The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
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Booker Prize for Fiction
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2023 Booker Prize speculation
Paula wrote: "Also, just stumbled upon a new book that wasn't even on listopia yet but sounds great - The Future Future by Adam Thirlwell."Has been on the Goldsmiths listopia for some time - he's an author that appeals in theory but not in practice when I've read his books.
Lurid and Cute has some seriously unimpressed reviews on here - 2.5 average takes some doing given most reviewers average near 4.
Alwynne wrote: "Oh no! Maybe they check reviews? Didn't you have an issue with Boy Parts?"I put Boy Parts aside as the timing wasn't right but it wasn't an ARC and I didn't review it, I hadn't read enough and knew I'd go back to it. But I did read the extract of Penance on NG and wrote a 'review' which Faber liked!
Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "Oh no! Maybe they check reviews? Didn't you have an issue with Boy Parts?"I put Boy Parts aside as the timing wasn't right but it wasn't an ARC and I didn't review it, I hadn't re..."
That's both weird and frustrating.
I am hearing good things about The Librarianist and am quite eager to read it. Ditto Limberlost.
I found The Librarianist a quirkily pleasant diversion when reading and instantly forgettable after finishing. Feels like the sort of book that would pad out a WP longlist. And (unlike a number on here) I am not against “nice” books - I also thought this was going to be more about reading/books than it was.
I see that RC had mixed thoughts on Loot: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...The comparison to Washington Black is interesting, given that Esi Edugyan is chairing the panel this year.
Loot is eligible for next year, David, the UK edition pub date is January 25, 2024.Another book that's being described as something that would appeal to fans of Edugyan is The East Indian by Brinda Charry. I loved Washington Black and haven't found anything with a similar vibe since then.
Paula wrote: "Loot is eligible for next year, David, the UK edition pub date is January 25, 2024.Another book that's being described as something that would appeal to fans of Edugyan is The East Indian by Brin..."
Indeed, it has the same vibes as Washington Black especially the first chapters
RC’s thoughts about Loop mirror my feelings about Washington Black, which was a 3 star read for me. I thought Washington Black was supposed to be sort of steampunk, but I don’t remember why I thought that.
I think lots of people referred to it as that (really due to the odd balloon device that features), the UK cover emphasised that aspect. There were quite a few references to steampunk last year when the TV amino series adaption was announced.
On the subject of Washington Black this is Esi Edugyan talking about the inspiration behind her novel "I didn't initially set out to write a slave narrative. Several years ago I came across a real-life story about the famous Tichborne case that happened during the Victorian era in England. I started digging into it and found this completely absurd story where Sir Roger Tichborne, a young aristocratic man from a wealthy household, was shipwrecked and missing at sea off the coast of South America. His mother refused to believe he was dead and put notices in newspapers all around the world. A man in Australia claimed to be the missing man and she sends a man named Andrew Bogle, a former slave from a Jamaican plantation and now a member of the Tichborne household, down to Australia to identify him.
"I started thinking about what Andrew's life might have been like, to have been born a slave and raised in such brutality — with a sense of this is your destiny — to be suddenly wrenched out of that life to live in a completely different way and to grapple with a completely different society and set of rules. That's where the interest came from."
Zadie Smith for the longlist?
As we have been discussing Penancehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
Boy Parts sold 60,000 copies - wow.
I’m railing against kids having a smart phone, social media and access to the internet, yet all of that led to Eliza Clark’s success!
Nadine mentioned Our Hideous Progeny in another group. I could see that appealing to the right panel.
60,000 copies for an Indy press published book is extremely impressive particularly given it didn’t say make the Booker. That’s about 60 times par. I think Faber May now be selling the paperback but most of those I assume were through Influx. The author’s next book sounds good - which F+F acquired at the same time as this one.
She’s Always Hungry, a collection of cinematic body horror and speculative fiction. The synopsis explains: "Taking readers from California to Newcastle, from frontier-era America to an unexplored planet in the near future, from a pub down the road to an incel-occupied office IT department, She’s Always Hungry celebrates a darkly comic revelry in everything it is to be human."
I find it amusing the author ultimately went viral in TikTok after her earlier complete misunderstanding of how to influence/rig the Guardian Not The Booker via her Twitter followers.
I just finished Lorrie Moore's new novel I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, which I thought was stunningly written, very complex and very, very wonderful. I may be biased because I have been a fan of her work for decades, but I did not love her last novel (A Gate at the Stairs), and this one really captivated me. It doesn't seem to be wowing people in Listopia, but I think it's quite worthy (and clocks in at under 200 pages).I note that Maggie O'Farrell had this to say about the novel in The Guardian: Moore is always a deft, precise writer whose stories bore through to what lies at the core of the human heart, and whose observations acutely pinpoint the world we are living in. Obligatory reading.
That’s going to be up for me this week hopefully.
David wrote: "Nadine mentioned Our Hideous Progeny in another group. I could see that appealing to the right panel."Our Hideous Progeny is great fun but it's more Women's Prize than it is Booker material. It's best described as Frankenstein meets The Essex Serpent wrapped up in a lesbian love story.
