Man Booker Prize 2016

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The Sellout by Paul Beatty 4/10
I suspect this is a shoo-in for the shortlist and a decent bet for the prize itself, in part for some of the very reasons I didn't like it. It's very much of its time. Every page reads like a bunch of contemporary American cultural references have been fed into a randomizing computer programme. It's supposed to be a satirical critique of race relations in America (which is why it may well win), but the satire is pretty heavy handed. As for the writing, it smacks of a writer trying to prove how clever he is, but the limits of his cleverness show through all too often.

This passage, for instance: There he is, Chamaeleo africanus tokenus hidden way in the back among all the shrubbery, his slimy feet gripped tightly around the judicial branch in a cool torpor, silently gnawing on the leaves of injustice. Comparing an African American judge to a chameleon, fair enough. But chameleons aren't slimy and don't eat leaves, so the metaphor falls flat.

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Two more read:

The North Water by Ian McGuire 7/10
I thought this one was heading for a better mark, but it's let down by the resolution of one of the narrative strands. One of the characters becomes the personification of evil, but the final showdown is dealt with in a couple of paragraphs and is anticlimactic. The author has a fetishistic fascination with foul smells and oozing gore, which feels a bit contrived at times. It reminded me in that respect of Tim Willocks's Green River Rising, which also aimed to shock by describing violence and bodily functions in crude detail. I wouldn't be upset if this makes the short list, but I wish the last quarter had been better executed.

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Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves 9/10
When I started reading the list, this wasn't one I was particularly anticipating. But I was hooked pretty much from the start. Good story, very well written. The race relations aspect is a tad heavy handed, but that element may go down well with the judges. Thus far, this is my tip for the prize.

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Monty Pigeon said:
Two more read:

The North Water by Ian McGuire 7/10
I thought this one was heading for a better mark, but it's let down by the resolution of one of the narrative strands. One of the characters becomes the personification of evil, but the final showdown is dealt with in a couple of paragraphs and is anticlimactic. The author has a fetishistic fascination with foul smells and oozing gore, which feels a bit contrived at times. It reminded me in that respect of Tim Willocks's Green River Rising, which also aimed to shock by describing violence and bodily functions in crude detail. I wouldn't be upset if this makes the short list, but I wish the last quarter had been better executed.

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Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves 9/10
When I started reading the list, this wasn't one I was particularly anticipating. But I was hooked pretty much from the start. Good story, very well written. The race relations aspect is a tad heavy handed, but that element may go down well with the judges. Thus far, this is my tip for the prize.

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I agree on he north water thought it built up very well and was well paced but the finish was very lacking it just finished in a pretty unsatisying way in my view, shame really as the rest of the book was pretty good
 
I'm still on the case with this but it's been a while as I am still ploughing through the brick that is Serious Sweet. More soon.
 
I love reading but find it really hard to keep up with contemporary books, just checking now the only winner of this prize I have ever read was The remains of the day which won in 1989 :oops::oops::oops:
 
@Monty Pigeon

Just finished Serious Sweet by AL Kennedy. Lurking in this brick of a book is a very poignant love story and quite an astute state-of-the-nation novel, but it is far, far too long. The two main characters are quite compelling, but they are overwhelmed by the amount of their inner thoughts we are shown: the novel is set within a single 24 hour period and to get it to the length it is, the author shows us everything that they think. This is an indulgence, or self-indulgence on the author's part, and the plotting and span of the story are, as a result, not tight enough.

AL Kennedy has some fantastic descriptions and ways of conveying a place or a person in a few words - almost a poet's eye rather than a novelist's. She should put greater trust in her ability to be concise. There is a very good writer somewhere here, but she needs a tough editor to tell her some home truths and cut the book down to half its current size.

Will not make shortlist, 5/10.

Next: His Bloody Project. Looking forward to this one.
 
