The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
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The Goldsmiths Prize
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2021 Goldsmiths Prize - speculation
Some initial contenders:The Death of Francis Bacon by Max Porter
(albeit may be not 'full length' and we know one judge wasn't keen)
Xstabeth by David Keenan (and/or, if released, the monumental Monument Maker)
(NB authors can only enter one book)
Little Scratch by Rebecca Watson
Isabel Waidner's new novel Sterling Karat Gold
Redder Days by Sue Rainsford
Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett
Maxwell's Demon by Steven Hall
(I'm currently reading this)
Second Place by Rachel Cusk
Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan
(the 2020 winner praised it in his readings and Q&A last night as an example of a book working across genres)
Perhaps:
The new McGregor Lean Fall Stand as a former shortlistee
What You Could Have Won
A River Called Time
The German cover for Porter’s “Grief...” has just appeared in my feed and it still bugs me that the key character is Crow and the cover shows a rook.Nothing to do with this discussion, but I felt it needed saying somewhere.
I refer you to my review of Rachel Cusk's Kudos https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"Neil was, he said, pleased to see that Rachel had not during the book, made significant reference to birds rather than dogs – as it was his experience, he said, that many otherwise brilliant pieces of literature were spoilt by incorrect avian taxonomy"
Rooks and crows are the same thing aren't they? Birds
I’m not going to rise to that one. Especially as it is irrelevant for both this discussion and this site overall! Just ignore me - it’s only me that is bothered by it.
I’m sure other bird lovers would be annoyed by that Neil. How much effort does it take to find the correct bird for a book cover?
Just read the Steven Hall book Maxwell's Demon - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...I can see it making the list, but for me it had all been done before and better. Very Umberto Ecoish.
Grief is a Thing with Feathers and Lanny are experimental, but clearly Porter knew that Bacon was way, waaay out there and felt he needed to explain his vision and intention.Trying to paint a picture with words or tell a story with colors, not pictures, just colors probably needs to be explained.
I have to say I thought this would be a book I skipped, but now I’m intrigued and plan on reading it.
Wendy, it’s incredibly short. I doubt it will take more than 45 minutes even if you read carefully. That said, I think it needs to be read twice in quick succession, once to get the feel of it and then again to let it soak in. Probably then again later, but I haven’t done that yet. It probably helps that I am a photographer exploring abstract photography, but I really liked it.
I found these some interesting comments from the New Statesman review "I will admit, I didn’t have the author down as a Francis Bacon fan. Bacon is brutal and unsparing, while Porter is a writer who cherishes human kindness and venerates nature ....... Lanny, which had a wacky, generous energy, was longlisted for the Booker Prize and, in my view, should have won it. It was ambitious and experimental but never at the expense of its readers, making Porter a unique voice in British literary fiction – funny, chatty, twisted, disruptive. But not twisted and disruptive like Bacon, who I imagine would find Porter a little twee. I sense Porter knows this – hence, perhaps, the urge to prove to the 17-year-old who pinned Bacon’s edict “We are all meat” on his bedroom wall that he is still on the side of the rebel"
That makes sense to me. When I read it, I was thinking it didn’t feel like the same author as Grief and Lanny. I wasn’t really much of a fan of those two earlier works, although I know a lot of people loved them. This one is much more raw which, if I am honest, is what I was looking/hoping for in Grief given the presence of Crow who is such a raw character in Ted Hughes’ work but some kind of comic in Grief (I am possibly exaggerating for effect). The comments about not having him down as a Bacon fan could equally be applied, for me, anyway, to his use of Hughes’ work.
I see Graham you were very impressed by Little Scratch. Has to be the early prize front runner.
Yes I think so.
I enjoyed Grief is the Thing with Feathers, On Grief and Grieving, Mindset Carol Dweck, The Art of Happiness 10th Anniversary Edition 4 Books Collection Set and didn’t know until afterward that the title was based on a poem. It’s very good.
Is that the name of one book, or is that actually a collection of four books i.e. Grief is the Thing with Feathers comes with Mindset (I've read those two) and the other two books?
Little Scratch and Rebecca watson one of the featured Guardian debut novelists for 2021. This is usually a strong list in terms of books that go on to feature in prizes and generally critical discourse over the next year (eg Shuggie Bain was on 2020 list)https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
It seems to be a selection of individual books that have been gathered together into a single entity on here.
In the Little Scratch interview it says“Rebecca Watson’s debut, Little Scratch, was inspired by an embarrassing incident at the offices of the Financial Times, where she works as an assistant arts editor. “An older male colleague walked past and asked me what book I’d been reading recently and my mind went blank. I could hear the air conditioning whirring, I could see the crumbs on the table, but I couldn’t think of a single book,” she says. “When he’d raised his eyebrows and left I sat down and thought, what just happened there? How would you write that exact life experience, with all its conflicting thoughts and feelings, in real time, in the present tense?””
