kidzdoc's BookerFest

Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (that means you, Jill), I've created this thread to keep track of the Booker Prize titles that I've read and the ones I intend to read, particularly those prior to 2011. Please feel free to do the same.

These are the Booker winners I've read so far:

The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens, 1970 (very good)
In a Free State by V.S. Naipaul, 1971 (good)
The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell, 1973 (excellent)
Staying On by Paul Scott, 1977 (good)
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, 1981 (very good, but I've also forgotten most of it)
Life & Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee, 1983 (very good)
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989 (excellent)
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, 1992 (fair to good)
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle, 1993 (very good)
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, 1999 (disturbing, but very good)
Life of Pi by Yann Martel, 2002 (good)
The White Tiger by Aravand Adiga, 2008 (good)
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, 2009 (excellent)
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, 2010 (very good)
Troubles by J.G. Farrell, Lost Man Booker Prize (excellent)

I own these Booker winners, but haven't read them yet:

Something to Answer For by P.H. Newby, 1969
The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer, 1974
The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch, 1978
The Bone People by Keri Hulme, 1985
Possession by A.S. Byatt, 1990
The Famished Road by Ben Okri, 1991
How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman, 1994
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, 1998
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, 2000
The Sea by John Banville, 2005
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, 2006

And, these are some of my favorite longlisted or shortlisted novels that didn't win the prize:

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro, 1986
Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, 1992
Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips, 1993
The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín, 1999
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro, 2000
Atonement by Ian McEwan, 2001
By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 2001
The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut, 2003
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, 2003
A Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips, 2003
Saturday by Ian McEwan, 2005
Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie, 2005
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar, 2006
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, 2007
Animal's People by Indra Sinha, 2007
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, 2007
The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng, 2007
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, 2008
A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif, 2008
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, 2008
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, 2009
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer, 2009
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, 2009
Room by Emma Donoghue, 2010
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, 2010

I own at least 25-30 other longlisted books, and I plan to read some of these, especially Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah and Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard, later this year. I'll post reviews here after I read them.

Aww, shucks. =)

Best of luck with your Booker reads.

Hi Kiwidoc! Thanks for visiting my thread. You've read an amazing number of Booker's in the past! In a day or two, I will look via Library thing which Bookers' I've read prior to the 2011 bunch

I haven't reviewed the Barnes or the Birch yet, but I've read five longlisted novels so far. In order of preference:

1. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (I plan to re-read this in a few days, but I'll give it 5 stars for now, and review it later in the week)
2. The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst (4-1/2 stars; reviewed)
3. A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards (4 stars; reviewed)
4. Pigeon English by Stephan Kelman (3-1/2 stars; reviewed)
5. Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (3-1/2 stars; I'll review this in the next day or two)

For me, there is a large gap between the first two and the last three books, and I'm sure that the Kelman and Birch, and possibly the Edwards, will migrate toward the latter half of my ranking as I read more of the longlisted books.

I'm nearly halfway through On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry, which is superb so far; I'll finish it by tomorrow. I now have all of the Booker Dozen novels, and I'd like to read one more before Tuesday's shortlist announcement, which will probably be Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan or The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness.

Wow! Great Booker reading. I've got The Stranger's Child - but I don't feel like reading it right now. The Sense of an Ending does look good - but I'm going to wait to the Library. It will be very interesting when the Booker shorltist comes out. I've read 4 of the Booker's for 2011.

You are flying through the titles, Darryl. I note that there are 13 in total and you are nearly half way throu'.

Just started the McGuiness book as I noticed no one here has commented on it. Also have Yvette Edwards and Edi Eduyan's here to read. I have not yet gotten hold of the Hollinghurst or the Barry, which I think are very likely to be on the short list - just from their reputations alone.

>5 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deb. You're also doing quite well, considering the lack of availability of these titles in North America. I'm very eager to find out which titles have made the shortlist on Tuesday, as I'll read the ones I haven't gotten to first, and save the ones that didn't made the cut for later.

>6 kiwidoc: Thanks, Karen. I'm off from work for a solid month, and I still have 3 weeks left of vacation this month, and another two weeks next month, including the week before the winner is announced, so I shouldn't have any problem completing the longlist by October 16. As I just mentioned on the book's thread, I've also started The Last Hundred Days today, and I hope to finish it by Tuesday.

I finished On Canaan's Side last night, which was very good and worthy of the shortlist, although it was mildly disappointing to me, as it wasn't the knockout book that I thought it would be once I started it.

