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Booker Prize for Fiction > 2020 Booker Shortlist Discussion

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message 201: by Paul (new)

Paul Fulcher (fulcherkim) | 13422 comments These were the books the Booker authors recommended at the shortlist readings, as the best books they'd read in 2020:

Diane Cook
Temporary by Hilary Leichter

Tsitsi Dangarembga
Undoing the Revolution: Comparing Elite Subversion of Peasant Rebellions by Vasabjit Banerjee

Avni Doshi
Luster by Raven Leilani

Maaza Mengiste
Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Brandon Taylor
Memorial by Bryan Washington

Douglas Stuart
As You Were by Elaine Feeney


message 202: by Paul (new)

Paul Fulcher (fulcherkim) | 13422 comments And this is the shortlist reading - which seems to be freely available on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piZxY...


Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer | 10127 comments My "appearance" (or perhaps more accurately my name and question's appearance) is at 1:14:30 and gets a 5 minute answer which was nice - basically each author taking about how they chose their titles.


Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer | 10127 comments Paul wrote: "These were the books the Booker authors recommended at the shortlist readings, as the best books they'd read in 2020:

Douglas Stuart
As You Were by Elaine Feeney ..."


This was a slightly odd book I felt - I know Neil was not taken with the dialogue (and I can understand why) and its a very uneven book - overall though I enjoyed it and admired its ambition and variety.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 205: by Ang (new)

Ang | 1685 comments I have now finished the shortlist. Wow, does this Booker panel like misery or what?

I have separated the six into two groups: those I would be happy to read twice (Burnt Sugar, This Mournable Body, Real Life) and those I would hate to have to read twice (Shuggie Bain, The Shadow King, The New Wilderness.)

But which will the judges find that three reads is too many?

Also, I'm very excited that Obama is participating in the Booker Prize celebrations on Thursday.


message 206: by Robert (new)

Robert | 2654 comments My prediction video - Blog post probably on Thursday Morning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQXY6...


message 207: by Ang (last edited Nov 17, 2020 02:11AM) (new)

Ang | 1685 comments Robert wrote: "My prediction video - Blog post probably on Thursday Morning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQXY6..."


Pumpkin wants Burnt Sugar, as does Sebastian.


message 208: by Robert (new)

Robert | 2654 comments Ang wrote: "Robert wrote: "My prediction video - Blog post probably on Thursday Morning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQXY6..."

Pumpkin wants Burnt Sugar, as does Sebastian."


Maybe cats know something we don't


Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer | 10127 comments I re-read 3.5 of the shortlist in the last week or two (Shuggie Bain, Burnt Sugar, Real Life and some of This Mournable Body).

A large part of the reason for the re-read was that, other than Shadow King, I read the other 5 of the shortlist electronically first time around which is not my preference (but 4 were ARCs and Real Life came out earlier in Kindle version). I tend to enjoy books more when I read them in paper.

Like Ang I could not face re-reading New Wilderness and don't think I will even if it wins. I was also a little reluctant to re-read Shadow King, firstly as I already read in paper and secondly as ( much as I admired what it was doing and like the author) I found it slow going first time.

Not sure the second read changed my views on any of the 3-4 books - if anything it reinforced them and reconfirmed my prejudices on each.


message 210: by WndyJW (last edited Nov 17, 2020 04:09PM) (new)

WndyJW I can’t see that I would reread any of them. I have mixed feelings about the shortlist, my first thought is I didn’t like it, but taken individually I was impressed with the books. Not New Wilderness, and I didn’t read Real Life, but I thought The Shadow King was a substantial book with an important historical story, Burnt Sugar was engaging and darkly funny, Shuggie was moving with wonderful characters. Stewart did a exceptional job showing us the worst of Agnes while maintaining her dignity and her humanity, and while I haven’t read This Mournable Body I’ve heard and read enough to know it was worthy of the shortlist.

