The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
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Booker Prize for Fiction
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2023 Booker Prize speculation
fact checker for fiction is my dream job honestly
What role did Fuyuko have in All the Lovers in the Night? It seemed like she was doing a lot of research.
David wrote: "What role did Fuyuko have in All the Lovers in the Night? It seemed like she was doing a lot of research."She is a freelance proofreader. Her editor gives her assignments.
Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "No it’s very much an English language book but with Gujarati or Swahili nouns sprinkled in I think that is pretty common (almost a genre convention in this type of book)."
Anthony Burgess did this sort of thing quite a lot. His Malayan trilogy has a lot of Malay words all over, the Freud section of End of the World News begins with dialogue entirely in German, while the rest of the prose is in English, for about a page or two before the dialogue switches to English. I don't remember who mentioned Apostol, but their mention of some dialogue entirely in Tagalog made me think of this as well.
Emily wrote: "Is that Craig or you riffing on her, GY? Can't decide if I need to read this or not. "For an actual sample of the prose - which carries on like that for 200 pages: https://socratesonthebeach.com/jencra...
Not quite sure why I am dignifying a discussion of the Booker with the genius of Craig as I don't think it's what the prize is looking for.
Jen Craig has been longlisted for the Stella Prize so why not the Booker. Maybe next year she'll have a UK publisher and people like Mark Haber will be on the judging panel.
Because she is Australian and the internationally-open UK prizes seem to be too hung up on US authors and have forgotten Australian literature exists (and she is pretty obscure even in Australia). Her books feel more Goldsmith-y but she would not be eligible I think?
I wish the Booker would leave out the US and focus more on Australian authors!
It may be too US-centric for the Booker, but Open Throat is fantastic. It looks like the UK edition is set for a 27-July release.
wasn't it great!? it does so much in such few pages
Open Throat sounds very good! Too bad it’s too long for Paul.
Justin Torres's new book is also excellent. I don't see a UK release date yet, so it may be one to watch in 2024.
I recently read the latest by Brandon Taylor (which will be an automatic entry) and could not get on with it at all. I may save my review for publication (later this month I think) - I declined to review in NetGalley some months back as I could not get through the first chapter set in a poetry workshop, but I reviewed it recently. Interestingly Taylor’s good friend and fellow Booker longlistee Pam Zhang (https://amp.theguardian.com/books/202...) also has a new novel out (in September in her case) which I hope to get to soon.
Anyone else read either?
Oof, both of them are on my to-miss list after their first books. Taylor's wasn't terrible but I find him deeply annoying on Twitter.
Yes I know what you mean.
Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Yes I know what you mean."So do I.
Interestingly, Laura Miller’s review of Brandon Taylor’s latest novel is mostly about his Twitter feed:https://slate.com/culture/2023/05/lat...
I thought it was a very strange and off-the-wall review until I read your comments here, Emily and GY.
With both Brandon Taylor and Pam Zhang I felt the same way about their debuts: interesting, but sort of hollow in the center, and in a similar way, where a lot of stuff happens but none of it seems necessary, or even coherent.
I actually like Brandon Taylor more on twitter than his fiction. Good review from slate. I’ll probably skip The Late Americans.
It’s an excellent review from Slate
"They spend much of their time...being mean to one another in conversations where the simplest statements are weighted by tons of fraught and exhaustively detailed subtext; reading these scenes is like watching someone dissect a croissant flake by flake."This is a whole review in itself and I'm so jealous of that image.
Agreed I have actually stolen it (with attribution) for my review as it captures what I was trying but failing to describe
I just read the Slate review. It's terrifically done. This new novel sounds way too much like the last book for me to give it a go.
I’m glad I’m not the only one turned off by Brandon Taylor so have no interest in his books.
I'm probably in the minority here, but I really loved Real Life and Filthy Animals- would Taylor's new book be enjoyable for people who enjoyed his previous two or not?
One hundred percent I would say. It’s kind of half way between them
Reproduction by Louisa Hall is getting some noticeable praise in advance reviews, including from Lark: "This is the best book I've ever read."It looks like the Scribner UK edition comes out on the 4th of October, though, which would push it just outside the eligibility period. It might be one to watch if the publication date moves up.
David, "Lorraine" has also posted a review for Reproduction, and it might be the perfect definition of the kinds of books I love (or at least what other people think of them): "slow, mixed up and rubbish!"
There are some one-star reviews, like Lorraine's, that don't put me off at all.
The novel is out next week in the US. Lark's review made me quite eager to read it.
I had requested on NetGalley when it appeared - I had not seen Lark’s review until now so even more hopeful now I will get it.
