Now this is a bit more like it. My Booker Longlist Forced March continues, but I had high hopes for this book before I picked it up. And they were, for the most part, met and met well. A novel of families who never talk to each other, even though three generations of one family are all squished into one tiny flat in London. Laura was married to Peter until he left her and she was forced to move in with three of his ancient […]
The Tiring of Popcultureboy 2: Tiring Harder
I don’t quite know why I’m doing the Booker Longlist Challenge, since it’s really become a forced march of books I haven’t really enjoyed reading that much. I had high hopes for The Lowland, since the synopsis sounds aces, but it just didn’t do it for me. I found it a mostly frustrating read, difficult characters and an odd blank style don’t really mesh for me. Subhash and Udayan Mitra are brothers growing up in Calcutta, born just fifteen months apart. It’s the politically tumultuous 1960s, and […]
The Tiring of Popcultureboy
It occurred to me while I was reading this book that I have been trying (and failing) to read the whole Booker Prize long list for a really long time now. The first time I attempted it was back in 2004, and I think the reason I have never succeeded in reading the full Booker’s Dozen of 13 books is that some of them I found to be incredibly boring. For every absolute gem (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, I’ll Go To Bed At Noon, […]
You could also use some new ideas
Not only did Bulawayo’s debut novel make it on to the longlist for the Booker, it got to the shortlist. It’s won some other awards too. It seems if you have a child as your narrator, people are willing to overlook AN AWFUL LOT when it comes to the book itself. I found it a patience testing bore and can’t really see why people are loving it so much. The full review is on my blog here and my Booker Longlist challenge continues with my […]
Don’t Fear The Reaper…..
And so my Booker Prize Longlist Challenge of 2013 continues into 2014. Thanks to a random Kindle price slashing day, all but one of the longlist dropped to 99p, and I’d be a fool not to take advantage. So brace yourselves for an onslaught of Really Worthy Books, people! First up is the apparently now retired Jim Crace. If you love historical novels, dive in. If you’re ambivalent, you’ll remain so after reading this I reckon. Full review is on my blog here.