It a case of being disappointed about the titles that didn’t make it more than being disappointed with the titles that did make it, with the glaring exception of New Wilderness and, from what you’ve all said, Real Life, and not Apeirogon or TMATL.


message 211: by Emmeline (new)

Emmeline | 1042 comments I read everything except Burnt Sugar, though I bailed early on The New Wilderness and The Shadow King (not a bad book, just emphatically not my thing).

I thought most of the books were pretty good, but I can't say they warmed me to modern literary fiction much. When I started reading the longlist back in the summer I was struck by how overwhelmingly depressing everything I picked up was. I don't shy from books with dark themes, but I do usually like it to be leavened with a bit of hope, a bit of humour, or a bit of intellectual playfulness at some point. The Booker nominees I've read have mostly stood out as being exceptionally heavy.

My favourite is Shuggie Bain. While it was a sad story, it was the only one that seemed to treat its characters as having potential for being sublime and ridiculous and dignified, as well as tragic and flawed. I also think that, despite the author being a white man, it represents diversity in terms of social class that we don't often see, so I hope it wins (but expect it won't).


message 212: by Eric (last edited Nov 18, 2020 05:15AM) (new)

Eric | 257 comments Hi,
I haven't had much to say this Booker season, as I've read only a few selected novels. I also feel like maybe it's a mistake to bring this up. Sorry in advance.

This isn't meant as an attack against anyone in particular, but I do find it disappointing and alarming how many people have mentioned that Shuggie Bain is the most deserving winner, but probably won't be selected because its author is a white man. This has been repeatedly mentioned here, and I find it insulting, misguided and unfortunate. Thank you.


message 213: by Emmeline (new)

Emmeline | 1042 comments Eric wrote: "Hi,
I haven't had much to say this Booker season, as I've read only a few selected novels. I also feel like maybe it's a mistake to bring this up. Sorry in advance.

This isn't meant as an attack a..."


That's fair, and I think I maybe expressed myself badly. I'm more expecting it not to win because my favourites usually don't! Clearly white men still win a lot of (most of?) the prizes.

My point with his being a white man was more that despite that I still think he's one of the more diverse voices on the longlist, having come from, it seems, quite a disadvantaged background. But yes, it was bad of me to link those sentences together and make it sound like I think there's some kind of conspiracy.


message 214: by Ella (new)

Ella (ellamc) | 1018 comments Eric wrote: "Hi,
I haven't had much to say this Booker season, as I've read only a few selected novels. I also feel like maybe it's a mistake to bring this up. Sorry in advance.

This isn't meant as an attack a..."


Hi Eric & Emily,

As Eric said, I don't think it's just been you, Emily, alone who expressed this type of thinking. It's been a consistent theme for more than just this Booker season. Similar sentiment has come up for the last couple of seasons and also come up in other threads, and I fear I may have been careless in expressing thoughts about how many awards are chosen myself.

None of us should assume that people have strikes against them or, in reverse, nobody is a more probable winner, just because of their race, background, religion, beliefs, etc.

That said, I think the world is changing (hopefully for the better) and the general population, including judges, has started to wake up to some of the old assumptions and preconceptions. Not all of us, myself included, are always so graceful in times of social change. Not all of us have the ready vocabulary or know how to say what we're trying to say.

So I think it's great, Eric, that you brought this up, and also that you said it so gently. We appreciate when members call things like this to our attention, and we will endeavor to do better.

Thanks for being so very decent because I think this is something we all need to learn how to talk about with more clarity and precision.

Have a great day/night/afternoon/etc everyone!


message 215: by WndyJW (new)

WndyJW I didn’t find the list exciting either Emily, but don’t let that turn you off modern literature, there’s a lot of great literature coming from small independent publishers that can’t always afford the cost of a Booker nomination.


message 216: by Eric (new)

Eric | 257 comments Emily, I by no means meant to single you out. You just happened to be the person with the most recent reply on the thread. Thank you for not taking personal offense.

