2024 by reading some of the great 2023 books you didn’t get to; I know that’s what I’ll be doing. And the list is long! That’s life when you want to read so many books.