Booker Prize 2017 - Shortlist
martin_z
6 years ago
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vee_new
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Booker Prize Shortlist 2013
Comments (21)The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. You know what? I only finished this three weeks ago. It's seven hundred pages; it's dense. I can't face reading it again. I enjoyed it, but not that much. So - it's about a load of people in an interlocking and very complex story about gold mining in New Zealand. The book is set in 1866, but we get a lot of backstory as well. It's very interesting, once you get into it. But there is are a couple of strange things that really get to me. The first is the fact that the chapter titles are astrological references, and each part of the book has an astrological chart with the names of twelve of the important people in the twelve places around it. And yet - there is practically NO other reference to astrology in the book - one person reads fortunes, but she pretty well admits to being a charlatan. So what is the point of the astrological bits? No doubt, if you know something about the subject, you might find the references enlightening. But to me, it strikes of being clever for its own sake, and adds nothing to the book. The other is that the book has the Victorian trick of summarizing the chapter in the heading. For example:- Chapter 1 - Mercury in Sagittarius - In which a stranger arrives in Hokitika; a secret council is disturbed; Walter Moody conceals his most recent memory; and Thomas Balfour begins to tell a story. That's all right, so far as it goes - but near the very end of the book, the summarizing starts to become longer and longer and the chapters get shorter and shorter - some chapters are a page and a half of summary - and only a couple of paragraphs. Why, for heaven's sake? So, though I thought the book was really good, these irritations got to me - and the more I think about them, the less I like them. So - I'm not going to read it again. It won't win. I hope....See MoreBooker Prize Shortlist 2016
Comments (22)And it's also worth mentioning a couple of firsts - Beatty is the first US writer to win the Booker, and The Sellout is the first paperback to win the Booker. The publishers, OneWorld, must be pinching themselves - they have published the Booker winner two years running, which isn't bad for a little independent publisher who were only formed in 1986....See MoreBooker Prize Longlist 2018
Comments (10)OK, so I have now officially read one of the longlist. I found a UK first edition of Sabrina by Nick Drnaso. As the first graphic novel ever listed on the Booker, I thought it was worth a punt - I strongly suspect it'll be worth a bit more than I paid for it in the future. But it's really quite disappointing. I didn't find the story convincing; I couldn't get immersed in it at all. I thought the drawing was quite poor - in fact, I had difficulty telling some of the characters apart. The very first couple of pages totally confused me, as I thought the main character on them was male - until the character said to a woman something like "Shall we have a girls night in?", and I did a double take. No, Sabrina did absolutely nothing for me. It made a few points about modern life quite tellingly, but still... This, I think, is a classic example of the Booker trying to be cool and edgy. It won't be shortlisted. (Maybe I just don't get graphic novels - I read Alan Moore's Watchmen because everyone raved about it, and I couldn't see what all the fuss was about.) Next - Milkman by Anna Burns. I have read the first fifteen pages of this, and in my opinion it's already got far more depth and interest that the whole of Sabrina....See MoreBooker Prize Shortlist 2018
Comments (11)And the winner is..... Milkman by Anna Burns. The first writer from Northern Ireland to win the Booker. Well, that was unexpected. Clearly even by her - she hadn't got any acceptance speech ready or anything...quite overwhelmed. My apologies - I've been so busy this year, I've hardly managed to read any of the books. I've finished just one on the shortlist, and started three others. It's not that they were particularly hard, it's just I couldn't knuckle down to doing a decent chunk of reading. It's quite impressive that The Overstory kept my attention as it's comfortably the longest on the list. Halfway through The Mars Room - must finish it. It's a good yarn, but felt a bit like a novelisation of Orange is the New Black... So - then I'll retry Milkman. Perhaps I'll try it as an audiobook - apparently it works well - I've got a couple of free books on Audible....See More
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