Here's my updated rating, although I'm going to use ratings with 1/4 star increments, to better distinguish one book from the next:

1. The Sense of an Ending: 5 stars
2. The Stranger's Child: 4-3/4 stars
3. On Canaan's Side: 4-1/4 stars
4. A Cupboard Full of Coats: 3-3/4 stars
5. Pigeon English: 3-1/2 stars
6. Jamrach's Menagerie: 3-1/4 stars

Since my last post I've finished two more longlisted books, The Testament of Jessie Lamb, which I hated, and The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness, which I thought was pretty good, but not a serious contender for the prize.

My current ranking:

1. The Sense of an Ending: 5 stars
2. The Stranger's Child: 4-3/4 stars
3. On Canaan's Side: 4-1/4 stars
4. The Last Hundred Days: 3-3/4 stars
5. A Cupboard Full of Coats: 3-3/4 stars
6. Pigeon English: 3-1/2 stars
7. Jamrach's Menagerie: 3-1/4 stars

13. The Testament of Jessie Lamb: 1-1/2 stars

Next up: Half Blood Blues, which I'll probably start tomorrow.

I've just finished Derby Day by D.J. Taylor, which is the 10th longlisted novel I've read so far. Here are my current rankings:

1. The Sense of an Ending
2. The Stranger's Child
3. On Canaan's Side
4. The Last Hundred Days
5. A Cupboard Full of Coats
6. Pigeon English
7. Jamrach's Menagerie
8. Derby Day
9. Half Blood Blues
10. The Testament of Jessie Lamb

I read The Sisters Brothers yesterday, and I thought it was well written, unique, funny and very enjoyable. Although I would still prefer to see The Sense of an Ending come out on top, I predict that The Sisters Brothers will win this year's prize.

I'm a third of the way through Snowdrops by A.D. Miller, which I'll finish today to complete the shortlist. Unless it improves dramatically it will fall toward the bottom of my list.

Here's my current longlist ranking:

*1. The Sense of an Ending
2. The Stranger's Child
3. On Canaan's Side
*4. The Sisters Brothers
5. The Last Hundred Days
6. A Cupboard Full of Coats
*7. Pigeon English
*8. Jamrach's Menagerie
9. Derby Day
*10. Half Blood Blues
11. The Testament of Jessie Lamb

*shortlist

I finished Swimming Home by Deborah Levy early this morning, which is the third book I've read from this year's Booker Prize longlist. It's probably the shortest book of the Booker Dozen, at 157 pages, but it was a meaty and compelling read, with plenty of food for thought, in keeping with the judges' criteria for this year's longlist. I enjoyed it, as I gave it 4.5 stars, and I'll definitely read it again if it makes the shortlist. I'll submit a review of it, probably on Wednesday or Thursday, after I think about it a bit more.

Here's my longlist ranking so far:

1. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
2. Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
3. Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

My next longlisted book will probably be The Yips by Nicola Barker, but I'll read Sugar Street, the last novel in the Cairo Trilogy, first.

I've just posted my review of The Garden of Evening Mists, which is probably the best novel I've read this year. It now takes over first place on my longlist ranking:

1. The Garden of Evening Mists
2. Bring Up the Bodies
3. Narcopolis
4. The Yips
5. Swimming Home

I'll write reviews of Narcopolis, The Yips and Swimming Home later this week.

Hi Darryl! Have you got a Bookerfest list for 2012?

Hi, Fliss! My "Bookerfest list" so far is all 12 books from this year's longlist. I've read five of them so far, including four of the six books from the shortlist, and I'm currently reading The Lighthouse by Alison Moore. I have all but one of the longlisted books, namely Communion Town by Sam Thompson, which I'll look for at the London Review Bookshop tomorrow.

I don't think I'll have time to read any other longlisted books from other years before 2013, as I have a lot of planned reads between now and the end of December.

I've read a resounding total of 0 books on the Booker list this year so far, but I haven't really examined them properly. I do know I won't be reading the Hilary Mantel though as I still haven't read Wolf Hall (must pester my Mum to get it back off her friend - or alternatively actually buy it for myself...!). Even though eveyone's resoundingly loved Wolf Hall, I'm still a little wary, not having got on well with her in the past, which is part of the reason it's taking me so long to get to it...

Hmmm. Must inspect!

I'lll be very curious on to see what you think of The Lighthouse, Darryl. You've done some amazing Booker reading this year. Hats off to you!

Thanks, Deb! I did enjoy The Lighthouse, and it's certainly deserving of its place on the shortlist.

I also read Philida by André Brink this week, a very well written historical novel based on a young slave woman in 1830s South Africa. I'll write more detailed reviews of these books later this week or the following week.

