Tag: Booker

Categories
2000 - 2007 Booker Prize Orange Prize Recommended books

Fingersmith – Sarah Waters


This book was one of the oldest, unread residents of my book shelves. Although I wanted to read it, I kept putting it off as I had already seen the excellent BBC adaptation of it, and I don’t normally like reading books when I know the plot. So when the Orange Prize readers Yahoo group announced it was Sarah Waters month , I decided that this was the incentive I needed to finally take it off the shelf.

I’m really glad I did, as it is one of the best books I have ever read. It didn’t matter that I knew what was going to happen, as the writing was so vivid, that it took the story to a whole new level.

The pace was perfect, despite being 550 pages long, my interest was held throughout. I enjoyed reading this book so much that I was torn between the desire to read it, and not wanting it to come to an end.

It completely immerses you in Victorian England. I loved the way the story was told by the two orphan girls. Seeing everything from two different  perspectives was very clever, and added to the suspense.  The intricate details of the plot, and  all the twists and turns make this a very well constructed novel. It’s hard to describe the plot without giving some of it away, so I won’t try to. I just urge you to read it.

Highly recommended.

Winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Dagger for Historical Crime Fiction. Short listed for both the Orange and the Booker Prize.

Categories
Booker Prize

Headlong by Michael Frayn

Headlong by Michael Frayn was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1999.

Headlong is the story an art historian who spots a lost painting by Breugal in his neighbour’s house. He sets out to obtain the painting by any means possible, in order to bring himself fame and fortune. For the best paintings, visit Fibre Design website.

As I know next to nothing about art, I was worried that I would find this book difficult to read, but the technical terms are explained simply and the descriptions of the paintings are so wonderful that I almost felt I knew what they looked like.

The plot is fairly fast paced, and I love the many moral dilemmas concerning the value of love, friendship, trust and wealth. I got slightly bored by the sections on the history of Breugal, but the rest of the book made up for these, and I loved the ending.

As so much of the plots hinges on parts of Breugal’s paintings I feel that it would have been beneficial to have some pictures of the paintings in the book. I ended up looking for them on the internet, and as a result of seeing the pictures I felt I had a much better understanding of what was going on.

It’s a great book, with well researched content and realistic characters. I recommend it, as long as you can put up with the history!

Categories
Booker Prize

G by John Berger

‘G’ won the Booker prize in 1972. It is about the life of a privileged family, living in Italy, at the turn of the century.

The majority of the book was the fairly boring story of ‘G’. I felt very little empathy for his character, and got more disinterested in his life as the book went on.

Very early into the book a few graphic sex scenes are thrown in. I say thrown, as there seems to be no real reason for their presence. They do not add anything to the story line, and seem only to be there to shock the reader. I was not shocked, but this along with the childish drawing of penises make parts of this book feel as though they are written by a teenage boy.

There are a few more sex scenes later on in the book, which at least seem to be part of the story, but again brought the book down to a much lower level. It then deteriorated into inane ramblings by the author, about the quality of sexual experiences.

There were a few interesting historical pieces in the book, but it wasn’t worth having to read the rest of the book, just for these few, short paragraphs.

Overall, the book felt very disjointed. The characters were shallow, and I would only recommend this book to teenage boys in need of a bit of sexual education!

1 star out of 5.

Categories
Uncategorized

The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

‘The White Tiger’ won the Booker Prize earlier this year (2008). It is a tale of two very different Indias – Balram is a poor, former teashop employee, who lands a job as a chauffeur to a rich landlord. The differences between the two lives are revealed, as Balram’s aim to become as rich as his employer take shape.

I was interested to see if it could live up to all the hype. Unfortunately it didn’t. The book started off badly, with a letter from Balram, to the Chinese Premier. The informal, chatty tone grated on me, and the letter (which lasted for the majority of the book) seemed and distracted from the real story that was being told. On a positive note, I liked the suspense of how Balram’s crime was gradually revealed to the reader.

The plot was fairly average – nothing stood out as being particularly clever, or insightful. The characters lacked any depth or personalityunrealistic, and as a result I felt no compassion for their situation.

It was a reasonable read, but instantly forgettable. I wouldn’t recommend it, and it’s certainly not worthy of a Booker Prize.

Also reviewed by You’ve Gotta Read This and Mysteries in Paradise

Categories
1990s Booker Prize

Amsterdam – Ian McEwan

‘Amsterdam’ by Ian McEwan won the Booker prize in 1998. It begins at Molly’s funeral, which is attended by her husband George, and three of her previous lovers: Vernon, Clive, and Julian. In the days after her funeral Clive and Vernon make a pact that binds them together forever.

I read it in one sitting, but this was more due to the fact it was such a short book, rather than because it was any good. It was fairly well written, but the characters failed to engage me. I found many sections quite dull, and started to wish the book would end, so I wouldn’t have to endure them any more. I’m sure there was a lot of humour and irony in there, but it’s not that not the sort of thing that I find amusing.

The ending was a big disappointment. I could see it coming a mile off – even the cover illustration seems to give it away! The whole plot just seemed a bit child-like in it’s simplicity.

Overall, I was yet again disappointed by a Booker winner. Do I really want to read them all?!!

Categories
2000 - 2007 Booker Prize

Bitter Fruit – Achmat Dangor

‘Bitter Fruit’ is set in post-apartheid South Africa, and explores the harsh realities of a mixed race family living in this transitional period. The central character is Mikey, and the book follows him as he discovers that his mother was raped by a white police officer.

It started off well, and there were many similarities between this book and ‘Purple Hibiscus’, both in writing style and content. Unfortunately, I began to lose interest about half way through the book. The characters failed to come alive for me. The surroundings were only described very briefly, so the sights and sounds of Africa did not come across, as they did in ‘Purple Hibiscus’ or ‘The Famished Road’. I felt like I was being told about these events, rather than feeling as though I was a part of them, as you are with a really good novel.

The reactions the characters had to the difficulties they faced didn’t seem very realistic, and the incest especially, seemed to have been thrown in for shock value, rather than any genuine reason.

Overall it was fairly average, with a reasonable plot, but characters that failed to engage me.