@Monty Pigeon

His Bloody Project, by Graeme Macrae Burnet. I demolished this in 24 hours having take 3 or so weeks to read Serious Sweet, after which it was pleasantly readable. I was looking forward to it because I love crime fiction and it's rare for a crime novel to get literary plaudits. But for me it's only a 6/10. It's a whydunnit rather than a whodunnit - fair enough, that's not a mark against it. But I felt we were told why by about two thirds of the way into the book, and after that the author was more interested in discussing nineteenth century theories on criminal behaviour - that's interesting, but it's not gripping fiction. For me what was a stand-out feature of the novel was the depiction of the crofting community - these people lived in medieval conditions sharing one-storey hovels with their animals. They had little power and little chance of escape, and it was important to find a way of living with one's neighbours. That is what goes horribly wrong in this book. There's some fantastic characterisation, but I don't think the author quite pulls off drawing us into why the killer does as he does - we understand it and there's a psychological logic to it, but I don't think it grips us in the way he wants it to.

This review on Amazon is one I very much agree with.

6/10, may make the shortlist.

Next: Hot Milk, by Deborah Levy.
 
janiep said:
@Monty Pigeon

His Bloody Project, by Graeme Macrae Burnet. I demolished this in 24 hours having take 3 or so weeks to read Serious Sweet, after which it was pleasantly readable. I was looking forward to it because I love crime fiction and it's rare for a crime novel to get literary plaudits. But for me it's only a 6/10. It's a whydunnit rather than a whodunnit - fair enough, that's not a mark against it. But I felt we were told why by about two thirds of the way into the book, and after that the author was more interested in discussing nineteenth century theories on criminal behaviour - that's interesting, but it's not gripping fiction. For me what was a stand-out feature of the novel was the depiction of the crofting community - these people lived in medieval conditions sharing one-storey hovels with their animals. They had little power and little chance of escape, and it was important to find a way of living with one's neighbours. That is what goes horribly wrong in this book. There's some fantastic characterisation, but I don't think the author quite pulls off drawing us into why the killer does as he does - we understand it and there's a psychological logic to it, but I don't think it grips us in the way he wants it to.

This review on Amazon is one I very much agree with.

6/10, may make the shortlist.

Next: Hot Milk, by Deborah Levy.
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Wow, I'd have agreed Brexit was a terrible thing and probably voted Remain if I'd seen these reviews before :cool:

I'm probably not going to enjoy it but I am going to try and read The Many by Wyl Menmuir.

Our paths have crossed in real life so let's hope it won't become a character assassination :lol:
 
ilovehorswill said:
Wow, I'd have agreed Brexit was a terrible thing and probably voted Remain if I'd seen these reviews before :cool:

I'm probably not going to enjoy it but I am going to try and read The Many by Wyl Menmuir.

Our paths have crossed in real life so let's hope it won't become a character assassination :lol:
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Of the ones I've read so far, The North Water is the best.
 
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh 7/10

Took me ages to engage with this book. The narration is (deliberately) very claustrophobic, and the first 80% is spent telling you something bad is going to happen. The thing itself, when it finally happens, is all a bit implausible. But still, there's plenty about the book to admire. It's well written, with a strong narrative voice. I don't think it'll be on my short list, however.

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That clouded my first impressions too.

When I met him he was a very quiet lad with a slightly terrified look about him.

He told me he did reviews in Durham's student paper.

I read a few and he sounded like a wordy Littlejohn. Completely different bloke who took no prisoners

Seemed to me he'd bottle up all his frustrations during the day then let rip when he got home :lol:
 
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janiep said:
@Monty Pigeon

His Bloody Project, by Graeme Macrae Burnet. I demolished this in 24 hours having take 3 or so weeks to read Serious Sweet, after which it was pleasantly readable. I was looking forward to it because I love crime fiction and it's rare for a crime novel to get literary plaudits. But for me it's only a 6/10. It's a whydunnit rather than a whodunnit - fair enough, that's not a mark against it. But I felt we were told why by about two thirds of the way into the book, and after that the author was more interested in discussing nineteenth century theories on criminal behaviour - that's interesting, but it's not gripping fiction. For me what was a stand-out feature of the novel was the depiction of the crofting community - these people lived in medieval conditions sharing one-storey hovels with their animals. They had little power and little chance of escape, and it was important to find a way of living with one's neighbours. That is what goes horribly wrong in this book. There's some fantastic characterisation, but I don't think the author quite pulls off drawing us into why the killer does as he does - we understand it and there's a psychological logic to it, but I don't think it grips us in the way he wants it to.