So far I've read seven of the 12 longlisted books, and five of the six shortlisted books; here's my rank order to date:

1. The Garden of Evening Mists
2. Bring Up the Bodies
3. The Lighthouse
4. Narcopolis
5. Philida
6. The Yips
7. Swimming Home

I'll read Umbrella during my flight from Heathrow to JFK on Thursday, to finish the shortlist, and I'll probably read either The Teleportation Accident or Communion Town this coming weekend.

Great job reading so many of the 2012 Booker Nominees, Darryl! So glad that you enjoyed The Lighthouse. I'm currently reading some of the Canadian Giller Prize Longlist books, but I do have Swimming Home on my kindle. Have a nice flight!

Communion Town: A City in Ten Chapters by Sam Thompson



My rating:

This city is Epidamnus while this story is being told: when another one is told it will become another town. — Platus

Have you noticed how each of us conjures up our own city? You have your secret haunts and private landmarks and favourite short cuts and I have mine, so as we navigate the streets each of us walks through a world of our own invention.

This strange and uneven but fascinating "novel" (using the term loosely) is set in Communion Town, a fictional modern city which is recognizable yet sinister and inscrutable. Its places and neighborhoods have strange names, such as Shambles Heath, Strangers' Market and Gorgonstown. Its streets are often filled with days old rubbish, and most homes and shops are decrepit and unkempt. On its sidewalks, tourists and workers frequently encounter packs of wild youths, the Cynics who are a constant threat to public safety, and shabbily dressed figures who lie motionless on the ground but suddenly come to life and demand attention whenever anyone gazes upon them. The nights are filled with even more dangers, as malevolent flâneurs and ghost-like figures prey upon unwary passersby.

The book consists of ten stories, in which the characters within each chapter view and describe the city from different vantage points, in the manner of individuals who describe an elephant from different angles. Unlike the stories in books such as Other Lives by André Brink and Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz, which are also set in one city, the main characters in the different chapters of Communion Town do not interact with each other, although rarely a figure who seems familiar makes an appearance at the periphery, then disappears once you gaze in his direction. Several of the chapters are hauntingly brilliant, particularly "Communion Town", which opens the book, in which a voyeuristic narrator speaks to a recent young female immigrant who he fancies, whose partner has mysteriously disappeared within the city; "Good Slaughter", based on a slaughterhouse worker who holds a deep resentment and suspicion of his new supervisor; and "The Significant City of Lazarus Glass", based on a murder mystery involving the city's most respected private investigator and his arch nemesis, who was a dear friend and trusted colleague before he became the city's most feared and elusive criminal. Other stories were well written but less captivating, and a few were trivial and overly clever.

As a whole, the stories in Communion Town had a dreamlike but dark quality to them, with an ever present sense of fear, uncertainty and menace. The book is best read as a collection of beautifully written but unrelated stories about a mysterious city the first time around, and those who wish to give it a second try can look for the apparent connections between the chapters and their characters.

I was prepared to dislike this book, after I read several lukewarm reviews in the British newspapers and negative comments by private readers. However, I was captivated by it, despite its unevenness, and unlike many I do think it deserved its inclusion in last year's Booker Prize longlist. It is a unique and unsettling debut work by a talented author who is willing to take risks and succeeds more often than he fails.

I still intend to read the entire 2012 longlist by the summer. Here is my updated rank order, subject to change:

1. The Garden of Evening Mists
2. Bring Up the Bodies
3. The Lighthouse
4. Communion Town
5. Narcopolis
6. Philida
7. The Yips
8. Swimming Home

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce



My rating:

Harold Fry has recently retired after working as a salesman for a local brewery for many years. He was competent but quiet, nondescript and largely anonymous to his co-workers. He lives with his wife Maureen in a modest home in Kingsbridge, a small village in South West England. Their marriage has been strained for years, as Maureen harbors bitterness and a deep seated hostility toward Harold, although she does not openly express a desire to leave him.

On one ordinary day Harold receives a letter from his former colleague Queenie Hennessy, who resides in a hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed, the northernmost town in England. She informs him that she has end-stage cancer, and writes to say goodbye to him. Harold is deeply affected by this news, and he immediately writes a letter of sympathy to her. He leaves home to mail the letter, and in doing so he encounters a teenage girl who works at a garage. After Harold informs her of the purpose of his trip, she tells him about her aunt's case of cancer. He is led to believe that the girl's belief led her aunt to overcome her terminal illness. He is greatly inspired by this, and he spontaneously decides to walk from Kingsbridge to Berwick-upon-Tweed, a journey of over 500 miles, in the hope that doing so will cure Queenie.

