Category: 2010

Categories
2010 Book Prizes

In a Strange Room – Damon Galgut

  Long listed for 2010 Booker Prize

In a Strange Room is made up of three short stories, each describing a journey taken by a South African man called Damon. There is so little plot that it is almost impossible to write a review without letting you know exactly what happens and so I won’t explain any more than that. If you’d like to know these details in advance then I recommend that you read this glowing review from The Guardian. I prefer to know as little as possible before starting a book and so instead of filling you in on the tiny amount of plot I’ll let you know my thoughts on the book.

As you might have guessed I wasn’t a big fan of In a Strange Room. The writing had a cold, almost clinical feel to it and this meant that I failed to engage with Damon (is it just me that gets annoyed when authors name their central character after themselves?). There was also a lack of punctuation, which added to the stilted feel.

What’s the matter.

Don’t you think we should get bigger maps. With more detail. Four or five of them for the whole country.

But what for.

Then we can plan every part of the walk.

But we can plan with this.

But not enough.

They look at each other, this is the first time they’re out of step.

There was a lot of thoughtful wisdom in this book, but there was almost no plot and therefore no forward momentum. Luckily the book was quite short (180 pages of well spaced type) and so I read it in one sitting.

I’m afraid that this one wasn’t for me, but if you enjoy literary novels with more theme than emotion then this may be for you.

Opinion is divided on this one:

….a deeply understood — and equally deeply troubling — narrative of what might happen if you choose to “travel” to escape your demons. Kevin from Canada

I did not care for it very much. Paperback Reader

I thoroughly enjoyed this intellectually engaging novel…. Nomad Reader

 Have you read anything written by Damon Galgut?

Which was your favourite?

 

Categories
2010 Booker Prize

The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson

 Long listed for 2010 Booker Prize

I’m not a fan of books about religion and so wasn’t sure how I’d get on with The Finkler Question. I was right to be concerned as the religious debate took precedence over the plot and I couldn’t bring myself to finish this book.

The book started off reasonably well, with a former BBC radio producer paying to see a fortune-teller in Spain.  You can check Radio Waves to know updates with respect to radio. She tells him to watch out for a woman called Juno. Unfortunately the book went downhill quickly as Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, entered the book. I found the repetitive mention of Juno and its derivatives increasingly irritating.

Treslove and Finkler were sharing a room. ‘Do you know any one called Juno?’ Treslove asked.

‘J’you know Juno?’ Finkler replied, making inexplicable J noises between his teeth.

Treslove didn’t get it.

J’you know Juno? Is that what your asking me?

Treslove still didn’t get it. So Finkler wrote it down. D’Jew know Jewno?

Treslove shrugged. ‘Is that supposed to be funny?’

‘It is to me,’ Finkler said. ‘But please yourself.’

The book then deteriorated further into bizarre Jewish philosophising. At about p60 I lost any interest I originally had and started to skim read.

At page 107 I came across this passage and decided I couldn’t tolerate it any more – my reading time is too precious to persevere with a book that irritates me so much.

‘You can’t just get up one morning and decide you’re a Jew – or can you?’

‘I’ve worked with a lot of people at BH who got up one morning and decided they were not a Jew.’ Josephine said.

‘But it can’t work the other way, surely?’

‘Search me,’ said Alfredo. ‘But I don’t think Dad’s planning to become a Jew. If I understood Uncle Sam he’s got this bee in his bonnet that he already is a Jew.’

‘Christ,’ Roldolfo said, ‘what does that make us?’

‘Not Jewish,’ Josephine said. ‘Don’t worry about it. Jews don’t trust their women in the sack, so you can only be Jewish through the vagina. And I don’t have a Jewish vagina.’

I’m sure this is supposed to be funny, but I just didn’t get it.

The only good news is that this abandonment gives me more chance of finishing my final two books from the long list!

 (DNF)

Categories
2010 Booker Prize Chunkster Recommended books

Skippy Dies – Paul Murray

 Long listed for 2010 Booker Prize

One of the reasons I love reading entire long lists is that I stumble upon fantastic books that I wouldn’t otherwise pick up. I had heard good things about Skippy Dies before the Booker long list was announced, but I couldn’t motivate myself to read 650+ pages about teenagers living in an Irish boarding school. I’m so pleased that I read this book as it was entertaining, gripping and insightful.

The book opens with Daniel ‘Skippy’ Juster dying. At first the reason for his death seems obvious, but the plot then goes back in time and we slowly discover that the cause of Skippy’s death isn’t as simple as people initially suspected.

Much of this book could be described as a coming-of-age story, but unlike most other books which describe the lives of teenagers, this book captivated me. Skippy drew me into his emotionally charged world and nearly managed to make me laugh and cry – something no other book has managed to do. I was amazed at how much the everyday school life engaged me – I flew through the book and found every single one of the pages to be captivating and necessary for the plot.

Skippy’s roommate is Ruprecht, an overweight genius trying utilise M-theory to travel to another dimension. I’m a big fan of complex science in literature, but I’m sure that those who struggle to understand physics will still love Ruprecht’s enthusiasm for invention. As well as physics we are also treated to war poetry, Irish folklore and an array of other subjects – I loved it!

As the book drew to a conclusion I became increasingly impressed with the complexity of the plot. When I reached the final page I wanted to start the book all over again, just so I could see the little clues that I’d failed to pick up on.

This book works on so many levels – it is easy to read, but the text hides enough to entertain multiple re-readings.

I can see future generations studying this book and I think it would be a worthy winner of the 2010 Booker Prize.