Cindy wrote: "I just finished Lorrie Moore's new novel I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home ... clocks in at under 200 pages"Isn't it 208. I had thought about reading it since Isabel Waidner recommended it - but that had concerned me.
Just added two books to listopia that have won other major prizes and have been published in the UK recently so must surely be eligible - The Sleeping Car Porter (Giller prize) and When We Were Sisters (Carol Shields prize). Any thoughts on these?
Have these found a UK publisher? The Mayr hadn’t last I checked.
Yes, as far as I can see, the Mayr was published by Dialogue Books on May 18, and We Were Sisters by Corsair on June 1st. I don't ever add US editions to listopia to avoid this sort of confusion.
Great catches Paula. Looks like both are eligible. Have you read either of them?The Mayr picked up some fans here during the RoC.
Nope, sadly not! I'm pretty good at keeping track of new releases but very bad at actually reading them, I prefer to wait for the paperback editions :) So would be interested to hear what others think of these two! When We Were Sisters maybe sounds more like a Women's Prize book.
I can see The Sleeping Car Porter making the Booker longlist but I personally wasn't a fan. I think Alwynne and I shared similar reservations.
Paul wrote: "Cindy wrote: "I just finished Lorrie Moore's new novel I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home ... clocks in at under 200 pages"Isn't it 208. I had thought about reading it since Isa..."
The US edition clocks in at 193 pages Paul.
Paul can just read that then as it sounds much more to his tastes.
Mohamed wrote: "Paula wrote: "Loot is eligible for next year, David, the UK edition pub date is January 25, 2024.Paula wrote: "Loot is eligible for next year, David, the UK edition pub date is January 25, 2024.
I am reading Loot right now, and am finding it quite wonderful. Only halfway through though.
Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "I found The Librarianist a quirkily pleasant diversion when reading and instantly forgettable after finishing. Feels like the sort of book that would pad out a WP longlist. And (unlike a number on ..."I agree completely. I loved reading it--a real lark!--and funny!--but once finished, I have not thought of it again.
Laura wrote: "I can see The Sleeping Car Porter making the Booker longlist but I personally wasn't a fan. I think Alwynne and I shared similar reservations."Yes we definitely did, would have made a great short story if the final sections were cut.
I found the Sleeping Car Porter perfectly decent but in no way life altering.
Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Paul can just read that then as it sounds much more to his tastes."Yes that makes all the difference. I really really hope the US editor just deleted the last 15 pages.
Not sure I see Penance as Booker material but it’s a pretty clear attempt to win the Gordon Burn Prize.
how so? (I'm still waiting for an arc) I'm also not familiar with that prize
Cindy wrote: "I just finished Lorrie Moore's new novel I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, which I thought was stunningly written, very complex and very, very wonderful. I may be biased because..."I've just started it now. Like you, I'm a fan of her work except for A Gate at the Stairs, so I have high hopes.
Yahaira wrote: "how so? (I'm still waiting for an arc) I'm also not familiar with that prize"Eliza Clark is drawing on the true crime genre particularly the subsection devoted to rather gruesome murders that provoke speculation about society or about place. Some of her influences are more commercial - podcasts etc But also echoes of writers like Capote in In Cold Blood and Gordon Burn who wrote in a variety of genres but was a kind of literary giant when it comes to true crime, his Happy Like Murderers and Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son were well-received critically but also sensational enough for more commercial audiences. And tbf they are beautifully written, he also wrote fiction that sometimes emulated or at least built on factual material like Alma Cogan, and Born Yesterday, the news as a novel. So Clark's work has an obvious affinity.
but do we think she sat down and wrote a book for years with the angle of winning a specific book prize?
Yahaira wrote: "but do we think she sat down and wrote a book for years with the angle of winning a specific book prize?"I think GY was being slightly flippant. He does that. I think all he meant to convey was that her recent novel is an excellent fit for a prize set up in Burn's memory.
Goodreads keep crashing when I try to reply but I do recommend The Nursery, with the caveat that I wish the translation aspect had been explored more (the mc is a literary translator)
Alwynne wrote: "Yahaira wrote: "but do we think she sat down and wrote a book for years with the angle of winning a specific book prize?"I think GY was being slightly flippant. He does that. I think all he meant..."
I do do that.
But she also explicitly mentions Gordon Burn in the book - the fictional writer of the novel says that Gordon Burn was his inspiration.
Gordon Burn is typically cited as inspiration by many true crime writers, I think Eliza Clark's intention is partly ironic in that her obviously washed-up writer wants to think of themselves as on a par with Burn as the writer who's most revered as far as the true crime genre's concerned. Like Clark I had a long true crime phase and it comes up a lot when writers want to represent their work as more serious/literary than salacious.
I see that Juno Loves Legs is on the Listopia, but I don't think it's been discussed here. Doug is a fan of it.You mentioned Let Us Descend on the other thread. I was thinking that might be a Booker possibility too, but it's scheduled for a 3-October release (both in the US and UK).
Let Us Descend will definitely be a Booker contender in 2024.
I will be reading Juno soon - I agree it’s getting tipped quite a bit.
I really liked Juno Loves Legs. Hope you enjoy it too.
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The Mookse and the Gripes
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Thirlwell was in fact twice Granta nominated which is impressive (and now impossible)