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Reader's Paradise

Booker Prize Long List 2011

15 years ago

Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending

Sebastian Barry - On Canaan's Side

Carol Birch - Jamrach's Menagerie

Patrick deWitt - The Sisters Brothers

Esi Edugyan - Half Blood Blues

Yvvette Edwards - A Cupboard Full of Coats

Alan Hollinghurst - The Stranger's Child

Stephen Kelman - Pigeon English

Patrick McGuinness - The Last Hundred Days

AD Miller - Snowdrops

Alison Pick - Far to Go

Jane Rogers - The Testament of Jessie Lamb

DJ Taylor - Derby Day

I've read exactly none of these.

The Barnes is not yet out - it comes out on August 4th. I've bought the Hollinghurst and Barry - judging by the reviews, I reckon they'll be a very good bet for the short-list - and I'll be buying the Barnes too.

The McGuinness looks like a very interesting book, too.

Any opinions? comments?

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Comments (6)

veer
15 years ago
The only one I've heard of is the Hollinghurst, which has had excellent reviews from the 'critics' . . . but does this mean it will be enjoyable to you, me and Joe Public?
With Dame Stella Rimmington (ex MI5 boss) as the 'chair' of the panel of judges they should come up with the correct decision. "Vee hef veys of making you choose"
lemonhead101
15 years ago
Ha ha Veer. :-)

As for the list, I have read none and heard of very few. (I am still trying to read some of last year's...!)

And glad to see you back, Martin. I thought you would reemerge with the Bookers on the horizon...
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Vee, I recall reading several of the novels on that Whitbread List that I think you read as well, because we had some discussions about them here at RP. Small Island -- Andrea Levy; Music & Silence -- Rose Tremain; and maybe The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time -- Mark Haddon I have also read several of the biographies, including Bad Blood by Lorna Sage, that I remember you commenting about. I notice that Vernon God Little by D B C Pierre (Peter Finlay) won both the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award in 2003. I thought it was tripe, the sort of satire/black comedy that appeals to those who think John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces is a masterpiece. I think Vernon might be the record holder for most curse words in a major prize winner and such descriptions as this: "Deputy Gurie tears a strip of meat from a bone; it flaps through her lips like a sh*t taken backwards." and lots more of the same caliber. [thanks to one of the reviewers at Goodreads for the quote -- he thinks it's "a gem"!] I haven't retained much of How to be both, but I'm sorry that I was unaware of your response to reading it until several months after you posted. You could have helped me greatly with the art part. I think I mostly read it wrong, so thanks to Martin and Sheri for setting me straight on some of my interpretations. Carolyn, the Poe story could have been "The Fall of the House of Usher" since incest is suggested there, too. But I think the incest in it is probably more obvious than in "The Tell-Tale Heart." I read the latter without grasping it at all, because at the time I was naïve and didn't even know that kind of incest existed. I don't remember it being mentioned, either, in any of my "Poe classes." Your mother was a better educator than the ones I had. Edit to add: I was on the right track about "jolly good reads." Thank you Annpan and Vee for verifying that. I share with you, Vee, a contentedness with reading DduM, Hill, and Franklin. :-)
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J C
15 years ago
Of course the ones that look more interesting aren't out in the U.S. That is very strange to me. Why such a long time difference? I would like to start with the Barry and the Hollinghurst.

Some familiar names on that list and some that are new to me -
carolyn_ky
15 years ago
Thanks for the list, Martin, although I agree with Siobhan that it is very frustrating for us colonials.
martin_z
Original Author
15 years ago
Sorry. But now you know how we feel when films like Never Let Me Go are released five months earlier in the US than they are in the UK. (Personally, I couldn't wait, and bought the DVD from the US - even THAT came out before the film was released in the UK.)

The price of the first editions of each of these immediately jumps if they make the short-list. So, as every year, I've tried a bit of hedging. I've bought the Hollinghurst and Barry first editions, I've ordered a signed copy of the Barnes. I'd be happy to keep the Barnes and Barry anyway. If the Hollinghurst doesn't make the short-list, I'll sell it - can't stand what I've read of his in the past!

I've also punted on a mail-order copy (which I suspect is a first) of the McGuinness, which is already not available anywhere, even in the warehouses. It is almost certainly being reprinted for the first time - so as I say, I suspect I've got a first of it. If it does make the short-list, it'll be extremely pricy - and I'll be very happy. And if it doesn't, well, I've bought what I hope is a good book anyway.

Wish me luck!
woodnymph2_gw
15 years ago
I've never heard of any of these. But I am glad to see you back, Martin.

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