Adventures With Words discussion
Man Booker Longlists
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Kats wrote: "Great discussion you had on the 2014 Man Booker longlist. Couldn't agree more with you re the surprise factor about seeing David Nicholls on that list, and noting the absence of the Goldfinch.
I..."
Do you remember Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman? Booker nominated and we read it for a book club but both Rob and I thought it was a bit laughable, to be honest. It is mostly narrated by the main character, who is a young boy who has moved to London from an African nation with his family and is now attending a local secondary school, his experiences with gang culture etc, however we both felt the book just didn't ring true. This is written for an adult audience however Kelman consistently pulled his punches despite the potential very gritty subject matter, plus it was made so much worse by the narrative then swapping to the perspective of a pigeon every now and then!
I..."
Do you remember Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman? Booker nominated and we read it for a book club but both Rob and I thought it was a bit laughable, to be honest. It is mostly narrated by the main character, who is a young boy who has moved to London from an African nation with his family and is now attending a local secondary school, his experiences with gang culture etc, however we both felt the book just didn't ring true. This is written for an adult audience however Kelman consistently pulled his punches despite the potential very gritty subject matter, plus it was made so much worse by the narrative then swapping to the perspective of a pigeon every now and then!
Haha, that's so funny as that was the book that sprang to mind! I bought it based on someone's recommendation before it was even long listed but I didn't like it much from the word "go", so I didn't even make it to the pigeon narration part. Good to know.... will pass on it. :-)
The only book I've read from this year's long list is the Karen Fowler "We are completely beside ourselves", and I was close to giving it five stars on GoodReads (it was a couple of months ago... I don't remember why I didn't). I am a slow reader, but this one I couldn't stop reading (or listening to); it was great, and as a psychology graduate it was very interesting to me. I think you'll really enjoy it, too.
I'm very intrigued though... which was the book you didn't like that had an "avian narrator" (?) a few years ago?