As Harold walks, wearing only the street clothes, rain jacket and yachting shoes that he wore when he initially left the house, he reflects on his past mistakes in his relationship with his wife, their son David, and Queenie, who was fired from her job at the brewery in an incident that also involved him. He soon realizes that he has been an indifferent and reserved husband and father, unknowable to them, or to himself:

It occurred to him it was Maureen who spoke to David and told him their news. It was Maureen who had always written Harold's name ("Dad") in the letters and cards. It was even Maureen who had found the nursing home for his father. And it raised the question—as he pushed the button at the pelican crossing—that if she was, in effect, Harold, “then who am I?”

He encounters a variety of people on his journey, most of whom support and encourage him once he tells them his story, and they eagerly share their experiences with him. Maureen is initially furious at him after she learns about his decision, but later her feelings transform to jealousy, despair, concern, and longing for him.

As the journey becomes more arduous and the constant walking takes a toll on his mid-sixties body, his spirit begins to flag, and he wonders if he should have undertaken this foolhardy journey.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is meant to be an inspiring story of secular faith, self-discovery and love. However, I found it to be a banal and saccharine novel, which was largely pleasant but not one which was affecting or filled with wisdom, although the ending was easily the best part of the book. It, like Harold before his journey, was largely forgettable and mildly annoying in spots, and although it wasn't a bad book, it was the least favorite of the 2012 Booker Prize longlisted books I've read so far.

I still think this author left a rude comment on my blog - let it go, Jill, let it go! =)

>22 mrstreme:: ha! I'm not sure I could let it go. And knowing it was this author makes me even more unlikely to read the book!

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

   

My rating:

My father still lives back the road past the weir in the cottage I was reared in. I go there every day to see is he dead and every day he lets me down.

This novel was the most surprising one to be chosen for this year's Booker Prize longlist, as it was rejected by 47 publishers before Doubleday Ireland decided to accept it. It is set in a rural Irish town during the financial crisis of the last decade, after the local building firm has gone under. The book is divided into short chapters, each narrated by a person in the book that is linked to all of the others. The main character is Bobby Mahon, a handsome young married man who is embittered by the recent loss of his job at the building firm and by the knowledge that his boss, Pokey Burke, has cheated him and his work mates out of their pensions. He also has a difficult relationship with his father, a widowed old drunkard who wasted away the family's savings and seems to hang on to life to spite his son, who will inherit the cottage once his father dies. Bobby's loathing for his father is strong enough that he often thinks about killing him, to gain the property and to be rid of his presence forever.

Through the accounts of the other characters the main theme of the novel comes into focus, similar to a tapestry created by multiple weavers, and the reader learns how the country's economic collapse has ruined the lives and dreams of those who live there. Multiple story lines surround the tragic central one, which ends with a surprising twist.

I found The Spinning Heart to be far less satisfying than most other readers. The characters in this novel are almost all deeply unhappy, bitter, and speak ill about those who are closest to them. I found their rants to be frequently repetitive and gossipy, and I soon lost interest in them and the book as a whole. It is a well written book, but I wasn't engaged by it, and I would be surprised if it was chosen for the Booker shortlist. It is a short novel at just over 150 pages, so I may give it another go to see if I like it better the second time around.

Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw

   

My rating:

Shanghai is a beautiful place, but it is also a harsh place. Life here is not really life, it is a competition.

Shanghai is the world's largest city, with a total population of over 23 million. It can arguably claim to be the city of the 21st century, similar to 19th century London and 20th century New York, as it is a booming financial, commercial and entertainment center that attracts emigrants and visitors from every continent, and it is the leading symbol of the new China and its growing influence on Asia and the rest of the world.

Tash Aw was born in Taipei to Malaysian parents, grew up in Kuala Lumpur, was educated in the UK, and lived in London before he moved to Shanghai after he was chosen to be the first M Literary Writer in Residence in 2010. In this superb novel, he portrays five Malaysian Chinese who have moved to Shanghai to seek the wealth and prestige that the city seems to offer to each of its newcomers.

Phoebe is a naïve and uneducated young woman from the Malaysian countryside, who emigrates illegally to China on the suggestion of a friend, but soon after she arrives she finds that the dream job she was promised has suddenly vanished. Justin is the eldest son of a wealthy real estate tycoon, charged with purchasing a property in Shanghai that will save his family from ruin in the face of the Asian financial crisis. Gary is a pop mega-star who performs in front of thousands of adoring fans, while battling internal demons that threaten to destroy his career. Yinghui is the daughter of a prominent family in Kuala Lumpur who transforms herself from a left wing political activist into a hard nosed and successful businesswoman. Finally, Walter is a secretive and shadowy figure who has risen up from the ashes of his father's ruin to become a prominent developer and the anonymous author of the best selling book "How to Become a Five Star Billionaire". The first four characters are all interlinked with Walter, the only person given a voice in the first person in the book, in an intricately woven web that slowly tightens around each of them.