Highly recommended.

Have I persuaded you to try this book?

Do you think it deserves to win the Booker Prize?

Categories
2010 Booker Prize

The Stars in the Bright Sky – Alan Warner

 Long listed for 2010 Booker Prize

The gossiping of the teenagers in The Sopranos drove me mad after a while and so I hoped that the girls had matured a bit for this sequel. I was rewarded by twenty-something girls who were slightly more sensible, but I think they need to age at least another five years before I’ll be able read their discussions without wincing!

The Stars in the Bright Sky is set in Gatwick airport. The girls are trying to go on holiday, but unfortunately they aren’t very well organised and so their last minute get-away is proving elusive. While they wait to get on an aeroplane they entertain themselves by drinking and taking drugs in the airport bars.

The first thing I noticed when reading The Stars in the Bright Sky was the improvement in the quality of the writing from that of The Sopranos. The book also relied less on dialogue and I found the vivid descriptions of the surroundings to be a big improvement.

The water feature was beside them, an infinity pool perfectly filled to a suspended mirror of surface encapsulated within an inch rim of black marble. Water trickled somewhere invisibly. Manda used two fingers to draw back her hand like a dart thrower and she precisely tossed her ciggy butt onto the surface then walked ahead.

Unfortunately the girls still had a tendency to gossip. I enjoyed reading their exploits for a while, but as with The Sopranos I got tired of them quite quickly.

My main problem was that very little happened in this book – 200 pages could easily have been removed without loosing anything.

I loved the ending, but there were many points when I considered giving up. I recommend reading the first 100 and the last 50 pages of this book, but the rest was unnecessary padding.

Categories
2010 Booker Prize

February – Lisa Moore

 Long listed for 2010 Booker Prize

On the 15th February 1982, an offshore oil drilling platform sank off the coast of Newfoundland, killing all 84 people on board. February is a fictional account of how one woman, Helen, grieved the loss of her husband, Cal, and how her family learned to cope with his death.

As you can tell from the synopsis this isn’t a happy book. In fact February was so laden with grief that I struggled to read it.  The book flips forwards and backwards through time, showing us Cal as a happy, family man and then the family struggling after his death.

Helen was in a panic as if something very bad was going to happen, but it had already happened. It was hard to take in that it had already happened. Why was she in a panic? It was as if she were split in half. Something bad was going to happen to her; and then there was the other her, the one who knew it had already happened. It was a mounting and useless panic and she didn’t want to faint. But she was being flooded with the truth. It wasn’t going to happen; it had already happened.

This book had very little plot, but for once that wasn’t a problem for me. I’m afraid that my main complaint is that February is just too depressing. It wasn’t shocking or thought provoking – it just slowly dragged my mood down. By the end of the book I was so depressed I had to watch a good hour of comedy on TV in order to recover.

Another problem I had was with the sentence structure. The majority of the book was made up of very short sentences and this meant that the writing didn’t flow very well – it made me feel quite jumpy. I’m sure this was intended for some reason, but I’m afraid it just irritated me.

Overall, this book was just too depressing for me to be able to recommend it, but other people seem to be inspired by Helen’s strength of character.

Opinion seems to be divided:

You really feel Helen’s pain… Monniblog

Moore’s writing is strong and poetic, but parts still fell flat for me. Nomadreader

Lisa Moore achieved something quite beautiful and completely perfect in the final pages….   Dovegreyreader

I’ll just have to acknowledge that writing which disturbs some readers like me is attractive to others. Kevin From Canada

Categories
2010 Booker Prize

The Trespass – Rose Tremain

 Long listed for 2010 Booker Prize

I enjoyed The Road Home and had heard wonderful things about many of Tremain’s other books, so was looking forward to reading her new one. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations and it left me feeling a little disappointed.

Trespass focuses on an isolated French farmhouse. The building belongs to Aramon, a man struggling with alcoholism. His estranged sister, Audrun, lives in a small house in the grounds, but he threatens to ruin her life by selling the farmhouse to Anthony, an English antique dealer. The main theme of the book is sibling rivalry and the boundaries that exist between people, both emotionally and physically.

Unfortunately none of the characters were particularly endearing and so I failed to connect with any of them. It was such a passive reading experience that I often found my mind wandering from the page.

The French countryside was vividly described, but the plot was very slow moving.

Audrun drew her old and frayed cardigan round her body and walked on through the wood, her face lifted to the warmth of the sun. In another month, there would be swallows,  In the hour before dusk they’d circle, not over her bungalow with its low, corrugated iron roof, but over the Mas Lunel, where Aramon still lived. They’d be looking for nesting sites under the tiles, against the cracked stone walls, and she would stand at the window of her flimsy home, or in her little potager, hoeing beans, watching them, watching the sun go down on another day. 

I can’t fault the quality of the writing, but I found the subject matter quite dull. I don’t dream about moving to the French countryside and find the issues with selling property quite tedious, so much of the book held little interest for me.

I was looking forward to the “violent crime” mentioned in the blurb, but although the plot picked up a bit when it occurred, my lack of empathy with the characters meant that I wasn’t as involved as I should have been.

Recommended to those who enjoy quiet books, especially if you are considering a move to France.

Opinions seem quite mixed:

I’d find myself getting lost in it and being mildly surprised that I wasn’t somewhere in the French countryside, but in the cafeteria at work. Just Add Books

The style and the themes hit, but for me, the emotional side of the story didn’t. Fleur Fisher Reads

….hardly goes beyond the ordinary. Kevin from Canada