After finishing up the 643-page Booker Prize nominee The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, I've now read three of the thirteen nominated novels, abandoned one, and am about halfway through a fifth. I'll be picking up another The House of Doors from the library on Monday, and have two others on hold that are likely to show up in a week or two, so I feel as if I've put a pretty good dent in the list now.
My personal ranking of the five I'm now familiar with goes like this:
- The Bee Sting - Paul Murray
- Western Lane - Chetna Maroo
- If I Survive You - Jonathan Escoffery
- Old God's Time - Sebastian Barry
- A Spell of Good Things - Ayòbámi Adébáyò
Even though I rated Western Lane a full 5-star book and The Bee Sting something just under 4.5 stars, I still feel that Murray's book is most impactful on the reader because of how superbly developed its main characters are. The only reason I rated it lower is because I'm not a fan of ambiguous endings, especially in a book as long as The Bee Sting. But that's a personal reading quirk of mine, and I'm not completely blind as to how well that kind of ending works here.
Unfortunately, I am coming into The House of Doors with very low expectation that it will be a fit for me, but who knows, I might be wrong. All I know about it really is that it is set in 1921 and that a version of author Somerset Maugham is one of the book's main characters. The whole 2023 Booker Prize list seems to be comprised of really gloomy books, and this sounds like it will fit right in with the rest of the list.
(I've linked my reviews to three of the titles mentioned up above.)
Why is it always gloomy books that win awards? Can't a happy book win just once? I like happy. ;D
ReplyDeleteAs a palate cleanser, I'm totally immersed in Craig Johnson's 19th Longmire novel right now. Longmire is one of two long series that I'm actually caught up with right now, and The Longmire Defense is reminding me exactly why that is.
DeleteInteresting observation that the books that make the Booker list are gloomy. So many literary novels seem to go that way. Hope you enjoy The House of Doors though. We are eager to hear what you think.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the judges (five in this case?) try for a common theme every year in order to add some level of cohesiveness to the process. They really seem similar in nature to me this time around. I've just today started The Ascension which so far seems a little different to the earlier five. Surprisingly as it turns out, this one is very literary science fiction.
DeleteThe House of Doors is another novel I'm curious about... hope it'll be a better fit than you anticipate. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteI hope so, JoAnn. I'll pick it up after breakfast tomorrow but probably won't get to start on it for a day or so.
DeleteI admire you for pursuing this project. I have never been big on gloomy books, but even less so now. But it always depends on the author and the writing as to how much I can tolerate.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really adverse to reading "gloomy" novels, but I've never experienced so many of them in such a short period of weeks; that's not something I would want to do regularly, for sure. But for the most part, the writing has definitely made their most common thing a lot easier to get absorbed in.
DeleteI'm with Lark, I like, if not necessarily 'happy' books, at least positive in their outlook. I understand there's misery in the world, it's on the news every day, I suppose I just want more hope in my reading. I do admire you for taking on this project though, Sam.
ReplyDeleteThe Booker Prize has sucked me in this way for a long time, Cath, but I usually only manage to get to two or three of them every year, not always even the winner of the prize. I do have to say that these lists are exposing me to authors I never otherwise would have given a chance, and that has been a very good thing for my reading. I hope, however, that the judges do not begin to overemphasize diversity of authors over quality of work...exactly what I fear is happening everywhere and in every facet of life way too much already.
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