Booker Price Longlist 2016
10 years ago
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10 years agolast modified: 10 years ago
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The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Comments (37)Siobhan, neither will I recommend it, except to those readers whom I know to enjoy ambiguity and enigma. I learned my lesson with My Cousin Rachel -- too many lovers of Rebecca have loathed MCR and I'm afraid they might feel rooked by TLS, as well. But you never know what will resonate or land with a thud with any particular reader -- readers are too complex! However, after perusing reviews and discussions, I think Waters and today's readers may be more simpatico than the same group would be with D du Maurier's work (besides Rebecca). Georgia, I'd swear that it's I who is usually out of synch. :-) I recall liking The Woman in Black more for its atmosphere and imagery -- the fog and that causeway and the treachery of the incoming tide! I also liked the old-fashioned feel of it, evocative of J. Sheridan LeFanu or Oliver Onions (The Beckoning Fair One), which I think was deliberate on Hill's part (but, as you say, could seem rather like checking things off a list). It is a mood piece rather than a puzzler, I agree, so it all depends on whichever you happen to fancy more -- at the moment or because of prevailing taste....See MoreBooker Prize Long List comes out today!
Comments (23)Well, I really did enjoy Mr Pip. Not as much as would have liked to - it's in two parts (not literally part 1 and part 2, but before and after a major event), and I felt the second part was a bit weak compared to the first part. But if it's short-listed - and I'd like it to be - I'll certainly be happy to re-read it. Now reading, reluctantly, On Chesil Beach - can't find any of the others in the bookshops at the moment. The reluctance stems from a slight distaste of Ian McEwan - he's a marvellous writer, but there always seems to me to be a sort of slightly smug feeling about the way he writes - "I'm a great writer, and I know I am" sort of thing. But I have to admit I'm enjoying this one more than I expected to, so far....See MoreWhat do you collect?
Comments (54)teacats, Your DH's clock has me green with envy. How wonderful to have such a treasured piece! Sofas: I have an old sofa that was a wedding present to my grandmother when she got married in the early 1930's. It was in bad bad condition. I found an upholsterer who had apprenticed to the person who helped Jackie Kennedy re-do the White House and handed my couch over to him. I didn't see it for seven months and was beginning to think it was gone forever! The sofa I got back is still the same sofa, and I kept an old-fahioned look by choosing an antique-looking fabric on it, but wow! It is incredible. And much to my delight, I have a matching sofa in the basement from my other grandmother just waiting to be re-done. By the way, it was expensive but we've never regretted it. It was worth every single shiny penny. And yes, we treat it as a piece of furniture not a museum piece. It's one of my favorite places to read. especially when the snow is falling (it's near a BIG window). My black lab loves to curl up on it and the kids love to make pillow forts and sleep on it. There is no better tribute to such a gift than to use it and love using it. PAM...See MoreBooker Prize Longlist 2016
Comments (20)OK. So I got about a third of the way through The Year of the Runaways, and abandoned it. It's all a bit depressing - a bunch of illegal immegrants in Sheffield working in the building trade and a back story for each of them about how they got there. I don't know - it just all seems a bit too bleak. Also very irritatingly, a lot of Indian words were used with no glossary. Most of the time, I can guess from context, but occasionally, I had not idea at all what was going on. I'll revisit it if it's shortlisted. I've read The Green Road by Anne Enright. I liked it more than her Booker winner The Gathering, but it's still a bit meh. It's a story of a family in Ireland, most of whom move away, what happened to them, and what happened when they all came back at Christmas. I dunno - haven't I read this so many times before? Now reading The Fishermen. It's basically the story of four brothers in a family in Nigeria. I'll keep going for a while, but again - a bunch of kids doing what kids do. Sigh. I dunno - I didn't like Satin Island, but at least it was a bit original. On first reading, it's certainly not going to be a vintage year. A Spool of Blue Thread is now on my Kindle. But I've read here and there that this is going to be Anne Tyler's last novel, and a cynical little part of me wonders whether it was long-listed just because.......See More- 10 years ago
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martin_zOriginal Author