Category: Orange Prize

Categories
Orange Prize Other

Who will be longlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize?

The longlist for the 2012 Orange Prize will be announced on the 8th March.

The prize is awarded to the woman who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best, eligible full-length novel in English.

Here is my prediction for the 20 novels that will be selected on Thursday:

State of WonderThe Buddha in the AtticSarah ThornhillThe Forgotten Waltz

Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright

 

Gillespie and IA Cupboard Full of CoatsThere but for theCaleb's Crossing

Gillespie and I by Jane Harris

A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards

There but for the by Ali Smith

Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

 

The Land of DecorationPainter of SilenceThe Good MuslimAll is Song

The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen

Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding

The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam

All is Song by Samantha Harvey

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The Roundabout ManAll That I Am22 Britannia RoadThe Snow Child

The Roundabout Man by Clare Morrall

All That I Am by Anna Funder

22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

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SolaceThe DovekeepersMr FoxThe Lifeboat

Solace by Belinda McKeon

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

Mr Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

 

Which books do you think will make it onto the Orange longlist?

Have I missed any obvious contenders?

Categories
1990s Orange Prize Thriller

Hen’s Teeth – Manda Scott

Hen's Teeth Short listed for 1997 Orange Prize

Five words from the blurb: mysteriously, dead, hens, scientists, Glaswegian

Hen’s Teeth is a thriller set on a farm near Glasgow. One of the farm’s owners is discovered to have died from a heart attack, but because her brother died in the same way, just two weeks earlier, her friends are convinced that both deaths are suspicious and they set out to discover who killed them. The only clue they have to go on is the mysterious theft of the hens…

I found this book very engaging and flew through it in just two days. The central characters were well formed and I loved the way we were given details of their back story. I also liked the way that the central characters were gay, but the relationships were portrayed so naturally that the reader barely notices.

As a former vet Manda Scott does a fantastic job with the science in this book. I often complain that science isn’t handled very well in fiction, but this book is one of the few that includes it in an intelligent way, without scaring the average reader.

My only complaint is that many aspects of the plot were far too convenient. The characters just happened to know exactly the right person to solve every problem they encountered and some of the plot points were a bit far fetched for me (the scene with guard dogs had me rolling my eyes the most!).

Despite these criticisms I found Hen’s Teeth very entertaining and I’m keen to try Manda Scott’s other books.

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Have you read anything by Manda Scott?

Her Boudica books look especially interesting. Do you think I’d enjoy them?

 

Categories
2010 2011 Orange Prize Other Prizes Pulitzer Prize

A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan

A Visit From the Goon Squad

Winner of 2011 Pulitzer Prize
Longlisted for 2011 Orange Prize
Winner of 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award

Five words from the blurb: popular, humourous, lives, interact, loss

A Visit from the Goon Squad seems to have won more awards than any other book this year. There is no question that it is a groundbreaking novel (how many other books do you know containing an entire chapter written as a powerpoint presentation?), but I think this is going to be one of those books that divides opinion. Unfortunately I fall into neither camp – I’m going to sit on the fence for this one. For the best music related show and all simply go and check this.

A Visit from the Goon Squad shows an array of characters at various important moments in their lives. The book flips forwards and backwards in time and it is often hard to know who is narrating, let alone what period of time each character is in. Things do eventually fall into place, but a great deal of concentration is required to piece everything together.

The writing was easy to read and allowed an instant connection to be formed to each character, but I’m afraid I didn’t have any real interest in what the characters did. The music and PR industries have never interested me and so all the wonderful satire went over my head.

Very little actually happens in the book and although some of the scenes were fantastic I reached the end feeling a little bit let down. It all felt a bit too gimmicky for me.

Charlie doesn’t know herself. Four years from now, at eighteen, she’ll join a cult across the Mexican border whose charismatic leader promotes a diet of raw eggs; she’ll nearly die from salmonella poisoning before Lou rescues her. A cocaine habit will require partial reconstruction of her nose, changing her appearance, and a series of feckless, domineering men will leave her solitary in her late twenties, trying to broker peace between Rolph and Lou, who will have stopped speaking.

There was no real message behind the book and so I didn’t think the effort was worth it.

