Booker Prize 2021 - announcement of winner on Wednesday 3 November - what have you read?

Not read any

Hooray! Definitely the best book by far.

My DH once woke me up to tell me what had won.
It was Milkman by Anna Burns.
I groaned and went back to sleep.

Interesting to read everyone’s takes on these books.

I too think The Promise should be the winner. It’s just so well constructed. I love the various motifs that repeat, but slightly differently each time. The way that the recent history of South Africa is told through the story of a family. The dark humour and the way that the reader’s point of view shifts, sometimes quite suddenly, but without ever being confusing.

I also enjoyed No One Is Talking About This, but I wonder whether it’s too of it’s time to last? Some of the things that made me laugh felt like they might not feel relevant even in a couple of years time. I liked though that it captures the experience of scrolling through wildly different snippets on a phone. I don’t think I’ve seen this dealt with in literature before. Characters in fiction generally get on with living their lives rather than browsing the internet in a way that’s quite unrealistic! The second half of the book is very different but equally interesting.

I liked Bewilderment despite agreeing with what everyone has said about it. I almost felt like the gifted/troubled nine year old might have benefited from less indulgent attention. The father son relationship was so intense. Powers does write so beautifully about the natural world though and the concerns about what we are doing to the planet and the species we share it with are important. Did anyone else query whether two people who were sufficiently committed to be vegans would have taken a flight to go on a protest about how we are endangering species?

The other three books were good but didn’t blow me away.

I think Klara and the Sun should also have been shortlisted

@onemouseplace
That almost makes reading sound like torture!

@pollyhemlock
Yes the boy is annoying, you’re right! But I am so well disposed to Richard Powers that I don’t want to dislike it.

Goldsmiths prize:
Little Scratch - Rebecca Watson
Assembly - Natasha Brown
One Sky Day - Leone Ross
A Shock - Keith Ridgeway
Checkout 19 - Claire-Louise Bennett
Sterling Karat Gold - Isabel Waidner

I’ve heard of the first three and was already interested in reading them.
Basically the idea of the Goldsmiths Prize is groundbreaking fiction. Pushing the boundaries of the novel form sort of thing. Arty farty bollocks to some. Like catnip to others, i.e. me.
I’ve really enjoyed some previous winners - How to be Both by Ali Smith and H(a)ppy by Nicola Barker. Ducks, Newburyport also won, which I didn’t love, but am haunted by!

I’ve read the majority of the longlist the last few years and found that often my favourites don’t make the shortlist.

I remember watching a programme about the Booker a couple of years ago and I think it was Val McDermid saying that as a judge you basically do nothing but read for 6 months to get through them all - I sometimes wonder if that’s why some odd choices get through because I can’t imagine being able to give each book its due when I’ve ploughed through over 100 of them.

@Nuffaluff I’m afraid I found the child intolerable. Particularly annoying is the way you’re meant to hang on to his every utterance. There’s one bit where he’s dressed in a suit for some event, and his narrator father comments ‘ he looked like a little god’. Ugh! And we’re encouraged to view him as one, which is awful . I’m not convinced that Richard Powers has met an actual child.

Tbh I don’t think it was a particularly strong selection of books this year. I’ve had better reads in previous years.

I’m afraid I loathed Bewilderment. Don’t know which of the three main characters I disliked most: the glum scientist who never does any actual work; the incredibly annoying child with his stream of supposedly wise remarks; or the impossibly perfect late wife who combines being a hotshot environmental campaigner with looking after a child with additional needs, without once getting stressed or angry. A very sentimental book. I was very disappointed that this made it through instead of Light Perpetual, which I thought was brilliant.
Dammit you’re right about this. Now I’ve finished it I’m a little disappointed. It didn’t really go anywhere (but it did make me cry, which I do like). I think I just loved The Overstory so much that I really wanted to love it. I also thought Light Perpetual was better.
DH picked it up and read a page at random - it was the bit where he hands his son an avocado and hummus sandwich. He said “Are you meant to hate these characters or what? Is it meant to be a joke?”