Through these characters, Tash Aw provides a fascinating internal glimpse into modern Shanghai, a city filled with ambitious but often lonely and desperate people from all over Asia whose singular focus on material goods and wealth outweighs the attainment of love and personal happiness. Anything and anyone is fair game for exploitation and deceit, and the widespread availability of counterfeit watches, purses and clothing mimics the superficiality of the city's high stakes capitalist culture. Self help books such as the one written by Walter are the bibles of the young up-and-comers, and traditional Chinese culture is viewed as outdated and stifling to young people like Phoebe.

Each one attains some degree of success, but several meet with sudden and spectacular failure, in the matter of a climber that reaches the summit of a mountain only to be blown off of it entirely by a sudden gust of wind.

The city held its promises just out of your reach, waiting to see how far you were willing to go to get what you wanted, how long you were prepared to wait. And until you determined the parameters of your pursuit, you would be on edge, for despite the restaurants and shops and art galleries and sense of unbridled potential, you would always feel that Shanghai was accelerating a couple of steps ahead of you, no matter how hard you worked or played. The crowds, the traffic, the impenetrable dialect, the muddy rains that carried the remnants of the Gobi Desert sandstorms and stained your clothes every March: The city was teasing you, testing your limits, using you. You arrived thinking you were going to use Shanghai to get what you wanted, and it would be some time before you realized that it was using you, that it had already moved on and you were playing catch up.

Five Star Billionaire is a captivating work about Shanghai and the new China, and the lives of five talented and determined people who seek wealth and fulfillment but find loneliness and misery instead. I read nearly all of this novel in a single sitting, and I was quite sorry to see it end. I also loved Tash Aw's previous novel Map of the Invisible World, and I look forward to reading The Harmony Silk Factory later this year.

Harvest by Jim Crace



This novel takes place in an isolated village in pre-Industrial Age England, whose residents have just finished collecting a modest harvest for Master Kent, the benign and fair landowner who employs and befriends them. What should be a day of celebration is interrupted by the appearance of two tufts of smoke; one comes from a hut at the edge of the village recently built by three outsiders, but the other comes from Master Kent's dovecote and manor house, which suffers substantial damage as a result. Despite evidence to the contrary, the outsiders are accused of setting the fire and are punished for it.

Soon afterward the villagers learn that a new owner, Master Jordan, will replace Master Kent. His plan for redeveloping the land causes great consternation amongst them, and within hours the social fabric of the village begins to quickly unravel, as neighbors turn against longstanding neighbors, the new owner and his staff, and the outsiders. Walter Thirsk, a villager who is the narrator of this novel, also comes under intense scrutiny, as he is Master Kent's closest confidant and appears to be aligned with the new landowner. The villagers become progressively more agitated, which leads to violence that threatens to destroy the community and everyone in it.

I viewed Master Jordan as a pre-Industrial Era version of Carl Icahn, the corporate raider who is known for his hostile takeovers of failing or marginally successful companies, which is followed by severe cutbacks to the established work force and a near complete change in its business goals and operations, as the previous CEO/COO (Master Kent) is rendered all but powerless. And the villagers seemed akin to late 20th century factory workers with limited education and skill sets, and even more limited ability to have a vote or voice concerns about the workplace, who must adapt to rapid change or find themselves marginalized or unemployed.

Harvest is a beautifully written and compelling novel about the imbalance of power, revenge and the effect of sudden change on a formerly peaceful village, whose theme of forced adaptation to rapid change is both universal and timeless. I expect that it will be chosen for this year's Booker Prize shortlist, and I look forward to reading it again and exploring it further.

Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson



Marina is a 16 year old girl who lives with her English mother, Laura, in the basement flat of her paternal grandmother, an immigrant from Hungaria, and her two great-aunts, in the central London district of Bayswater. The older women love Marina dearly and desire that she read medicine at Cambridge, but they are insufferably opinionated and overbearing, which makes it difficult for her to express her own thoughts. Her mother, who separated from Marina's father 13 years before, has never remarried, and she works in a GP's office, where she has an intermittent affair with him.

