A total of 132 books, 11 of which were called in by the judges, were considered for the ‘Man Booker Dozen’ longlist of 13 books, which is:
A S Byatt The Children’s Book (Chatto)
J M Coetzee Summertime (Harvill Secker)
Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze (Jonathan Cape)
Sarah Hall How to Paint a Dead Man (Faber)
Samantha Harvey The Wilderness (Jonathan Cape)
James Lever Me Cheeta (Fourth Estate)
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate)
Simon Mawer The Glass Room (Little, Brown)
Ed O’Loughlin Not Untrue & Not Unkind (Penguin – Ireland)
James Scudamore Heliopolis (Harvill Secker)
Colm Toibin Brooklyn (Viking)
William Trevor Love and Summer (Viking)
Sarah Waters The Little Stranger (Virago)
Here is a list of books that I wouldn’t see every day. This needs some thinking about. According to Wikipedia the Man Booker is:
is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations or Ireland.
The important word here is literary. It’s not a dirty word or anything like that but it does put a certain emphasis on depth and quality of prose. These might not be to every ones taste and I’ll happily admit that it’s not a genre I spend a lot of time in. Mostly because I enjoy escapism in my fiction and literature rightly or wrongly always makes me think of spotlights and onions. Spotlights as they can be very unforgiving lighting up every crease and pore. And onions because they peel away the layers exposing things.
That’s not always true it’s a good enough shorthand for my first thoughts when I hear the world. It’s also that lingering and layers that I find too rich on occasion and too long and boring on others.
I do always pause when the Booker list comes out. It’s an interesting snapshot of a the other side of fiction. I like my reading to contain ideas but also sense of escapism and otherness. Something away from reality. So the question comes up. What would I choose to read from the Booker?
The Little Stranger by Sarah Walters immediately stands out. Not only is it part of my Summer Reads 2009 but is falls into the otherness category being a ghost story et al.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Part of the blurb on Amazon says:
With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage.
See I wasn’t wrong when I was talking about onions. I can’t help but think of Carry on Henry but I was recommended this one by someone on Twitter and it’s one that has been on the radar for a bit.
Those are the obvious ones for me. I’m struggling to choose any of the other 11 that interests me. I’m sure they are all interesting in their own way but nothing that makes me think I need to read that.
Nope I genuinely can’t that if I had a voucher for Waterstones burning a hole in my pocket I’d pick any of the rest. I wonder what that says about me and literately fiction or at least me and the Booker choices?
Interesting post. I think I'm pulled and pushed by the label of 'genre fiction' just as you are by the term 'literary fiction'. I'm happy with the Booker list this year, quite a good mix for my tastes, which are very much up the literary end. I think in recent years the Booker has got away from being too high brow or heavy going. Year after year there are actually a good number of books that are enjoyable to read. And this year they look like they've steered away from too many political agendas too.
I think the Waters is probably most up your street – my copy arrived today so I'll know more when I've read it, but perhaps you could be tempted to read a fictional autobiography of a chimp actor too?
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I've had Walter's for ages and keep failing to find a slot for it. I think I'm going to read it with the two other house books I've got – Mythago Wood and A Proper Education for Girls.
No chimps – the only chimp I like is Clyde and that's tenuous
I think I want the Booker to be challenging and political and to highlight the those books that should be aspiring to read. It'll be interesting to see the main shortlist. Though I like your comment that these choices are more accessible.