Booker Longlist Read-a-long/discussion

[Tryingtoread]

I have had a look and can’t find a thread on this but if there is one already please let me know and I’ll head over there!

I used to be a voracious reader but have struggled to find time/get into books since having DD.

we’re off on holiday in September so I was putting together a book list and went to look at the booker longlist. I’ve decided it will be a fun challenge for myself to try and read as many of the books as I can before the shortlist is announced on September 21st. I am on a 2 week holiday in September so I think I just may be able to finish them all, though not sure if this is realistic!

Has anyone read any of the books from the list? If anyone feels like joining me on this challenge or discussing any of the books I would love the hear your thoughts.

I’ve finished 2 books so far and have started another today.

1. The Bee Sting - Paul Murray. I really enjoyed this! It’s about an Irish family of four, with part of the book from each of their perspectives. A chunky 600+ page read but I rushed through, it really gripped me.
2. The Study of Obedience - Sarah Bernstein. This is about an outcast woman who has dedicated her life to serving her family from an early age. She has moved to a different (unnamed) country to live with her brother and act as a sort of housekeeper. She lives a very isolated life. I finished this today - it’s a much shorter book. I appreciate the writing style and admire it as a piece of literature, but it didn’t grip me in the same way. It’s intentionally quite ambiguous, the characters are all nameless and it feels you are missing chunks of the plot. I wouldn’t say i hugely enjoyed it but appreciated it as an art almost.

I am now onto ‘All the Little Bird-Hearts’ by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow and looking forward to it. All I know about it so far is that it’s about an autistic mother and her teenage daughter.

Excited to hear thoughts from anyone else whose read these or other books from the list. Please no spoilers!

I read the Study of Obedience but didn't really enjoy it. Didn't like the characters not having names, didn't like not knowing where they lived, also felt like I wanted to know more about their back story, wanted to know more of the plot.

Maybe I just don't have enough imagination.

Often the Booker list makes me feel like I'm not smart enough.

I've ordered some of the others from the library so I'll be back once they've arrived.

I found Old God’s Time impenetrable, waffly piffle that used adjectives as if the author was paid £1 for every one.
I have The Bee Sting on my wishlist.

Although it didn’t make the long list, I adored Kala by Colin Walsh

Oh good, I've been struggling to find something I want to read.
Will find the list.

That’s exactly how I felt about it! It was like waiting for a conclusion or a big reveal that didn’t really seem to come. I felt like maybe I just “didn’t get it” but felt disconnected from it.

I’m enjoying All the Little Bird-Hearts much more - I’ve been glued to it so far. It’s about an autistic mother and her teenage daughter who get some new neighbours. Less abstract than A study of Obedience for sure.

Excited to hear your thoughts on the others, which ones are you waiting for?

Oh no, doesn’t bode well! I am picking the order to read them in in order, hoping I don’t really hate one and end up dragging myself through it.

I enjoyed The Bee Sting although it’s chunky and I’ve seen a few reviews saying it could have been 100 pages shorter - I did enjoy it but the middle was a bit of an endurance test at times.

I’ve seen a few people mention Kala I will have to add it to my list.

Hopefully you find something that takes your fancy, I’ve been in a reading slump for a while and this little challenge has really helped so far!

Just a heads-up that Kala is currently 99p on Kindle.

I thought Old God’s Time was not one of Sebastian Barry’s best- relentlessly grim and the language felt over lyrical at times. I enjoyed Spell of Good Things, which is about two families in Nigeria, one rich, one poor, whose fates become intertwined. In Ascension is interesting, because it’s hard science fiction. I enjoyed it , lots of intriguing ideas ,but characterisation is a bit thin. I loved The Bee Sting. I’ve got Pearl to read next.Can’t understand how Demon
Copperhead ( Barbara Kingsolver) and Cuddy ( Ben Myers) missed out.

I'm afraid I ignore things like the Booker Prize. I have lost faith in the literary/intellectual establishment. They have a sacred duty to judge books on literary merit, regardless of whether or not they like the author, and they've abandoned that duty. The 'woke' left now have control of publishing and the arts. Who you are determines whether you win an award (or even whether you get published in the first place), not the quality of your work. You have to tick the right boxes, and believe the 'correct' things, or forget it. Harold Bloom, the great literary critic, warned about this trend 40 years ago, but no one listened. It's one of the reasons this country no longer produces great poets. People like Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin (the best British poets since WW2) would be 'cancelled' today.