The older women pool their limited resources in order to provide Marina with the best education possible, and the girl decides to transfer to Combe Alley, an English boarding school in Dorset that is notable more for its quirky traditions than its academic quality. Soon after her arrival Marina realizes that she does not fit in, due to her unfamiliarity with English manners and her lower middle class upbringing, and she is ignored by nearly everyone. However, she is emotionally paralyzed due to her suffocating home environment and inability to communicate with her mother, and she is unable to share her feelings of unhappiness and regret with her mother, her Hungarian relatives, or the few girls she is remotely friendly with.

At the same time Laura, who is even more emotionally stilted than her daughter, struggles with her own feelings of inadequacy and dissatisfaction, as she misses Marina terribly but is unable to share her feelings with her, and she is unable to establish an independent identity for herself in a household where silence is frowned upon.

Almost English for me was a painful and unrewarding read, with two of the most spineless and emotionally repressed women I've ever had the displeasure to read about. The story lines were trivial, and although the book was well written, I couldn't develop any interest in the main or the secondary characters. The repeated use of accented Hungarian words such as von-darefool (wonderful), tair-ible (terrible) and nair-vairmind (never mind) was highly irritating, and the the novel's denouement was unsatisfying and overly convenient for my taste. This was a curious and disappointing selection for this year's Booker Prize longlist, and I can only hope that the judges put down whatever it was they were smoking when they chose this book and realize that it has no place on the shortlist.

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

  

'There's no charity in a gold town. If it looks like charity, look again.'

This astonishing historical novel opens in Hokitika, New Zealand in 1866, a gold mining town along the West Coast of the South Island. Founded two years previously, Hokitika is in the midst of a population boom, as prospectors, hoteliers and other businessmen have flocked there after news of its vast riches and promise of easy wealth has reached people living within and outside of New Zealand. One of those men is Walter Moody, a young Englishman who is trained in law but seeks gold to provide him with material comfort and the start of a new life. He arrives in town after a harrowing and emotionally distressing voyage at sea, and after he checks in at a local hotel he proceeds to its smoking room, where he hopes to unwind with a pipe and a stiff drink. Upon his arrival he notices that 12 men are already there, who appear to be from different backgrounds but also seem to have gathered in secret for a particular reason. The atmosphere in the room is tense and troubled upon his entry, but in his agitated state Moody doesn't sense that he has disturbed them. He is approached by one of the men, while the others appear to direct their attention toward their conversation, and after slowly gaining their confidence the men begin to share their intertwined stories with Moody, and the reason for their confidential meeting.

The story is centered around several mysterious and apparently interconnected occurrences that took place two weeks previously on a single night, including the death of a hermit in a shack overlooking town, the disappearance of a young man who has struck it rich in a gold mine, and the apparent near suicide of the town's most alluring prostitute. Every man in the room claims to be innocent of any direct involvement, yet they all appear to share some responsibility in the events that led up to these crimes, and each one fears that he may be accused and held accountable.

The reader learns more about these 12 men, Moody, and several other key players, as the story takes on a more defined shape. However, just as it seems to become more clear new twists arise and relationships emerge between previously unconnected characters, which made the tale more compelling and delightfully puzzling. I exclaimed out loud numerous times at various points ("Wait, what?" "Whoa!", etc.), and except for one relatively dead spot near the novel's midway point I was captivated from the first page to the last.

No review could adequately convey the intricacy and complexity of this novel, along with its numerous subplots and themes, and Catton's ability to maintain its momentum through 832 pages was akin to a performer riding a fast moving rollercoaster while juggling various objects of different sizes for hours on end. My biggest critique is its ending, which felt rushed and overly tidy, and despite its length I would have preferred for it to have been extended by another 50-100 pages.

The Luminaries is a masterful literary symphony, and a work of historical fiction that compares favorably with similarly superb novels such as The Children's Book, The Stranger's Child and The Glass Room. There are few books of this size that I would love to start reading again immediately after finishing it, but this is one of them, and young Ms Catton is to commended for a brilliant novel that should be a strong contender for this year's Booker Prize.

The Kills by Richard House



This omnibus consists of four books, which were released separately before this version was published. In book 1, Sutler, the main character is introduced: he is Stephen Lawrence Sutler, a British civilian contractor who works for HOSCO International, which builds facilities primarily in the Middle East and Asia, and is funded and supported by Western governments. He is sent to Amrah City in Iraq to oversee the conversion of a burn pit, used to incinerate waste from American and British military operations, into a free standing and fully equipped city, albeit one in the middle of the desert that is hundreds of miles away from other sizable cities in that country. Sutler, who uses an alibi given to him by his superior in place of his real name, is injured in an attack on the compound, and is ordered by his boss to make himself scarce, due to shady practices by HOSCO that leads the US and British governments and the media to charge him with the theft of over $50 million. He escapes to Turkey on foot, and begins a most unlikely misadventure that involves two journalists, a university professor capturing the Kurdish freedom movement in Turkey, and the professor's lover and student research assistant.

