The best books from the past 2019 years according to DJ Techno Goblin, ruler over the realm of the same name
Pictured: DJ Techno Goblin, ruler over the realm of the same name. AAP.
It is that time on the Gregorian fucko-metre (read: calendar) in which various media, clout merchants, and wannabe arbiters of taste deliver their ‘best of’ lists.
Hi. It’s me. DJ Techno Goblin, ruler over the realm of the same name. Here’s another top ten list but with a twist: it features the only books I have read in the past 2019 years (since I was demoted from my position as a nondescript prism—onto which a heanie was grafted—who sees everyone, everywhere).
Thank you for reading and remember: never bring a Camry to a Mazda fight.
Presented in no particular order:
'What Sally Rooney would write if she wrote for fun. From an ode to the old women changing in swimming pool shower blocks, to a list of celebrities who own islands for self-care, to her own version of Alanis Morrisesette's "not literally ironic but inconvenient, f****d, or borderline cruel" iconic song, Eloise Grills is crazy-talented, darkly funny and, obviously, very sexy. If you loved My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, try this one by Eloise Grills.' - Emma Co (Bookseller, Better Read Than Dead)
‘Wonderful, infectious and genuinely hilarious. Patrick Lenton is the Cormac McCarthy of being a huge idiot.’ - Ben Jenkins (Story Club, Dragon Friends, The Checkout)
‘Patrick’s writing inspires something unusual in me: the desire to hear men tell me stories.’ - Rebecca Shaw (No To Feminism, Get Krack!n, Tonightly)
‘Like Sedaris, Lenton is hugely entertaining, which renders occasional moments of emotional tenderness all the more poignant.’ - Books+Publishing
‘The tone ranges from poem to poem, and so does the scenery. Beaches that host moments of rarefied epiphany give way to dreary suburban landscapes where ‘All the places we used to go have gone out of business and become something else’. These are in turn folded up into more intimate settings: bedrooms, for example, where dreams, discoveries and dramatic monologues unfurl. Across the whole gamut the writer-on-writing theme repeats with such steadiness of intent that each poem seems strung out along its common thread: there are ‘final pages’, ‘lines I etched into myself’, ‘a pen that doesn’t write properly’, ‘a short story about / someone who helps pay bills’ – this collection is in many ways the diary of a talented early-career writer reckoning with all the comorbities and contraindications that label represents.’ - Mitchell Welch for Overland.
'Wry and darkly funny, Whale's second collection of poetry, is a glorious mash up of pop culture references, classic poetic rhythm and beautiful turns of phrase. It speaks both about the way our bodies can shape our identity, as well as the ways our bodies are shaped by external forces, our desires and the world. He describes wheeze as 'compulsive journaling' but this collection makes for compulsive reading, too.' - Lucy H (Bookseller, Better Read Than Dead)
‘He's been described as one of Australia's underrated poets. Suburban artistry, creole, bidialecticism facing whiteness. Sandstone, and "the passerby" (espñ. transuente) in the migrant sense, imposterism. Global hauntology most definitely. As well I learnt that a selfie is not only a process, or something of a symptomatic (what if phone but too much?) but you can take a photo of something else and still make it "selfie" lol borrowing from Tim Morton's Hyperobjects to understand. The undercurrents of social media platform referencing is enjoyable. The writing is very smooth with allusory movement that is eloquent and radiant while still maintaining suburban psychogeography as legit as a maccas jouissance. That is a flex to me.’ - Ariel Riveros Pavez, poet and scholar.
‘The only book of poetry I've ever read cover to cover - I devoured it and felt ambivalent about doing so because I knew I was just bringing myself closer to the end. Poems dissecting life/love/blood/whiteness with surgical precision - I will carry them in my head & heart always.’ - Ly, Goodreads user.
‘The Hostage is a book of poetry for lovers of poetry and those for whom poetry is not a thing. Reading Knezevic’s poems feels like moving across a deep body of water via a chain of stepping stones. The poems propel forward carefully and precisely, moments tinged with dangerously good views.’ - Electabuzz, pokemon.
‘Idil's The Naming is formally ambitious, written at times in Malay, referencing old 'nonsense jinn stories' and playing with typography, her poems rarely obey any arbitrary rules of presentation.’ - David Dick (Cordite Poetry Review).
‘Just as identity is relational (it is made with/by your community) and ancestral, in collaboration with an internal felt sense of who you are, I see Parenthetical Bodies in a web-structure of literature from punk-queers and dry-humoured sad loners, creating space for other (othered) bodies and experiences.’ - Frankie Hanman Siegersma (Australian Poetry)
‘Crocker has a vivid way with her imagery, an almost casual ability to draw attention to the unexpected. How can 'the names of the other rocks' move out of someone's 'mind like an abattoir'?’ - David Dick (Cordite Poetry Review)
Subbed In books are also available from all discerning bookshops in Australia and internationally. If they don’t stock it, request it.