Well all novels tend to some extent to reflect the beliefs and preoccupations of their age. It’s highly unlikely that you’d have a story published today that went on about the glories of the British Empire. It’s true that some contemporary books, particularly in YA, are tiresomely overwhelmed by a Message. But a good book will always transcend this. Demon Copperhead, for example, is closely based on David Copperfield. Both books have a message, if you like, that abuse and neglect of children are terrible and have terrible consequences. But the characterisation and plotting in both books are so good that the message is just one part of the whole. Also: Hughes and Larkin are both widely read and enjoyed today. Even at the time there were plenty of people who objected to
Hughes( because of Plath), and Larkin because he was a grumpy misogynist with right wing views. Didn’t ( and doesn’t) stop them loving (say) Arundel Tomb though.

Thank you for starting this thread. Without fail, I always read the ones first that don’t make it to the short list. Apologies to the authors that will be condemned by this spell.

I am reading Old God’s Time first. And am enjoying it.

I like to follow the Booker because it gets me into reading very contemporary fiction. And it falls over the summer holiday, which is helpful.

Joining in for the chat although it's very unlikely I'll have read all of the books by the time they announce the shortlist. Hoping to have read the four Irish nominees at any rate.

Anyway, I finished the first one - 'The Bee Sting' by Paul Murray. I really liked it overall although it dragged a bit here and there and I wasn't altogether sure about the ending. I liked the way it captured small town Irish life - the Tidy Towns group and the importance of the GAA and the begrudgery. Although my local Tidy Towns group is a really busy group and doesn't sit around gossiping all day . I also liked the way that events and characters from the past re-emerged (never went away in some cases). It was all done in a much more sophisticated manner than the usual trope of young relative clears out their grandparent's attic and finds letters written by/to the grandparent.

Forgot to say that I've started on 'Old God's Time' by Sebastian Barry.

Just finished Pearl. Marianne is 8 when her mother disappears and the book shows how this affects Marianne and the rest of the family. Beautifully written and very sad. I liked it but I don’t think it’s a winner.

I decided to go through the long list in the order of bookies’ favourites. Have just finished The House of Doors which I loved. I read The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng years ago and really liked it but then forgot about him so was good to discover another of his books.
Am about half way through All the Little Bird-Hearts which am also really enjoying and finding pretty gripping.
Not sure how far will make it through before the short list is announced but it’s a good way of accessing new writing.
Was also really surprised that Demon Copperhead didn’t make the list as thought it was fantastic - although a pretty traumatic read.

I've ordered a few from the list at the library, I'm skint so not buying books right now. But they're all in high demand so I might have to wait a while.
Sometimes you wait weeks and weeks at the library for reservations then they all turn up at once.
I'll read what you all think about them in the meantime.

@JaneyGee
Have a look at the Booker lists (or other award lists) of the 1970s and 1980s if you think who you were didn't matter then. Or the review pages of newspapers etc. Often a lot more men than women even got put forward or even considered in the first place, they were mostly white. Writers educated at Oxford or Cambridge or the equivalents in other countries dominated.

I can't think of any award list, short or long, that I've got round to reading all of and I follow quite a lot of them, but given how many books I want to read and how few of them I'm actually going to get to, I'm unlikely to go out of my way to read a book that doesn't appeal just because it's listed. However, books that are listed are far more likely to be bought by libraries and get coverage, so I think it's good that literary awards now are helping to make the literary canon more interesting, more varied. And there are far more books being "cancelled", as you put it, by conservative school boards and other authorities in the US, than by people saying, ooh, I'm interested in reading this novel by a Nigerian woman, or a Malaysian man's take on a British writer who spent several periods of his life as an expat.