In book 2, The Massive, the focus is on the operation in Amrah City, along with the sad sack American men who work there. Book 3, The Kill, is a completely unrelated novel that is read by several characters in books 1 and 2, which is a gruesome murder mystery set in Naples in which several characters pay for their incredibly stupid choices with their lives. The last book, The Hit, involves a bizarre search for "Sutler Three", which contains some of the most insipid dialogue I've ever read in a Booker Prize nominated novel, such as this excerpt:

He's ready for her after the lesson when she comes out of the building. Rike looks quickly up and down the street as if she might be ready for him also. As soon as she passes by the café he steps forward, strides, in pace, right behind her.
   'Take the book.'
   She turns to face him, rolls her eyes. 'You again.'
   'Take the book.'
   'No.'
   'Take it.'
   'No.'
   'Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it.'
   She doesn't respond. In fact, she's not even bothered by him. She isn't threatened at all.
   'Take the book. Take the book. Take the book.'

The book is supplemented by online video and audio content, which is meant to provide insight into the characters' lives outside of the book's text.

In an interview, House mentions that he was inspired by Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666, a long work that consists of four major sections, and this book appears to be an attempt to duplicate its structure. Unfortunately it doesn't come close to 2666, as it is nearly completely devoid of any coherent plot or significant character development, and it is filled with uninteresting and at times poorly written dialogue that must make Bolaño spin madly in his grave at the thought of this book being compared to his. The last two books were almost completely irrelevant to the first two, and the supplemental multimedia content was an unnecessary diversion that added nothing to my appreciation of the novel.

The Kills is a curious and disappointing choice for this year's Booker Prize longlist, and at just over 1000 pages it was a complete waste of time, money and paper, and it is one of the worst Booker nominated novels I've ever read.

>28 kidzdoc: and except for one relatively dead spot near the novel's midway point I was captivated from the first page to the last
Darryl, I felt exactly the same way about The Luminaries! You have read my mind with this comment. I had wondered if it was my own inability to concentrate when I hit this "dead spot" but you have given me confidence that it was just a flat patch in the book.

I am now thinking about how to formulate my own review, and you will have to excuse me if I end up simply directing people to yours, as you encapsulate my thoughts about the novel so well!

History of the Rain by Niall Williams

  

My rating:

Because here is what I know: the rain becomes the river that goes to the sea and becomes the rain that becomes the river. Each book is the sum of all the others the writer has read.

Ruth Swain is a bookish young woman who lives in the tiny attic of her parents' house in Faha, County Clare, Ireland. She is disabled by a serious chronic illness, so she is largely confined to her bed, surrounded by a large collection of books from her father's library, and her visitors are limited to her teacher, a young man who is smitten with her, and the remaining members of her family.

Ruth narrates her father's story, in an effort to understand and appreciate him, and in order to do so she must go back in time to learn more about the Swains, how their beliefs, eccentricities and personal tragedies have shaped the lives of her great-grandfather, grandfather and father, and in doing so how it has molded her own outlook on life.

The novel is filled with numerous literary references and allegories, and is written in a 19th century style in keeping with Ruth's primary influences, most notably Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson. She paints an ethereal portrait of County Clare and her family, particularly her father Abraham and her twin brother Aengus, with a lightly humorous touch that belies and alleviates the tragedy and heartache that afflicts the Swains, and her own self depreciating tendencies are in keeping with the Impossible Standard that prevents any of the Swains from achieving true happiness or personal satisfaction.

History of the Rain is an elegiac work about family, an appreciation of literature and poetry, and the way in which one's imagination can be used to influence the art of storytelling, which can be a useful tool to provide healing and closure in the face of personal tragedy. This book is certainly worthy of inclusion in this year's Booker Prize longlist, and I wouldn't be surprised if it made the shortlist as well.

J: A Novel by Howard Jacobson
(Shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize)



My rating:

This dystopic novel and love story is set in the country of Ofnow in the mid to late 21st century, after a catastrophic event known as WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED or the PISSASTROPHE led to the near complete annihilation of an unnamed ethnic group. The national and local government, in an effort to heal past wounds, has forbidden its citizens to discuss the tragedy in detail, and books, television, computers and even furniture from that time or beforehand are no longer available or permitted in homes. The people of Ofnow are exceedingly polite and apologetic to each other, but underneath this apparent tranquility lies deep hatred, and numerous acts of mild to extreme violence are hidden from the public. The citizens closely watch those within and outside of their homes, to ensure that everyone is complying with the government's mandates.

