Amazon SF/F Top 10's Jack O'Connell's Own Top 10

By Jeff VanderMeer

<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Jack O'Connell's surreal noir novel <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Resurrectionist-Jack-OConnell/dp/1565125762/ref=blogs_omni_link">The Resurrectionist</a></em> made Amazon's Top 10 Science Fiction/Fantasy Books of 2008. O'Connell is one of the best writers of dark fiction I know, often mixing noir with strange elements that skirt the edge of fantasy and horror. There's really no fiction writer quite like him. I thought it would be interesting to ask him for his own top 10 books read in 2008. I'll be posting more such lists over the next week. For more from O'Connell, <a href="http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2008/07/11/jack-oconnell-week-omnivoracious-interview/">check out this link</a> to some blogging he did this past summer. - Jeff V</p>

<p>&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="http://nozama.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/07/resur.jpg"><img title="Resur" height="297" alt="Resur" src="http://www.omnivoracious.com/images/2009/01/07/resur.jpg" width="200" border="0" /></a> </p>

<p>Here are ten books (listed alphabetically by author) that worked their mojo on me during the last 12 months. <strong>- Jack O'Connell</strong></p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&amp;field-keywords=Criminal+by+Ed+Brubaker"><em>Criminal</em> by Ed Brubaker</a>, art by Sean Phillips: Like a great early ’70s neo-noir that somehow eluded me, Criminal is a comic book story of lowlifes, scores gone wrong and double-crosses. If Don Siegel, Richard Stark and Warren Oates had teamed up on a graphic novel, this would be the result. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Last-Good-Kiss-James-Crumley/dp/0394759893/ref=blogs_omni_link"><em>The Last Good Kiss</em> by James Crumley</a>. Crumley died on Sept. 17 and we’re all the poorer for the loss. Kiss is probably his masterpiece. Reread it in tribute to the fallen master. And then go search out The Muddy Fork and read the story, “The Things She Cannot Write About, The Reasons Why.”</p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Melville-World-Work-Andrew-Delbanco/dp/0375702970/ref=blogs_omni_link"><em>Melville: His World and His Work</em> by Andrew Delbanco</a>: I remain Melville-obsessed. In fact, I think the condition is becoming increasingly acute as I age. The old mariner inspires a lot of books every year, but Delbanco’s study feels fresh and has smart things to say about the way Melville’s mind and heart responded, through his writing, to the merciless shifting of the world around him. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Dead-Men-Say-Gorman/dp/0312878001/ref=blogs_omni_link"><em>What the Dead Men Say</em> by Ed Gorman</a>: Gorman is the pro’s pro. Reading any one of his novels could save the would-be young fiction writer the whole of his MFA tuition. This one is a bracing, stripped-to-the-bone heartbreak of a western. Think James Cain meets Oakley Hall—pure American Naturalism served up as revenge gothic.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; </p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Story-That-Ends-Scream-Others/dp/B000KF89BW"><em>A Story that Ends with a Scream</em> by James Leo Herlihy</a>. Herlihy died back in 1993 and if he’s recalled today, it’s mainly as the author of <em>Midnight Cowboy</em>. Published in 1970, this collection of nine stories is utterly of its time—that brief season when fictioneers felt free to get wild, and their work seemed robust and risky enough to keep pace with the culture exploding around them. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fever-Kill-Tom-Piccirilli/dp/097692174X/ref=blogs_omni_link"><em>The Fever Kill</em> by Tom Piccirilli</a>: Here’s one that can fairly be judged by its cover—the pre-distressed, faux-yellowed design and the ’50s drugstore lettering are perfect signifiers of the breathless, gritty, Thompsoneque story you’ll find inside the wrapper. Pic is legit heir to David Goodis but with his own unique strand of brutal DNA that makes him the chief scout on the frontier of 21st Century noir. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/2012-Return-Quetzalcoatl-Daniel-Pinchbeck/dp/1585425923/ref=blogs_omni_link"><em>2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl</em> by Daniel Pinchbeck</a>: I’m a sucker for Weird Theory and Pinchbeck spins some great stoner myth, crawling out past the borders of northern rationality while arguing that metaphor and magic can sometimes be the same world-saving thing. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/James-Sallis-Reader/dp/080951155X/ref=blogs_omni_link"><em>A James Sallis Reader</em> by James Sallis</a>: A treasure trove—stories, poems, essays (including that stunning, must-read reflection on Goodis), and two full-length novels. This omnibus gives you an idea of the scope of an extraordinary writer’s talents. More than this, it provides a sense of a fine and ever-curious mind as it wonders if the right combination of language and myth might make us richer--if not necessarily “better”—humans. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Prime-Green-Remembering-Sixties-P-S/dp/0060957778/ref=blogs_omni_link"><em>Prime Green</em> by Robert Stone</a>: A memoir of the ’60s by the perfect chronicler. Not only was Stone part of Kesey’s prankster crew, he’s one of the great prose stylists of our time--his ability to assemble a scene and convey its ethos is both hypnotic and addictive. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hawthorne-Life-Brenda-Wineapple/dp/0812972910/ref=blogs_omni_link"><em>Hawthorne</em> by Brenda Wineapple</a>: Hawthorne, the great cipher of the American romance, is brought into focus—along with his clan, his pals, and his time--by Wineapple’s clear writing and refusal to crush the writer under the Academy’s lens of the moment. </p></div>