2016 YEAR IN FICTION 
 THE GOOD STUFF 
 A Day Off by Storm Jameson was not something I would have touched with a broomstick except that it caught my eye in a perusal of 1001 Books You Must Read Before We Do Something We Will Regret and it turned out to be bitter, bleak, black and delightful 
 I'm meandering through a list of crucial British novels from the 50s and 60s which I should have read years ago, and I got to Alfie by Bill Naughton - I was expecting it to make me cringe but it was great, an account of a sexist bastard struggling towards some kind of self-awareness, but not quite making it - and the humour is so piquant you can't dismiss Alfie, what a character. He's not just a 60s guy, he's still with us. Recommended! 
 Love Me Back by Merritt Tierce was another fierce modern American slice of self-destructiveness - the fictionalized account of the author in her waitressing drugs and sex phase - not everyone's chocolate eclair, but it was predictable that I loved it badly. I don't think it loved me back but that's life. 
 True Grit by Charles Portis was the year's only 5 star novel and the first of those since Fourth of July Creek at the end of 2014. I think if anyone doesn't enjoy True Grit they might consider quitting novels for something else, maybe taxidermy would be a more engaging hobby. I read it because of the Coen Brothers movie, which is an unusual way round for me. 
 After that came a zillion three star novels (10 to be exact) and the next one to knock me out was Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante - I don't like to get caught up in the surges of hype that surround some books, it often ends up in tears before bedtime (Robert Bolano, for instance) but of course the critics can't always get it wrong, and this novel was fairly special if you like truly crazy truly mad female voices. I've now discovered a whole catalogue of these damaged souls and even the ones that I don't like are memorable experiences - here's a little list 
 Brass 
 The Piano Teacher 
 Dot in the Universe 
 Magda 
 The Driver's Seat 
 Hick 
 Dietland 
 The First Bad Man 
 Dept of Speculation 
 A Day Off 
 Grotesque 
 Miss Macintosh, My Darling 
 Eileen 
 Love me Back 
 Then came His Bloody Project which didn't win the Booker Prize and Vanity Fair which would have won the Booker Prize in 1848 - the longest read of the year, it took me a month - was it worth it? Sure, now I can brag to all my friends. And lastly the short sharp The Restraint of Beasts reviewed today. So those were the really good ones, we will ignore all the middling ones and go on to 
 THE REALLY BAD STUFF 
 Flaubert's Sentimental Education was completely bereft of any reason to continue turning the pages. Who could dredge up any interest in the fate of Frederic Moreau, a young dweeb who could get lost in a crowd of three. I was glad to discover that Henry James also loathed this awful book. I believe that Flaubert turned to intravenous drugs after writing the wonderful Madame Bovary. It's the only explanation. 
 I have an ongoing ridiculously-long-novels project, where I read the first 100 pages to see if this 900 plus page monster is worth bothering with, and the first three in the series were all turkeys, for different reasons. Parallel Stories by Peter Nadas was awful because it was tiresome and confusing; The Kills by Richard House was awful because I had not realized it was just a big fat thriller; but the prize worst book of the year (and maybe any year) goes to Miss Macintosh My Darling by Marguerite Young which is almost indescribable. I needed therapy after those 100 pages. As you see, this project is not going well. 
 And two major disappointments - these weren't very bad books, just nothing like what I needed from these great authors : The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters and The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray. So let's not talk about those but remind ourselves of Fingersmith and Skippy Dies , two fabulous five star fiestas. 
 WHAT ELSE 
 A whole series of great non fiction books is what. These are totally recommended if you're interested in the subject. 
 Dying : A Memoir by Cory Taylor - okay, who cannot be interested in this, since it's the one inevitable experience? Well, this is a memoir about the modern long-winded version of dying. It would be more compassionate if a giant flyswatter emerged from the clouds one day and splatted you out of existence before you even saw it coming, but medical science has ruled that out. 
 The Devil's Candy by Julie Salomon - a very detailed account of how they made the notoriously bad movie The Bonfire of the Vanities 
 Execution : A History of Capital Punishment in Britain by Simon Webb 
 Trashed and My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf - two graphic memoirs. Mr Backderf was a friend of the future serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in high school, so imagine his surprise when Jeffrey hit the headlines. Then later he spent a couple of years as a garbage collector. Both books recommended! 
 You Never give me your Money by Peter Doggett - a great account of a depressing but fascinating subject (the breakup of The Beatles). Bottom line : it was inevitable. 
 Shrinks : The Untold story of Psychiatry by Jeffrey Lieberman. A one stop shop of a book about how bad psychiatry has been and how it has only recently rehabilitated itself. 
 Comrade Corbyn by Rosa Prince - for British readers only, I guess. How the most unlikely Labour leader captured the Labour party in a kind of people's coup, therefore ensuring Labour will not win the next three elections. 
 Munch by Steffen Kverneland - brilliant graphic biography of Mr Scream himself. 
 At the Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell - don't let the title put you off - okay, I do admit it is about existentialism... 
 This is London by Ben Judah - all about immigrant London, brilliant reporting 
 Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton - I was weeping on every other page! 
 This is why we Can't have Nice Things by Whitney Phillips - all about the horrible phenomenon of internet trolling. Really fascinating. 
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 I'm hoping for better things from novels in 2017 - you know, "hey, novels, listen - no more threes, you can do it, be fours or even fives, aim for the stars" - but I got a feeling. Maybe I read all the knockout novels already. I hope not. I think there's still great ones out there. It's just a matter of finding them.