2023 Int Booker longlist - A System so Magnificent...

[Hugh, Active moderator]

A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding  by Amanda Svensson, translated by Nichola Smalley

[Paul]

85 pages in and feels this is trying a bit too hard to be quirky.

It feels a bit The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who ... and not really a Booker book.

But another famous quirky author is Ali Smith and the author of this is her translator, so perhaps it heads that way.

Wish it was shorter though - it's also very slow paced (nothing's really happened in what's enough pages to write a novel)

[Paul]

I'm now on page 89 - that's about as fast as I can read this. It's annoying me quite a lot - the prose is very Janet and John

And it isn't the translator as she previously did Wretchedness which is rather different in style.

[Yahaira]

I was interested in this book, but now not so much. I remember dnf'g the hundred year old man just a few pages in

[Paul]

Well I've not actually read that so this may bear no resemblance. But I am not finding it very worthwhile.

[Paul]

A Book So Terrible It is Shocking

That was utterly dreadful. Think I malign the 100 Year Old Man and Scandi literature generally as it’s a very anglo-Saxon novel and the author actually lives in the UK (moved here post Brexit).

[Yahaira]

you finished it so quickly!
I'm halfway through and it's fine? Quirky and commercial. Still waiting for something to happen though.

[David]

I'm puzzled by this one. I feel like there's some crucial context I'm missing with it. The tone is pure camp - but without a queer sensibility I'm not sure what the point is.

I realize there aren't many fans in this group, but is there a generous account of what this is trying to do?

These reviews seem similarly puzzled and I'm not sure they know what Svensson was trying to do either:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

Paywalled: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/bo...

[Yahaira]

I still haven't figured it out and anyone I ask gives me very generic answers.

[David]

This comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9MlS...

[Paul]

Get longlisted for the International Booker by writing a biscuit book

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

You have tried this biscuit line about 5 times in multiple threads but no one is biting

[Nadine in California]

David wrote: "Paywalled: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/bo..."

Interesting review, but what eclipsed the whole review for me was the word "nitid", which I've never heard before and will probably never hear again.

[Yahaira]

Nadine in California wrote: "David wrote: "Paywalled: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/bo..."

Interesting review, but what eclipsed the whole review for me was the word "nitid", which I've never heard before and will probab..."

that word still haunts me