Booker Prize 2019 Longlist - what do you think?

[MyReadingChallenge]

Who will be working their way through the longlist? And any guesses for winner?

The winner to be announced on 14 October, so a good bit of time for reading.

Margaret Atwood - The Testaments
Kevin Barry - Night Boat To Tangier
Oyinkan Braithwaite - My Sister, The Serial Killer
Lucy Ellmann - Ducks, Newburyport
Bernardine Evaristo - Girl, Woman, Other
John Lanchester - The Wall
Deborah Levy - The Man Who Saw Everything
Valeria Luiselli - Lost Children Archive
Chigozie Obioma - An Orchestra Of Minorities
Max Porter - Lanny
Salman Rushdie - Quichotte
Elif Shafak - 10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World
Jeanette Winterson - Frankissstein

I’ve already read My Sister, the Serial Killer, which I really enjoyed but don’t think it’s a Booker winner.

Picking up Night Boat to Tangier tomorrow from the library so looking forward to seeing what that’s like, as it sounds like my sort of thing...

How can the Testaments be there when it’s not even out yet?

I guess the judges read it early but it’s odd that some will be based on the authors own experience and any press they read and others just their opinion...

Read none but have Lanny on my tbr and loved his last book so have high expectations.

Some interesting reads there... but feel put off by 1000 page novels... and written in one sentence (Ducks, Newburyport, emperor's new clothes) Night Boat is a good read. And as @palegreenstars pointed out, some are not even published yet so how can mere mortals make a judgement....

Several are very new but the dates are September to September I think so there are usually some books in this category each year. I've read the John Lanchester book and bought two others - My Sister, The Serial Killer and Lost Children Archive. Margaret Atwood and Elif Shafak are authors whose new books I would look for at some point, though I'll probably reserve from the library in a few weeks, after my holiday, a short term closure and catchup on a few current loans including some newish books! I loved Bernardine Evaristo's Mr Loverman very much and have liked some of Lucy Ellmann and Jeannette Winterson's previous work - didn't know about the new Winterson. There are several authors here whose earlier books I have TBR in some form but am yet to read any of them and I'm sure I'll look through and work out what appeals at some point.

I thought My Sister the Serial Killer was really poor. Astonished it's on the list and it puts me off reading any of the others.

I’ve ordered a few from the library. Atwood, Rushdie and the Levy, which I’ll get soon after they’re released. Also, ‘Lanny’ by Max Porter because I enjoyed his other one and ‘My Sister the Serial Killer’. I’ve also ordered in the Elif Shafak because I think It sounds intriguing and the Winterson because I love her.
My finger is itching to order more from my library website at the moment, but I’m resisting. I’ll probably mop up the rest of the shortlist I haven’t read when it’s released.
The challenge is to read them all before the winner is announced. I did it last year just in time.

I don’t want to read Ducks, Newburyport. 1000 pages of one sentence? Those streams of consciousness type books that keep coming out lately tend to be depressing.
I will force myself if it’s on the shortlist though. Has anyone read it?

I aim to read them all before the winner is announced with the exception of Ducks, Newburyport, as it just doesn’t sound tempting does it?

I’m pleased The Testements is up there - hope it speaks to its actual quality and not just its high profile.

I have already read Lanny and My Sister the Serial Killer, neither of which I can see as winners, although Lanny was good. I love Deborah Levy and very much hope she wins this year. She has been shortlisted a number of times. I've reserved her latest at the library but it's not out yet.

I hope Deborah Levy wins. But I reckon it will be Atwood or Evaristo. Also curious to know if anyone's read Ducks, Newburyport?...I ordered it on Amazon but hadn't quite thought through what 1000 pages and 8 sentences would look like until it arrived! (Answer-utter madness)

I was a bit baffled by Lanny. The language was beautiful but the whole thing seemed a bit more trite and sentimental the more I thought about it. It all seemed a bit "artists, fey little special children and close-to-nature mothers good; commuters and narrow-minded villagefolk bad". Which isn't the worst message in the world but it's a bit... obvious. I think I may have missed something though!!

I'm looking forward to the Deborah Levy.

Was just about to start a thread about the longlist after reading this The Guardians cheat's guide (hopefully link works)

www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/24/not-read-them-yet-a-cheats-guide-to-the-2019-booker-prize-longlist

Have read The Wall by John Lanchester and was completely underwhelmed - extremely predictable and brings nothing new to the table. And based on her previous books I'm not a big fan Lucy Ellmann's writing.

@Cantrememberthewords I picked Lanny up from the library yesterday so interesting to hear your thoughts. I’ve only just started it and it’s the first time I’ve seen wiggly crests of text. Not sure it adds a lot so far....

I finished Lanny last night and I have to say I absolutely loved it. After being sceptical about the unusual style of some of the writing I think it really worked over the three chapters. All three used very different stylistic techniques.
For me it was quite thought provoking around missing child cases and how they are dealt with by the media and feelings around being stuck in the middle of the storm.

myreadingchallenge I’m halfway through ‘Lanny’ and I don’t want it to end. It’s so good- the language is so rich. I keep re-reading paragraphs just to enjoy them again. The characters are brilliantly drawn, particularly the artist. I hope it gets on the shortlist.
I’ve also read ‘My sister, the serial killer’, which I enjoyed very much. It’s very well written but I don’t know why it’s on the Booker longlist. It’s a good, enjoyable novel that explores some pertinent issues in an unusual way. But it’s not amazing.

And I love the wiggly crests of text. It made me think about how you hear people’s conversations wafting out of the window on a hot still summer’s day. I think of that as how Papa Toothwort hears them.
I’ve just started getting into Nicola Barker, who does a lot of stuff like that. I love all that arty farty nonsense.

I take back my previous post re Ducks, NBP looking unreadable. I've been reading it all week and am addicted

Springfern - good to hear you’re enjoying Ducks. That’s the first positive comment I’ve heard! Maybe I should be a bit more open minded to it...

I quite enjoyed Frankisstein. The Mary Shelley storyline made for delightful reading, the main character was likeable and the sexbots / Wales for the Welsh bits were quite funny.

I read it quickly, really liked the Babbage / Ada Lovelace moment and thought the interweaving of trans, AI, Shelley and Brexit all made sense enough.

Not the greatest novel ever, but I would particularly recommend it to fans of Frankenstein (obviously) - her writing from Mary Shelley’s point of view is a real joy.

OP I would definitely say open your mind to Ducks. It's really sad and funny and subtle and surprisingly readable. It's one woman's 'inner monologue' but it's written in such a clever way that you really feel like you know her, it sounds mad but when I stop reading it I start to miss her, that's how intimate the writing feels!

Springfern, how long before Ducks got you hooked? I'm 12% through (according to my kindle) and I'm really struggling. I want to love it but I'm just irritated by it right now!

ElleMcFearson I would say pretty much from the beginning, it doesn't really change as you read on so i reckon that if you dont love it by now you might not come round to it.

Halfway through Lost Children Archive and finding that it is trying way to hard to be intellectual. I’m also disappointed that the child migration crisis isn’t yet very central to the narrative... though I have a 100 or so pages for it to turn around. From what I’ve seen it is very popular in reviews.