I see his point (but when I read that bit I thought hmm, that sounds nice, I might try that).
I’m also tipping (and hoping) The Promise for the win. (Please not A Passage North - I was very bored).
I’m not sure I’ll read the whole longlist again. It was exhausting. I need a break from heavy stuff now and then. Maybe just the shortlist next time. I don’t know (eyes up Goldsmiths Prize shortlist).

I am picking The Promise as the winner. Great writing and subject matter. But who knows, those Booker judges can be surprising.

China Room was in the Kindle deals recently so I have that and loved Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways so will read this.

Otherwise, I’m on the lookout for The Fortune Men.

Have read all the shortlist apart from A Passage North . Don’t think I will read this, as the reviews I’ve read say it’s wordy and dull.

I think The Promise should win. It’s a brilliant portrait of the horrors of Apartheid see through one family’s history. Manages at times to be quite funny, as well.

Loved Great Circle, but I don’t think it will win . Too much of an adventure story. The Fortune Men is an evocative look at 1950s Cardiff. The fact that it’s closely based on a real case does take the suspense out of it.

No one is Talking About this I thought was really clever. The contrast between her shallow online life in the first half and the family tragedy in the second was very well done.

I’m afraid I loathed Bewilderment. Don’t know which of the three main characters I disliked most: the glum scientist who never does any actual work; the incredibly annoying child with his stream of supposedly wise remarks; or the impossibly perfect late wife who combines being a hotshot environmental campaigner with looking after a child with additional needs, without once getting stressed or angry. A very sentimental book. I was very disappointed that this made it through instead of Light Perpetual, which I thought was brilliant.

Also loved China Room and A Town Called Solace. Both much better than the Powers.

@elkiedee I will read it but for some reason my local library didn’t have it when I reserved the rest of the list and I haven’t looked again yet!

Ones I've read:

The Promise - Damon Galgut - I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would, although I think it'll probably win. His writing is great, I just some of the plot devices were a bit contrived and jarred with me a bit.

No One is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood - I really disliked this. I get what she was trying to do, but I didn't enjoy or read it and suspect in 5 or 10 years times people will wonder why she got so many plaudits for this book. Second half better than the first.

The Fortune Men - Nadifa Mohamed - I enjoyed this enough but didn't think it was brilliant - I never really got the main character or felt a huge amount of sympathy for him.

A Town Called Solace - Mary Lawson - I loved this, it's not high literature by any shakes, but was a well written, enjoyable suspense drama that managed to be everyday and gentle at the same time.

China Room - Sunjeev Sahota - I really enjoyed this one, it was well written and well paced and the Indian setting was fascinating.

Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro - loved this, as expected, but I am a big fan of Ishiguro and his style.

The Sweetness of Water - Nathan Harris - I did enjoy this at the time, but I've just had to look it up as I had a moment when I couldn't remember what it was about at all (a couple of ex-slaves in the Deep South just after emancipation) so it hasn't stuck with me.

Second Place - Rachel Cusk - I was underwhelmed by this one - the first Rachel Cusk I have read though and friends assure me her other books are better!

Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead - I'm in the middle of this at the moment and quite enjoying it - I much prefer the story set in the past, I haven't got a hugh amount of time for the one set in the present at the moment and the 'voice' of the present day character is grating on me a bit.

A Passage North - Anuk Arudpragasam - I was about half way through this on my kindle when all my library reservations came in, so I set it aside and haven't chosen to go back to it yet. It was ok, I listened to him on a podcast though and he was very longwinded and a bit tedious!

On my TBR pile:

Bewilderment - Richard Powers
An Island - Karen Jennings

I didn't think it was a particularly strong list this year, tbh. I'm surprised Klara and the Sun didn't get on the shortlist.

I’ve read Great Circle, Klara and the Sun and A Town Called Solace. I liked Great Circle but absolutely loved the other two so a bit baffled that GC was shortlisted and they weren’t. But my views rarely align with those of Booker judges!

I’ve read Light Perpetual and Second Place, both of which I thought were OK, but undeserving of a place on the longlist. I have China Room on my kindle to read, and I love Damon Galgut’s previous books, so I’ll download The Promise when the price drops.

I listened to the Promise - it was really good.

@elkiedee
I felt the same way about The Finkler Question which put me off Howard Jacobson but I though My Name is Shylock was one of the better ones of those Hogarth Shakespeares.