Kevern 'Coco' Cohen, a woodcutter and teacher at the local college, is introduced to a younger woman, Ailinn Solomons, and they begin a troubled relationship with each other. Kevern is secretive, paranoiac, and obsessed with keeping himself and Ailinn safe from the prying eyes and attention of the townspeople; she, still in her teens, is both naïve about what happened in the past and the menace that currently takes place. Kevern is suspected of committing a heinous crime, and falls under the attention of the local police, and simultaneously the two lovers are also being watched closely, as their relationship holds promise for the redemption of the troubled society.

J: A Novel has an interesting premise, but I found it to be a tiresome and boring read, as the protagonists were uninteresting and inscrutable, particularly Kevern, and the novel was both repetitive (Jacobson must have mentioned Ailinn's "ugly feet" at least two dozen times!) and unfocused, with too much attention paid to marginally relevant characters. This is a clever and arguably well written novel, but one that is ultimately disappointing and forgettable.

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

  

My rating:

This novel is centered around the attempted assassination of the legendary Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley (referred to as "The Singer" throughout the book) at his home in Kingston on December 3, 1976, two days before he was set to perform in the "Smile Jamaica" concert organized by Prime Minister and People's National Party (PNP) leader Michael Manley. The free concert was aimed at cooling tensions between the PNP and its main rival, the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP), which had been building throughout the year in advance of the contentious election that was held in mid-December. Each party supported gangs in Kingston, which controlled neighborhoods and districts within the capital and used whatever means were necessary to get residents to vote for their candidate, and as JLP gang leaders fought to gain power, PNP leaders fought just as hard to maintain what they had, in a country beset by poverty, corruption and violence. Along with these two factions was a far more lawless segment of brazen young men, who operated outside of the normally accepted boundaries and brutally murdered anyone who crossed their path.

The initial scene shifts from 1976 to 1979 Kingston, to 1985 NYC, when the city was in the middle of a vicious crack epidemic with violent gangs from Jamaica and Colombia who fought viciously to control the booming drug trade, and to its fateful end in 1991.

The novel consists of narratives from numerous colorful characters in the book, including the gang leaders Papa-Lo, Weeper, Josey Wales and Bam-Bam; Alex Pierce, a writer for Rolling Stone who manages to get inside information about the attempt on the Singer's life, but finds his own life in danger as a result; "Doctor Love", a Colombian CIA consultant who is also involved in the drug trade centered in Medellín; and Nina Burgess, a young shape shifting woman who appears throughout the book, in different roles and with different names. The author did a masterful job in maintaining this reader's interest throughout its nearly 700 pages, as the violence and suspense increase during the book's last chapter to its sudden, shocking ending.

A Brief History of Seven Killings is a literary tour de force that tells the story of Jamaican politics and culture in the last quarter of the 20th century, which is filled with interesting characters and details. Reading it was a wild but fascinating ride, and it certainly deserves its spot on this year's Booker Prize longlist, and I think it would be a good candidate for the shortlist as well.

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

  

My rating:

This novel is set in Akure, Nigeria in 1996 during the military regime of General Sani Abacha, and it is narrated by Benjamin, the fourth child of six in a stable and content Christian Igbo family. The authoritarian head of household works for the Central Bank of Nigeria, and one day he is told that he will be transferred to a branch in a distant city, one which was torn by sectarian violence against the Igbo tribe earlier that year. He decides that it is too dangerous to move the entire family there, so his unhappy wife is left in charge of their five boys and one infant girl in his absence.

Despite their parents' pleas to behave themselves and stay away from the Omi-Ala River in town, which for many years had been forsaken by Akure's residents, who believed that it was an evil place populated by ritualists and malicious spirits, the four eldest boys decided to start fishing in the river after school. On one day they encounter the town's madman, Abula, who was feared for his dark but often accurate prognostications about those who crossed his path. After the boys taunt Abula, he casts his eye on the oldest brother, Ikenna, and he tells the boy what his fate will be.

From that point forward the lives of Ikenna and the rest of the Agwu family are affected by Abula's dire prophecy, as the family's Christian's faith comes into conflict with long held village beliefs, in a topsy turvy version of Chinua Achebe's classic tale Things Fall Apart.

The Fishermen was a well written and enjoyable coming of age story, which would work well as a young adult novel but is a bit too simplistic for the Booker Prize longlist, IMO. It's a worthwhile read, but I'll be very surprised if it is chosen for the shortlist.