In the book when this scene happens and desperately casting around for any book she can remember at all - she suddenly has a mind picture of a plain but distinctive cover. White with clear blue lettering of the title . I am sure those here will immediately guess the (not mentioned) publisher.
Interesting to read all the positive views on Little Scratch here as I felt that the writerly choices Wilson makes were less successful at achieving the texture of bodily experience that she was striving for. What I think of as her free-form internal voice (not, strictly speaking, stream of consciousness) isn't one that I recognise as the noise in my head as it's too grammatically formed, too self-aware and conscious, even laughing at its own little jokes. It's also the case that (and I realise there's no easy way to do this) experience is still translated into words, we're still listening to a mind speaking to itself, not experiencing what happens to a body which might be where the book was trying to go.
It is interesting to use columns to structure parallel events, so one column to quote e.g. reading of texts on the commute while another is the inner commentary on them but the book doesn't escape its own textuality.
Apart from the typography, this struck me as wrestling with the same issues as Woolf was in her The Waves, published in 1931. That struggled with how to capture the experience of death as opposed to Little Scratch the trauma of assault, but I can't help feeling that this book is less radically experimental than it might appear.
I applaud what Wilson is striving to do both in terms of topic and formal innovation but it was less successful for me than I'd hoped.
I had seen that in your review RC - and not completely sure I could identify with it eg you don’t make little jokes in your thoughts and laugh at them to yourself? It’s interesting you talk about the noise in your head - for me it’s a voice.
And I guess I saw this intended as the voice in her head not somehow her body I think if you read the Guardian article there are copious references to mind and thought and feelings and none I could see to body.
But aren't feelings experienced as much in the body as in the mind? Isn't her trauma a physical violation as well as a mental one? And isn't her avoidance of speaking of it stemming from something deeper than words?You're right that there is a conscious voice in my head which is 'grammatical', for want of a better term, but I felt that the columns were intended to distinguish between this conscious voice and other 'voices' or feelings that are more fleeting, impressionistic, not tied so securely to words, and I didn't think that worked.
I like the way Wilson recognises these multiple dialogues that exist internally but I didn't find the book overall a convincing reflection of the complexities of interiority. Maybe that's simply not possible to do in textual form when we experience life through feelings, emotions and physicality, through wordlessness as well as words?
So I liked the ambitions of the book but it didn't quite pull it off for me.
I haven't read little scratch (yet), but this idea of the voice (or whatever it is) in our heads is fascinating. Just before Christmas, I read Soul Catcher which I think is another attempt at capturing the noise that exists in our minds. It's a dark book and I should warn everyone that the first page might make you want to stop reading immediately but it doesn't carry on in the same way. But in my review I talked about how there are times when we are writing stuff down where we get mentally distracted and stop writing until we realise what has happened and pull our thoughts together again. It feels that what Bortnikov does is to somehow just keep on writing through the distraction - he's trying to capture that freewheeling. It makes for a very confusing and disorienting read but might be aiming in a similar direction.
Gumble's Yard wrote: "I think if you read the Guardian article there are copious references to mind and thought and feelings and none I could see to body."I think the 'little scratch' of the title, a displacement activity and gesture of self-harm, invites us to consider the role of the body - could it possibly be that the Guardian article missed that? ;)
In any case, a book just made for discussion and variances of opinion.
Agreed on the differences of opinion. But you are right that the body is there throughout e.g. at both the very opening and closing of the book she is firmly in her body, although even there I think we see her mind working overtime - observing her body, commenting on it to herself etc.
I was composing and writing my comments at 27/28 while walking up and then down a steep hill - I was sometimes conscious of my body, particularly when I nearly slipped in the mud, but I was also thinking of your review and comments, what I felt about it, how I might express that, then flicking back to open Goodreads to read my review, the Guardian to read her interview (I should not have used the word article as the thoughts in it are all her own), and happened to have a WhatsApp from my Mum and from my partner.
I guess for me the way the book is written seemed very real at that point.
The author seemed to like my review anyway (from Twitter) so I am guessing I captured something of what she was aiming at.
Paul wrote: "Is that the name of one book, or is that actually a collection of four books i.e. Grief is the Thing with Feathers comes with Mindset (I've read those two) and the other two books?"Wow, I meant to add the link to Grief is the Thing with Feathers because I appreciate that convenience, knowing it’s not easy to do when posting from a phone, if a book is mentioned for a first time in a thread. I just discovered that I must have searched for Grief is a Thing with Feathers which brings up those books for some odd reason.
