The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
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Case Study
Booker Prize for Fiction
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2022 Booker Longlist - Case Study
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Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "It certainly passed me by David - have you seen the author refer to that in interviews. I will be curious to see what you think of Seven Moons and the author’s choices there."
I usually don't read author interviews until I'm done. I just did a quick search and didn't see more than a handful about this book.
It's obvious to me yet cleverly obscured in the text - sexual orientation isn't an overt subject of the novel for example.
* Edit: I forgot about the Dick Brogarde interaction. It's clearly sign posted.
This passage:Braithewaite introduced himself to Brogarde with the words 'You're a very good actor.' . . . He had been observing his interactions with various guests at the party. 'Everything you do and say is false,' he said. 'It's an act.' At this point Brogarde looked at him with the supercilious smile familiar to anyone who had seen him onscreen. Before he could reply, Braithewaite continued: 'See, even now, you're acting. You're smiling but your smile is a mask.'
Ok but the previous paragraphs spell things out very clearly. I guess I am missing the subtlety you are implying is in the novel in this “Bogarde lived for forty years with his partner, Tony Forwood, but always denied that he was gay. This was understandable in the 1960s when, as Coldstream puts it, the possibility of ‘exposure’ as a homosexual was to live with the ‘very real fear of state-initiated disgrace’. Even after homosexual activity was decriminalised by the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, public opinion languished a long way behind the law. So Bogarde learned to live a compartmentalised life, oscillating between his public and private selves. Arthur Braithwaite, the ironmonger’s son from Darlington, might have reinvented himself as Collins Braithwaite, but Bogarde’s public profile meant that maintaining the carapace was a necessity in a way that it never could be for Braithwaite. The stakes for Bogarde were considerably higher.”
Sorry just seen your edit - we are agreeing its signposted - it was the subtle part I was missing
I think the paragraph you quoted sign posts the theme and the paragraph I quoted ties it into the rest of the novel.
Thanks - it all just seemed rather clunky and over laboured/explained to me, like the idea that follows in the text that actors are good at playing roles.
Perhaps over explained in the context of the Brogarde interaction in isolation but I think the link to the rest of the novel as a unifying them is a bit more subtle.
Just started this. Loving the style of the opening paragraphs of the first notebook with part in brackets (always the best way to provide ancillary information) and irrelevant digressions (which reminds me to make another point about this and Ezra Maas). Narrator after my own heart - and Miss Lyle the English teacher clearly doesn't know her stuff.
On Ezra Maas strikes me that one key difference is that Daniel James believes in Ezra Maas and in interviews, say, maintains the story set out in the book. Whereas Macrae Burnet admits it is all a game, although setting this up in his blog a couple of years before the book is impressive.Incidentally the blog mentioned two psychologists, one, who seemed equally far fetched, actually real. But the author did then write a fictionalised radio script based on one of the cases:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m...
David wrote: "I will withhold spoilers for After Sappho.I was being a tiny bit provocative by saying Case Study is the queerest book on the longlist but I stand by that assessme..."
It's interesting to see it in that light - thanks!!
I think the reason Paul is loving it and that I really disliked the first half is that the narrator, whilst actually completely different, is reminiscent of Sorry To Disrupt The Peace and Eileen. At least she is to me. Two books I hated. I know Paul loved Sorry... but not Eileen. I seem to remember there was a bunch of books with that type of narrator and that I didn't really like any of them.
Helen in Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, the helpfulness virtuoso, is probably my favourite fictional narrator of all time. This isn’t in that league but then nothing written since is.
David wrote: "I will withhold spoilers for After Sappho.I was being a tiny bit provocative by saying Case Study is the queerest book on the longlist but I stand by that assessme..."
The reference to 'Rebecca' does seem to reinforce that notion, another novel known for a similarly queer subtext, which is also easy to overlook. But I wondered too if he isn't also partly drawing on the concept of Caledonian antisyzygy that's been so significant in Scottish literary traditions as far back as Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Ideas about split or divided selves, buried identities, doppelgangers etc It surfaces in books like The Testament of Gideon Mack which also draws on found documents, testimonies although I don't think the conceit is taken as far as it is in GMB's work.
