Best Biography: The Passage to Power, by Robert Caro. Robert Caro’s penultimate volume of his biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson follows LBJ’s ascent from Speaker of the Senate to his first term as President. Along the way, we see LBJ clash with the Kennedys and then, following the assassination of JFK, pass the greatest civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. He did so with a combination of intelligence, insider knowledge of the US Congress, and the sheer brute force of his personality. If the Occupy movement wants to get anything done in real legislative terms, they should start by reading this book.
Best Epic Fantasy Novel: The White-Luck Warrior, by R. Scott Bakker. Technically published in April 2011, I’m grandfathering it into the list. This is epic fantasy at its best, at once verbally opulent, politically brutal, and narratively complex. The second book of Bakker’s second trilogy has an empire facing internal disintegration, a war against an inhuman foe that is quickly annihilating the greatest army ever assembled, and enough political intrigue to rival The Godfather, Part II.
Best Fiction of the Year: Building Stories, by Chris Ware. It is hard to write about Chris Ware’s latest without throwing out pummeling the reader with superlatives. A boardgame-sized contains 14 interrelated stories that can be read in any order. The stories come in a variety of formats, in everything from tiny strips to magazines and pamphlets to a mock-Little Golden Book. Formally daring and heartbreaking without lapsing into crass sentimentality, Ware shows that Chicago is on the forefront of narrative innovation and technical virtuosity.
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