As in past years, here’s a list of the new (to me) fiction I read this year. Criticism and rereads are excluded.

• Döblin, Alfred. Berlin Alexanderplatz. (1929) Feel like I should have gotten more from this.
• Farrell, J.G. Troubles. (1970) Not a fan.
• Gass, William H. The Tunnel. (1995) Equal parts intriguing and frustrating.
• Hamid, Mohsin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. (2007) Of some professional interest re: memoir-like fiction.
• Dyer, Geoff. Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. (2009)
• Houellebecq, Michel. The Map and the Territory. (2010)
• Banks, Russell. Lost Memory of Skin. (2011)
• Phillips, Arthur. The Tragedy of Arthur. (2011) I like Phillips a lot, but my interest waned.
• Russell, Karen. Swamplandia! (2011) Taught this; an interesting failure, I think.
• Whitehead, Colson. Zone One. (2011) Taught this, too. Liked it even more after reading Andy Hoberek’s piece on it in CL.
• Johnson, Adam. The Orphan Master’s Son. (2012) Liked this.
• Marcus, Ben. The Flame Alphabet. (2012) Didn’t do much for me; too precious by half.
• Miller, Madeline. The Song of Achilles. (2012) Am liking this a lot.
• Stein, Leigh. The Fallback Plan. (2012)

An enjoyable year, as always. I particularly liked Zone One and Song of Achilles (the latter of which I’m still working on). Not sure where I’ll start in 2013; I’m a couple of chapters into The Book of Happenstance by Ingrid Winterbach (which I like so far) and I have a handful of others waiting on my Kindle.