With the Braithwaite character it did feel rather than Will Self has already done this with Zack Busner.
Mod
I was being a tiny bit provocative by saying Case Study is the queerest book on the longlist but I stand by..."
Interesting that you mention Gideon Mack - that was not the only Robertson novel that arguably belongs to this tradition and I was thinking of him too as I read this. News of the Dead and To Be Continued... also have this kind of structure.
Alwynne wrote: "But I wondered too if he isn't also partly drawing on the concept of Caledonian antisyzygy that's been so significant in Scottish literary traditions."I had to look that up. Case Study certainly does seem to fit within that tradition too. In fact, it might be that Caledonian antisyzygy is the primary mode Burnet is working in, with a queer re-working of that tradition.
David wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "But I wondered too if he isn't also partly drawing on the concept of Caledonian antisyzygy that's been so significant in Scottish literary traditions."I had to look that up. [book..."
Sorry about that David! I love Hogg's novel, and I've read a fair amount of Scottish lit. and came across the term a while ago in relation to that, and it seemed to fit with some of the things you were discussing. So glad it made sense.
And glad, Hugh, that the point about Robertson seems to fit too.
I haven’t read this thread because I haven’t read the book yet, but I ordered Case Study twice. I’m usually pretty good about writing down every book I ordered, what date and from where I ordered it, but somehow I missed this one. I think one copy will arrive towards the end of the month, so if someone in the US needs a copy let me know.
I just finished this. I liked it quite a lot. I am in the camp that feels that the first half was better than the second half, but I actually found the ending unexpectedly satisfying, and I think the book is quite complex and thought-provoking. I have to think about it some more, but I am very glad I read it and that it made its way onto the longlist. Yet another great read on what is clearly (for me) a very strong longlist.
Finished this yesterday morning and so glad it's done. My reaction is "so what?" It is clever and the writing is fine but I just did not care. It's going to be in the bottom 3 when I do my list.
Compulsive reading about interesting characters who become increasingly strange. It's a curious timepiece and a spectacular train wreck. Enjoyable but forgettable.
The S currently squeaks in at number 6 in my shortlist. I’m not sure it’ll stay there though, as while it was a very enjoyable reading experience, other books I have ranked lower have made more of a lasting impression on me. Perhaps this book is more style over substance?? I did really enjoy it though!
Second interviewhttps://thebookerprizes.com/the-booke...
Largely this covers ground in previous interviews
I've started this, have got up to Notebook 2 but am bored. That said, I do agree with David's posts about this being a queer text with all the instabilities of identities above and beyond the impersonations that happen at the plot level.
As well as Rebecca, this has also explicitly mentioned 'the madwoman in the attic', taken from a classic piece of feminist criticism (The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination), and there's a sly little reference to peeling wallpaper low down on the wall of the psychiatrist's surgery which immediately recalls The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story/novella about women, writing and 'madness'.
This all ought to be great for me but... somehow isn't. I wasn't a fan of His Bloody Project either, so not sure whether I'll carry on or not.
Roman Clodia wrote: "I've started this, have got up to Notebook 2 but am bored."It's an entirely valid critique that this is full of interesting themes and allusions (some very subtle) but still boring.
I am still unconvinced that reading popular Women’s magazines gives you a full insight into prevailing culture - although it did mean he avoided some sixties cliches.
Not 'full insight', no - but was he trying to get a feel for the voice of the middle-class, young female narrator? I'd have though it would help him to understand what she might be concerned about and the sort of language she might use.
Actually more to the point the narrator was trying to get herself printed in that same magazine so it makes sense she would mould her attitudes around what she reads and fits the idea of trying on identities. I actually said that in my review but forgot it!!
I was very bored for the first few bits of the book. And then very worried when people kept telling me those were the good parts! But I found the second half much more interesting as one fictional (in the world of the book) character starts to take a more significant role.
