The Man Booker Prize shortlist 2018

The 2018 Man Booker prize winner has been announced this evening as Milkman by Anna Burns. This year I have managed to read 4 out of the 6 shortlisted novels, including the winner. Here is my take on those novels.

Milkman by Anna Burns

Although the city is never named in the book, this novel is set in 1970s Belfast and tells a heartbreaking story of a city fractured by sectarian violence. The main character, known only as 'middle sister', is never named and neither are any of the other characters, but this does not stop us getting to know them and empathise with them. Middle Sister longs to remain unnoticed (by both the state and the paramilitaries who control her neighbourhood) and develops many strategies to achieve this aim, so she is upset to learn that she has unwittingly drawn the attention of a local paramilitary bigwig and thereby become the object of much unwanted gossip. As a result her life and relationships are turned upside down with some very disturbing consequences. 

This novel reads almost like a thriller - the tension is constantly ratcheting up in the background, and although this tension does not actually build to any one single cataclysmic event, plenty of horrific things happen along the way. It also forces you to think about love and loss and what the fear of loss can do to a person. Burns builds a frighteningly realistic picture of life in a civil war, and how ordinary things in extraordinary circumstances first adapt and then just become ordinary themselves. 

I wanted to love this novel, but I didn't. The unusual narrative style made it difficult to get into for me (it took me a very long time to read) and the way the narrative jumps across time frames was at times confusing, but this didn't stop it from being a powerful, eye-opening and ultimately worthwhile read. I think the distinctive and unusual style is what helped to make it a Booker Winner.

The Overstory, by Richard Powers

This is an unusual, powerful and affecting novel.Trees of all kinds, but especially those native to North America are the real stars of this book and they are the glue that holds a complex web of characters and stories together to forma novel. There are 9 main characters who start out as strangers, and gradually over a period of 50 years or so their lives become intertwined with trees (each for a different reason) and then with each other.  It is a long book but there is strong narrative drive throughout and I found it very difficult to put down. It is fascinating, traumatic and depressing in equal measure as it forces you to reflect on the impact of humans on the planet and what that may mean for future generations. It is beautifully written and highly recommended. This is the novel I would have chosen to win.

Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan

This is a novel of great scope. It begins on a sugar plantation in Barbados in 1830 where we meet the eponymous Washington Black, a young slave, who then escapes from the plantation with the owner's brother Titch. They travel first to America, then the frozen north of Canada where Titch disappears and Washington Black is left to fend for himself in this alien world. There follows Washington's search to find his place in the world and also for Titch who he cannot stop thinking about, which takes us (through incredibly vivid descriptions and beautiful writing) to Nova Scotia, London, Amsterdam and Morocco.
I started out absolutely loving this book, but that feeling started to wane. I think that there was simply too much going on and too much story trying to be told and when I reached the end I was left feeling a little flat. It is beautifully written and the science explored along the way (from early aviation to the first aquarium) is fascinating. The descriptions of the brutality faced by Washington Black both before and after his escape are haunting and cause us to reflect on this terrible notion that slaves were no more than livestock. There is a lot to think about in this book, and the over-riding theme is of Washington Black struggling to live a fully human life in a prejudiced world. Some food for thought and some beautiful writing in a book undeniably worth reading, but not a Booker Prize winner, in my opinion.

Everything Under by Daisy Johnson

This is another powerful, original and affecting novel. The writing is lyrical and descriptive and the narrative utterly compelling as we follow Gretel in her search for her estranged mother and examines her unconventional childhood and their difficult relationships. Emotive themes of suicide, abandonment, dementia, fluid gender identity, and ambiguous sexuality are explored sensitively,and though the novel is ultimately quite dark (inevitable in a modern retelling of a Greek tragedy) it is a thing of beauty that will stay on your mind for a long time after finishing.

8 of the Best Booker Prize Winners

The longlist for the Man Booker Prize 2018 was announced today and The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje was recently announced as the winner of the Golden Booker, readers' favourite Booker prize winner. This got me thinking about my own favourites amongst the previous winners of this prestigious prize and I came up with my own list of the best of the Booker Prize winners (I have read The English Patient, but it doesn't make my list!).

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

The 1993 winner is told through the eyes of Paddy Clarke, a 10 year old boy in 1960s Dublin. It is a fantastic recreation of childhood and the voice of Paddy Clarke is beautifully created. Consecutive paragraphs skip from one topic to the next totally unrelated topic as Doyle captures perfectly the speech patterns of children, together with the boundless curiosity and never ending questions.His innocence / naivety provide poignancy as we realise we (and he) are witnessing the unravelling of his parents' marriage. Desperately sad and laugh out loud funny, it also provides social commentary on working class Dublin at this time - a must-read book.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy's debut novel won the Booker prize in 1997 to huge critical acclaim. It is a much loved and often talked about book. The prose is hauntingly beautiful and a real celebration of the English language. the book follows twins Rahel and Estha, growing up in Kerala. Their beautiful and much-loved cousin Sophie Mol comes to stay and dies tragically. We find out that she dies on page 3 but don't find out how or why until the last chapter. However, the ramifications of her death echo throughout the book and affect every character. 

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

This extraordinary book won the Booker Prize in 2002. It tells the story of a boy and a tiger marooned together on a life boat and will make you question everything you thought you knew. Probably the most thought-provoking book I have ever read. 