If I wasn’t interested in Little Scratch before this discussion has piqued my interest. I would have been interested though. Understanding how the mind works, the impact the messages, positive and negative we give ourselves has on our self-identity, our “monkey mind” that we become keenly aware of when we try to meditate or focus on something, are topics that I have spent a fair amount of time reading and thinking about.
That description sounds great! Thanks!
WndyJW wrote: "If I wasn’t interested in Little Scratch before this discussion has piqued my interest.Yes, any book that makes us think at this level is worth reading, I'd say.
I've just finished Second Place which is superb.
Derek wrote: "Assembly by Natasha Brown might be one to watch as well."That's an inspiring set of precedents!
I am just over halfway through Second Place and liking it a lot.
There is a lot in Second Place - Paul’s review for example concentrated on the links to Lorenzo in Taos, I was more spotting auto-fictional references and RC uncovered thematic depths. I rounded down to 4 stars - partly as I just find that the author sometimes teeters on the boundary of genius of pretentiousness - but I think need to revisit that
Assembly sounds fabulous to me - and I find the authors background (Maths degree at Cambridge, working in financial services) rather intriguing also. Paul has to be one for you - the heroine is an investment banker and it’s apparently very short (the proof for which publication right were bid was only 80 pages)
Gumble's Yard wrote: "There is a lot in Second Place - Paul’s review for example concentrated on the links to Lorenzo in Taos, I was more spotting auto-fictional references and RC uncovered thematic depths. I rounded do..."I think I am contractually obliged to write a review for NetGalley, but I can't see how I can write anything helpful for posting on Goodreads that isn't just copying the three of you.
Don't worry, Neil, there's so much to be said about Second Place that there's lots of room for many, many reviews!
Mod
A familiar problem!
WndyJW wrote: "Wow, I meant to add the link to Grief is the Thing with Feathers because I appreciate."I did wonder as it seemed a slightly odd thing to mention. I was briefly excited, as a Mindset and Porter fan that someone had managed to combine them and the Dalai Lama into one innovative meta-piece. Indeed I was about to award the 2021 Goldsmiths there and then and shut down the speculation!
And yes Assembly sounds very interesting - thanks Derek.
Assembly by Natasha Brown is not yet linked in GR add book/author. The title and author are there, but no summary or cover.There is no indication why those 4 book are sent as a collection. I can see two books about grief and one about happiness working together, but having the correct mindset for success seems odd girl out in this mix.
In some nice news, the Chair of Judges - Nell Stevens- and her partner (Eley Williams - 2018 RoC winner and 2021 RoC judge) had a baby boy this week.
Gumble's Yard wrote: "In some nice news, the Chair of Judges - Nell Stevens- and her partner (Eley Williams - 2018 RoC winner and 2021 RoC judge) had a baby boy this week."That's lovely news. I have become a real fan of Eley Williams since reading The Liar's Dictionary. Her short story collection (Attrib...) won't be out in the US for another few months.
A few of us on this group picked Attrib. for its first book prize win
Gumble's Yard wrote: "A few of us on this group picked Attrib. for its first book prize win"Nice (but not surprising) to know that I am in good company!
I seem to be missing a name in this thread so far….
I read Luckenbooth and enjoyed it, but I don’t see that it qualifies for a Goldsmith. It was a fun, straightening spooky story of stories that spanned a century, but not form expanding.Ang, didn’t you tell us your son was accepted to or graduated from Goldsmith? I thought of that while reading Bolt from the Blue, which also mentions a fair few of the books this group has talked about in the past.
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The Mookse and the Gripes
Books mentioned in this topic
Variations (other topics)Siphonophore (other topics)
Assembly (other topics)
Assembly (other topics)
Alexandria (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Caleb Azumah Nelson (other topics)Nell Stevens (other topics)
Fred D'Aguiar (other topics)
Kamila Shamsie (other topics)
The shortlist will be announced on 6 October 2021 and the winner on 10 November 2021.
Judging panel: Nell Stevens (Chair), Fred D'Aguiar, Kamila Shamsie and Johanna Thomas-Corr.
Rules here: https://www.gold.ac.uk/media/docs/gol...
In summary:
- for a work of fiction that is genuinely novel and embodies the spirit of
invention that characterises the genre at its best
- full-length novels by authors who are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland, or who have been resident there for previous three years
- publisher must be based in the UK or the Republic of Ireland
- no translations, short stories or reissues, and author must be alive
- staff and students of Goldsmiths, University of London, past or present, are ineligible [NB this usually rules out several strong contenders each year]
Listopia here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...