At the risk of sounding like Paul, I'd have preferred this if it had been half the length!I felt it was very laboured with the identity is performative theme. And found it hard, even skimming, to get through the dull Braithwaite biography sections.
'Rebecca' was quite fun but the ending was just silly, and the Veronica hook fizzled away and seemed to get forgotten.
Nothing wrong with sounding like Paul. I am currently feeling a bit this way with Seven Moons - it’s good but 200 pages would be plenty.
That’s a book where I think the excess is deliberate and very much part of the book. At least you aren’t desperately trying to read it for a self imposed end July deadline having only procured a copy on the last day of the month.
Agree nothing wrong with sounding like Paul (it’s caused all sorts of chaos in the past including me acting on voicemails on our joint home phone - in the days when those existed- that were actually ones I had left!!)
Yes but 200 pages is already 100 pages of excess over ideal novel length.
Then there was the receptionist (on probation at the time) who refused to put Paul through to me - and in fact hung up on him - as she thought it was me pretending to be someone else and asking to be put through to “me” to test out how good her customer handling skills were.
Haha, the last five emails on identity issues are more amusing than the whole of Case Study!
Roman Clodia wrote: "At the risk of sounding like Paul, I'd have preferred this if it had been half the length!I felt it was very laboured with the identity is performative theme. And found it hard, even skimming, to..."
I loved the braithwaite bio sections!
Robert wrote: "I loved the braithwaite bio sections!"Just goes to show what a tough job novelists have trying to please all us wayward readers :))
This ended 11th for me and I am also not sure the author really merits a second shortlisting https://www.instagram.com/p/CheM3eVML...
It’s taking me too long to read this. I like it, I think the narrator is very funny, but I’m finding it too easy to get distracted. I would put it aside and read Glory then come back to it, but I’m 130 pages in.
I finished it and just read this thread. Very cool that GMB liked and promoted your review, Robert!Very funny that your receptionist hung up on Paul, GY. You could have really tripped her up by saying hello as you pass her on your way into your office, then have Paul walk past her in the exact same outfit and repeat the same greeting as he went into your office.
I liked ended up liking this. I have to sit with it to see how much I liked it. I think it will be a 3 star.
I loved Nameless Narrator/Rebecca, but was bored by Braithwaite. The points where I wondered if I could go on reading we’re always during Braithwaite sections, but then a NN/Rebecca section would begin and renew my interest. Braithwaite was an interesting character, but for some reasons, unlike you Robert, the Braithwaite bio sections took this from a 4 star to a 3 star for me. Maybe I just couldn’t stand him!
There was a lot to this book which has already been discussed so nothing I can add, but I am interested I hearing more about Caledonian antisyzygy. I can’t be the only one who had to write the word down then go look it up! I liked Gideon Mack and was enjoying News of the Dead before I put it down to read something I felt I needed to read first.
I send a copy to my best friend who is a psychoanalyst. I’m curious to see what she thinks of it. (She thought Playthings was brilliant.)
I just finished this one (am now 12 out of 13 for the longlist), and I really liked it actually. I say “actually” because I didn’t have high hopes for this one. The description sounded tedious (a series of therapy visits), and I was expecting something more philosophical and perhaps “heavy.” As it turns out, this was quite funny, entertaining, and even somewhat suspenseful. The ending felt unfinished and not particularly satisfying. The story seemed to just end without any particular closure (not really counting the tacked-on endnote). Nevertheless, I still enjoyed turning the pages and finished this quickly. R. Smyth’s voice is what made this novel work for me.
I liked this too, Gwendolyn. I can understand why it wasn't shortlisted, but personally it was one of my six favorites from the longlist.
The Mookse and the Gripes
Books mentioned in this topic
Playthings (other topics)The Yellow Wallpaper (other topics)
The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (other topics)
Rebecca (other topics)
Case Study (other topics)
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The book is perverse so you're fine. :) What I mean is that the novel itself is perverse in the ways it constructs and moves desire (of characters and readers) in queer ways with the text. So, I'm with David that this is one of the queerest novels on the longlist yet given what is achieved with the text.