Perhaps “more keen” that should read.
I also requested it a few weeks back. Nothing doing so far.
Emily wrote: "I also requested it a few weeks back. Nothing doing so far."Me too, not sure why it's just endlessly on my pending list! I don't usually get turned down for stuff but when I do happens fairly fast.
full disclosure: I got an arc because I was asked to consider blurbing the book. I've been saying 'no' to almost all of these requests but something about Louisa Hall has always intrigued me, and I agreed to read it, and I ended up loving it so much. Since what people say on backs of books often strikes me as insincere, and since blurbs may strike you that way, too, I didn't want anyone to see I'd blurbed it and then think I didn't mean what I said in my review here.
I'm not sure what's going on with ARCs here, I requested it a while ago and see there are no reviews for it still on Netgalley, I wonder if they're holding it back for some reason? I don't really know much about her as a writer just found the description appealing.
I was actually declined for an ARC of Reproduction on Netgalley yesterday - so they are responding.It's an odd rollout. It looks like Ecco did a Goodreads giveaway, which can be hit or miss for a literary work, but they're withholding it from circulation on Netgalley.
Lark wrote: "full disclosure: I got an arc because I was asked to consider blurbing the book. I've been saying 'no' to almost all of these requests but something about Louisa Hall has always intrigued me, and I..."My favourite blurbs are the one word ones: "Amazing." "Haunting." "Heartbreaking." I always wonder at what political machinations are going on to get someone to blurb your book, but only with one word.
Emily, every time I’ve blurbed a book the editor has come back with a snappier version of what I wrote, and asked me to approve their version, except with Reproduction, where they printed the whole thing in the US, and used ellipses in the UK. I’m much better at brevity and wit when I hated something. I would guess there are sometimes ruthless editors out there who edit a given blurb down to exactly one word? Anyway I used to think authors must go to blurb school, bec. blurbs all sound so much alike. Now I think their words all get processed a little by the publisher and that’s why there is a sameness.
From its description, Reproduction reminds me of Kate Zambreno's To Write as if Already Dead. I loved the Zambreno but I know it didn't work for everyone.
David wrote: "I was actually declined for an ARC of Reproduction on Netgalley yesterday - so they are responding.It's an odd rollout. It looks like Ecco did a Goodreads giveaway, which can be h..."
That is odd, either they're worried pre-pub reviews will be bad or they want last-minute reviews or they're convinced it'll do well without support, who knows. I just fancied it because it's about Mary Shelley and "Frankenstein", and the author's an academic so assumed it would be decently researched.
What makes it odd is the combination of Goodreads giveaway + restrictive Netgalley release. They've basically given it to people looking for a free book, but not the people who request it specifically.Anyway, I've had my eye on her books for a while but haven't read anything by her yet. Speak was generally well received and then Trinity was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.
As far as I can tell from Netgalley UK either nobody's been given an ARC or it's under a strict embargo, it's been listed since early May so would usually have at least one review featured there by now.
I'm not that interested in her in general, there are very few authors I follow from book to book, just the description of this one that appealed. I've read extracts from the others, the writing seemed perfectly okay just didn't find the territory that enticing. She also has a doctorate in literature so assume has a good grounding where Shelley's concerned or at least knows how to approach the topic.
this sounds like Penance. I've been waiting forever to be approved or declined. I think there are now four reviews on netgalley for it
Yahaira wrote: "this sounds like Penance. I've been waiting forever to be approved or declined. I think there are now four reviews on netgalley for it"Me too! And I love Eliza Clark's work, so that's much more of a blow.
I just want to be acknowledged lol send it to me or put me out of my misery
I've been waiting for Penance on NG too - I read the sample extract and Faber 'liked' my review of that... but nothing on the book itself.
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The Mookse and the Gripes
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There are these other mistakes, like this unmathematical aging of two characters, that creep in through the course of many many drafts. In my case this copy edit fail on my publishers part forced me to stare at every word I’d written and I found so many of these gaffes. I learned that while a ‘good’ copy editor should catch these, it really isn’t part of the job. I’d done things like give the same person two different job titles in the same paragraph. I’d also mistakenly thought a ‘grandmother clock’ was something that could be placed on a dresser when it’s a standing clock. I had to question everything and figure these things out for myself. With the last book, the copy editor had done this fact checking type of stuff for me. I was spoiled.
I guess these errors would be caught with more regularity if there were something like an official ‘fact checker’ role for fiction publishing, but there just isn’t. It’s a shame because frequently things that would have been easy fixes, if they’d been caught pre-publication, will pull me right out of the fictional dream.