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

This novel won the Booker prize in 2006. The story is told through 3 main characters: 16 year old Sai, who lives with her grandfather the judge, in a dilapidated hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India, and Biju, the son of the judge's cook, struggling to find a better life in New York. This is a searing examination of class and identity, and is a beautifully written and compelling story.

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

The 2013 winner is a huge novel in both length and scope. It is set in New Zealand during the gold rush of the 1860s. A very clever plot structure opens with a man stumbling upon a secret meeting of twelve men all gathered together to tell their stories. It turns out that all these stories are linked (often through many intricate layers) and a compelling mystery is gradually revealed. It is a page turner - you really want to get to the bottom of this mystery (even the nature of the mystery is not immediately apparent - is it a murder, disappearance, fraud?) and the way it is revealed is original and intelligent. The structure of the novel is important, but does not overpower it. The writing is eloquent and highly evocative of time and place. A real triumph!

True History of The Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey

This won the Booker prize in 2001 and it's easy to see why. It is a novel unlike anything else, where Carey completely transports the reader to the 19th Century and the life of the notorious bush ranger, Ned Kelly. Carey has written in the voice of Kelly, uneducated and barely literate and this is what helps to totally immerse the reader in the time and place, but also means that it can be hard to get into. A page turning adventure and a mind-blowing accomplishment from this talented author.

Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies by by Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel is only the third author (and the first British author, and first woman) to win the Booker prize twice: first for Wolf Hall in 2009 and then for its sequel Bring up The Bodies in 2012. Both books centre on Thomas Cromwell: the first covering his rise, from the humble beginnings of a blacksmith's son, to becoming one of the most powerful men in England, as adviser to the King; and the second centring on the downfall of Anne Boleyn and Cromwell's part in it. The historical detail and the beautiful descriptive writing mean that Tudor London really does come alive. The novel is written almost as Cromwell's stream of consciousness and that, coupled with the authentic language and turns of phrase from the sixteenth century, can make it difficult to get into, but persevere because it is worth it. This kind of total immersion in another time and place is what I crave when reading and Mantel achieves it. I really felt like I was living in Tudor London. A fascinating insight into a turbulent period in history and a look at power and the desires, dilemmas and corruptions associated with it. I found Bring up The Bodies to be faster paced and the more absorbing read, but  Wolf Hall is still a very rewarding read, and you can't really separate the two - they need to be read together.

What is your favourite Booker prize winning novel? What would you add to this list?

The Man Booker prize 2017

So the winner of the Man Booker Prize will be announced tomorrow. I always try to read as many as I can from the shortlist, but this year I have only managed to read 3. I have enjoyed all of them but none of them set my world on fire or made me want to go out and recommend them to everyone, so trying to predict a winner from the half of the shortlist I read is hard, but I'll give it a go! All 3 books that I read have in common the themes of a broken society and how society treats people at its margins, and 2 of them specifically address the issue of British attitudes to immigration.

 

Autumn, by Ali Smith is an easy and engaging read. This is the second of Smith's novels that I have read (the other being How to be Both) and the style of writing is very similar. The prose is beautiful - there are many times when you want to stop and reread passages to savour them properly - and the characters are extremely well drawn. The actual experience of reading the book is enjoyable but afterwards I found it hard to recall what I had enjoyed about it. It tells the story of a young woman and her friendship with an elderly man who is dying in a care home. Through their interaction (and a lot of memories from earlier in their friendship) we also learn about a long forgotten British female artist from the 1960s and receive a searing comment on the state of British society at a very specific moment in recent history- Autumn 2016. 

Exit West by Moshin Hamed started well for me but tailed off. It tells the story of Nadia and Saeed who meet and begin a relationship then make a heartbreaking decision to leave their country of birth as the fabric of their society begins to crumble amid civil war. I enjoyed (if enjoyed is the correct term for the emotions evoked by reading about the hardships Nadia and Saeed faced in the country of their birth and the harrowing decision they had to make to leave) the first part of the book, up until Nadia and Saeed arrived in London, but after that point the book stopped being about society now and began to imagine a dystopia in the near future and I found this leap grated with what had gone before. Yes, it highlighted the extreme and polarised ways that society can treat outsiders but I felt sticking to a real and not imagined immigrant experience would have worked better for me and made the book more powerful. It is however a moving portrait of a relationship under stress and both Nadia and Saeed are characters that I liked and cared about. I have only read one other novel by Moshin Hamed (The Reluctant Fundamentalist) and I much preferred Exit West. 

Elmet, by Fiona Mozley tells us the story of Daniel who is now heading north, looking for someone, and recounting his earlier life with his dad and his sister Cathy - a simple, largely self-sufficient life in a forest somewhere near Doncaster, and a happy one. The lyrical writing really makes the setting and characters come alive and this highly readable novel is a real page turner (although the characters' accents can seem a little impenetrable at times, you do get used to this ). Events gradually become more sinister as it becomes more apparent just how hard it is to exist on the fringes of society as these characters do and the mystery of who Daniel is looking for (and why) is eventually revealed in a dramatic climax. This was my favourite of the 3 shortlisted books I read - I felt it was a fantastic achievement for a debut author.

Which of the shortlisted books have you read? And which was your favourite?