This review on Amazon is one I very much agree with.

6/10, may make the shortlist.

Next: Hot Milk, by Deborah Levy.
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Very good review! Got to agree with this absolutely. I'm a big reader of crime fiction too and like yourself came to this with a lot of interest. After initially taking a while to get into the style of writing I plowed through it pretty quickly. The account of the events leading up to the murder, like you said, life on the croft and the inner thinkings of the protagonist were the most interesting parts of the story, if pretty damn grim reading!

I'm not sure if it was just my history of reading crime and thrillers but I was expecting a bit more from the ending, a bit of a twist maybe, and I guess there was to an extent had it not been advertised so blatantly beforehand.

I suppose it would go down as an addition to the unreliable narrator type of story.
 
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet 9/10
I'm tipping this for the shortlist, and for the win. On the face of it, it's a crime story, culminating with a trial. But the structure - various accounts, a map, extracts - helps to build a rounded portrait of a crofting community in the 19th Century, and also explores the nature of sanity and morality.

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I've done 9 of the 13. Not sure I'll be able to read the remaining 4 (The Schooldays of Jesus; Hystopia; Do Not Say We Have Nothing; Serious Sweet) as we're in the midst of moving. So, from what I've read so far, my shortlist in order of preference:

His Bloody Project
Work Like Any Other
All That Man Is
The North Water
Hot Milk
The Sellout (I'm not a fan, but I think it'll be on the list).

JM Coetzee is being tipped to win (having won twice before), but by all accounts his book is dependent on having read the previous volume. My gut feeling is that of the ones I haven't read Do Not Say We Have Nothing probably has the best shout.
 
The short list has just been announced. I wasn't far off. It's a shame Work Like Any Other didn't make it - it would've made a decent winner. Also surprised that Eileen made it rather than The North Water.

I think it's between The Sellout and Do Not Say We Have Nothing, but would like All That Man Is or His Bloody Project to win.

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Monty Pigeon said:
The short list has just been announced. I wasn't far off. It's a shame Work Like Any Other didn't make it - it would've made a decent winner. Also surprised that Eileen made it rather than The North Water.

I think it's between The Sellout and Do Not Say We Have Nothing, but would like All That Man Is or His Bloody Project to win.

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I usually read the list when it gets down to a shortlist of one.:lol:
 
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

I posted upthread about the need for great fiction to have compelling characters, and for me the most compelling in this book was the mother's illness, which had a presence and life of its own. I just couldn't get into the main (human) character Sofia I'm afraid. 'Make us care' is a great instruction to writers, and I found for page after page I just wasn't caring about her (I kept putting this book to one side which is why it has taken me so long to read it). Things picked up when she visited her father in Athens, and I thought the way Levy showed Sofia's relationship (or lack of it) with her father was excellent. There is a story here about Sofia sorting out her relationships with her parents and finding fulfillment on her own terms, but for me it never caught fire. Fittingly it's the mother' illness which takes the star turn on the last page.

5/10. Obviously it's on the shortlist when The North Water, which I preferred, isn't, so what do I know.

I've read two on the shortlist, am going to keep going with it, not sure which one to read next.

Edit: I've decided. Next up is All That Man Is.
 
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ilovehorswill said:
That clouded my first impressions too.

When I met him he was a very quiet lad with a slightly terrified look about him.

He told me he did reviews in Durham's student paper.

I read a few and he sounded like a wordy Littlejohn. Completely different bloke who took no prisoners

Seemed to me he'd bottle up all his frustrations during the day then let rip when he got home :lol:
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So who is he on here then?

Harry Angstrom said:
That was brilliant mind.
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Loved the fillum. Is it worth reading the book after having seen the fillum version?
 
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