The best thing about this book is that it is impossible to read without forming an opinion on it – you’ll love it or hate it, or perhaps, like me, you’ll find you do both in equal measure.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

…it just might make your brain explode…but in a very pleasing way. The Book Lady’s Blog

I recognize the genius of what Egan is doing but my main reaction after many of the chapters was “Huh.” Life with Books

There is a very, very fine line between quirky, original, and ambitious and plain old annoying. I think that A Visit From the Goon Squad is firmly on the side of awesome. Amused, Bemused and Confused.

….it was a bitter disappointment. Always Cooking Up Something

Categories
Orange Prize Other

Who will win the 2011 Orange Prize?

The winner of the 2011 Orange prize will be announced next Wednesday, but who will pick up the trophy?

I think that the shortlist is very strong and, unlike previous years, there is no obvious front runner.

My personal favourite is Room, but the long list selection proved that the judges favor more literary novels and so I’d be surprised if it won.

I think the real discussion in the judge’s secret chamber will come down to whether The Memory of Love or Great House should win. The Memory of Love has recently won The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and so many people are tipping it to win the Orange, but whilst I admired the writing I found the plot so slow that it was almost non-existent. Great House has a complexity not present in The Memory of Love and this will mean that the re-reading the judges must do will reveal many extra qualities missed on a first reading. This won’t be so true for The Memory of Love. It is a tough call and I’m sure the judges will spend a long time agonising over the decision, but I think in the end they will decide that Great House should win the Orange prize.

The bookies don’t agree with me. William Hill currently have Room as the favourite:

Book

Odds of Winning Orange Prize
Room 2/1
The Memory of Love 3/1
Grace Williams Says it Loud 5/1
Great House 5/1
Annabel 6/1
The Tiger’s Wife 6/1

This is probably due the fact that the other titles aren’t as well known as Room, rather than an indication of the relative quality of the books.

Who do you think will win the Orange Prize on 8th June?

Categories
2008 Orange Prize

Monster Love by Carol Topolski

Monster Love Longlisted for the 2008 Orange Prize

Five words from the blurb: perfect, next door, gullible, alive, wrong

A few weeks ago I read Kim’s review of Carol Topolski’s new book, Do No Harm, and noticed that Kim described Topolski’s earlier book, Monster Love, as: 

“…one of the most disturbing novels I’d ever come across.”

These words are like catnip to me and so I checked out a copy the next time I went to the library.

Monster Love is set in a beautiful suburban street. A new couple, the Gutteridges, move in and they appear to be a normal couple, but behind closed doors they are subjecting their daughter to an almost unimaginable horror. The book is told from the view-point of those who knew the Gutteridges; people who feel a terrible burden of guilt on discovering the truth, as with hindsight it is possible they could have done something to prevent the suffering.

With her, it was like reaching for something quite ordinary, like a knife or a fork, and banging your knuckles against a pane of perspex. You have a couple more goes until, blowing on the bruises, you give up and look for the cutlery in another drawer. She was never anything but polite, never challenging or controversial, smiled prettily at one’s jokes, but it never felt like a response, more the logical result of a calculation.

This book had a fantastic beginning – a dark sense of foreboding built up as we slowly discovered what was happening inside that home. I found the insight into the minds of all the people frighteningly realistic and the scene in which the police finally entered the house was shockingly well written.

Unfortunately everything began to unravel once I knew what had happened. I found the couple’s reasoning all too believable, but the book had lost its forward momentum. All my sympathies were with the child and the guilt ridden acquaintances and so discovering the events in the couple’s past that had triggered their malice held little interest. I also found that the characters all tended to sound alike and so the chapter headings were vitally important in revealing who was speaking.

Topolski’s career as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist has clearly been useful in creating a realistic insight into the minds of a wide range of people, but I wish that the truth had been revealed later in the novel.

Despite these criticisms this book had enough to interest me all the way to the end and I’m keen to try her latest book, Do No Harm, at some point in the future.

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Have you read anything written by Carol Topolski?

Categories
Orange Prize Other

The 2011 Orange Prize Shortlist

The Orange Prize shortlist has just been announced as:

I predicted four out of the six correctly, but I was surprised that A Visit from the Goon Squad didn’t make the list – especially since it has been winning every prize it has been eligible for recently.

Who will win the Orange Prize?

I have no idea! I would guess that Great House or The Memory of Love has the greatest chance of winning, but as Room has been shortlisted I think it will still be in with a chance. I also wouldn’t be surprised if The Tiger’s Wife took the title – in fact I don’t think the field has been this wide open for a while.

What do you think of the shortlist?

Who do you think will win?