Ella, I agree with all you wrote and just want to point out that we all have work to do, myself more than many others! It's easy to be decent and not be on the attack when I have so much to improve on with this issue myself.


message 217: by Paul (new)

Paul Fulcher (fulcherkim) | 13422 comments Reminder the ceremony can be see here live and apparently accessible worldwide: https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/erx3v2/l...


Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer | 10127 comments Seems a little odd this year for Ishiguro to say he prefers the Booker to be won by an author who has been writing for years but under the radar so that when they win we can discover a whole canon they have written (he quoted Anna Burns and Evaristo as examples). The shortlisted authors this year have written 9 novels between the 6 of them (two of which are prequels to a shortlisted book).


message 219: by Paul (last edited Nov 19, 2020 11:20AM) (new)

Paul Fulcher (fulcherkim) | 13422 comments I took that as him saying this year's list was a poor one! Although
Tsitsi Dangarembga would fit the bill in terms of career longevity.

Anna Burns had also published only 3 novels including the one which won.


Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer | 10127 comments The Evening Standard has a bluffers guide to the list (https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/bo...) which includes a list of what NOT to say about each of the books

It’s hard to warm to any of the characters.

How come the women still have tampons after years of living in the wild?

Stuart writes that his characters are “sat at” rather than “sitting at” which is commonplace, but still crass.

All those windy, bloated sentences and use of the present tense are exhausting.

Narrating in the second person present tense is annoying.

How raw and visceral.


message 221: by Paul (new)

Paul Fulcher (fulcherkim) | 13422 comments Given the What to Say for Real Life reads:

"What to say: Can you believe he wrote the book in only five weeks"

Surely better would have been:

"What not to say: It's obvious he wrote the book in only five weeks"


message 223: by Robert (new)

Robert | 2654 comments Ooh busby’s little dig at last year’s winner


message 224: by Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer (last edited Nov 19, 2020 11:41AM) (new)

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer | 10127 comments I missed that - its a little chaotic here as my girls are also watching (what did she say) …………. or was it the "lifetime achievement" comment?


message 225: by Stephen (new)

Stephen | 237 comments Maybe its this quote ?

We didn't set out to tick boxes... we were having to to say goodbye to a lot of books we admired.


message 226: by Paul (new)

Paul Fulcher (fulcherkim) | 13422 comments Wonder how they will do the announcement - hope for the author's sake they aren't all required to be on screen so we get the Oscar style reaction shot


message 227: by Susanne (new)

Susanne | 58 comments Does anybody know the exact time of the announcement? Is it at 8:00 pm UK time?


message 228: by Paul (new)

Paul Fulcher (fulcherkim) | 13422 comments I think a little before that given the program on BBC news finishes at 8pm. Indeed feels it is due in the next minutes....


message 229: by Susanne (new)

Susanne | 58 comments Why do I have a sinking feeling that Real Life will win? I am hoping for Shuggie Bain (especially as I currently live in Glasgow).


message 230: by Stephen (new)

Stephen | 237 comments I'm hoping for Shuggie too


message 231: by Hugh, Active moderator (new)

Hugh (bodachliath) | 4431 comments Mod
Shuggie Bain - phew...


message 232: by Susanne (new)

Susanne | 58 comments Strangely enough, Shuggie Bain was also the funniest book of the lot.


message 234: by Stephen (new)

Stephen | 237 comments Shuggie Bain!!!


message 235: by Susanne (new)

Susanne | 58 comments Yay!!!!!


message 236: by Sam (new)

Sam | 2260 comments Shuggie got a second wind


message 237: by Paul (new)

Paul Fulcher (fulcherkim) | 13422 comments I'd have preferred Shadow King and found Shuggie a bit of a slog, but it's a worthy winner


message 238: by Stephen (new)

Stephen | 237 comments I feel so chuffed being a Scot and living near Glasgow


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