I think Larkin and Hughes still get read, more than 37 years after Larkin died, and I think over 20 since Hughes died. Whereas many many poets and novelists of the same generation aren't even in print, and that includes some of the work of the Booker Prize winners and nominees. And some of the books that are back in print have been brought back in thanks to feminist reprint publishers like Virago. I think. Maybe, ironically, feminist publishers have shown publishers that there is a genuine market for other reissues of literary fiction (including books by men, even white men)?

I don't tend to use the word woke, but I think in the sense that people are using it sincerely it's a perfectly good idea

Would these books be published in paperback yet? I like physical books but hard back is just too heavy.

Pearl is in paperback and quite short too .

Yay I’ve found my people! For the first time I’m also trying to read as many Booker long-listed books before the short list / winner is announced. A surprising number of books about dead mothers but hey ho.

The Bee Sting - one of my favourite books all year. I raced through this book. Some parts were hilarious and others were tragic but at no point did I see what was coming. Each time I felt I knew what the downfall of a certain character would be, the plot would switch direction. I think this book will definitely make the short list if not win the main prize.

In Ascension - beautifully written and a very interesting science fiction story that was broad in scope, from microbiology to space. Many topics were touched upon: the environment, parental relationships, the pressure on women to care for elderly relatives. I think that this book will make the short list.

Western Lane - Personally I struggled with this one and I don’t think I would have finished it if it were longer. I found it a bit cold. I am not interested in sport or playing squash and the only bits I really enjoyed were when they talked about food. I think the author is talented, this book just wasn’t for me.

All the Little Bird-Hearts - I found this book to be a real page turner. I wanted to know what and how Vita did what she did. It felt like a really authentic story about a person with autism.

How to Build a Boat - an emotional read that touched me much more than Western Lane. The author nearly brought me to tears whenever the topic of Jamie’s dead mother came up. It was beautifully written and captivating.

I've read two - I found Old God's Time sad and interesting but have liked another book by Sebastian Barry more. I would love to see A Spell of Good Things on the shortlist. I have The House of Doors out from the library but like another poster, am struggling with all my reservations come at once syndrome! I don't have the money for new hardbacks but am always on the lookout for bargains! I've bought the Elaine Feeney as a Kindle Daily Deal a few months ago before the Booker longlist came out, I have at least one as a Netgalley copy, and am on the lookout for several of the others - my experience is that a surprising number do come up on offer, there will be some I may be looking out for for years, or still planning to read at some point in 2 or 3 years time (I'm easily distracted!).

I was really struggling with 'Old God's Time' so I moved onto my third nominee - 'Prophet Song' by Paul Lynch. This book is really compelling and chilling. In the book, Ireland is in the grip of a totalitarian regime which has taken a stance against the trade union movement. The main character's husband (a trade union official) goes missing and the main character has to try to keep her family safe as society begins to unravel and violence and chaos ensues.

Ireland has a strong tradition of trade unionism and workers rights (Connolly, Larkin, the 1913 Lockout etc.), so I found it a little difficult to imagine an Ireland where a government would turn on trade unions. But that's probably irrelevant. The book illustrates how powerless you can be when you end up on the wrong side of the law, through no fault of your own. It also describes how quickly normal life can be upended and society can turn on itself.

Highly recommended.

I have just finished Old God’s Time. I hadn’t read anything by Sebastian Barry before and loved the rhythm and style of his writing. Beautiful.

Prophet Song sounds right up my street @Taytocrisps. I am not sure which way to turn next, so maybe that one is next!

Ooh, I'm more interested in reading the Paul Lynch novel now. Though countries with strong trade union traditions are precisely those where the government turns on them, or gets together with powerful business interests to do so. Including Britain, France, the US. The Dublin lockout was 110 years ago! And now many of those traditions have been divided if not smashed, the industries where they were strongest have gone, or if they remain, unions have been seriously weakened. I wish I didn't find the scenario you mention in Prophet Song all too believable.

I've found my people! I've read the longlist the last couple of years - but I am so behind this year and there is no way I'm going to finish by the time the prize is announced!

Usually I've read at least 2-3 before the longlist is announced, but I'd read none this year. I've ordered all the ones available at the library, but so far only picked one up (the Sebastian Barry) so I need to get cracking when I've finished the book I'm reading at the moment.

I shall be back when a few come in!