Man Booker Prize 2010

The longlist for this year's Man Booker Prize was announced this afternoon:

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
The Long Song by Andrea Levy
C by Tom McCarthy
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
February by Lisa Moore
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
Trespass by Rose Tremain
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
The Stars in the Bright Sky by Alan Warner

Ha, we were posting at the same time! I'll get rid of mine, because your touchstones all worked.

I've read a big fat zero of these so far, but would like to read The Long Song and The Thousand Autumns.

This is the link to the announcement from the Man Booker Prize web site:

Longlist announced for Man Booker Prize 2010

From this list I've read The Long Song and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet; the Levy was good, and the Mitchell was great. I own the Galgut (as its three parts are in three issues of The Paris Review) and the Tsiolkas. I think I ordered the Murray recently; I'll have to check on this.

Off to The Book Depository...

LOL I see I wasnt the only one waiting online for this!! I own the Mitchell, and will buy the rest later this week (I am traveling right now). I guess my August reading list is all set!

Okay, Cushla, we found Darryl's post at the same time. I'm off to my local library site to see which books I can get from them.

Hi, Cushla! I just noticed your post, too. I did create a draft post earlier this morning, with touchstones for the books I thought would be on the list, which included the Carey, Donoghue, Galgut, Levy, McCarthy, Mitchell, Murray and Tsiolkas. I probably received the tweet from #ManBookerPrize at the same time that you did, and filled in the other 5 books on the list.

Right. Two down, 11 to go. I'll have to see what's available in the US, and which ones I'll have to order from The Book Depository.

I've got my Bookers lined up at the library in this order:

#1 - available now - Parrot and Olivier in America; this will be my first Carey book.
#2 - one person in front of me...and I've had this on hold for several months....The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
#3 - I may have to wait for awhile for this one.... The Long Song. (touchstone not loading). I enjoyed Levy's Small Island last year.

That ought to keep me going until the shortlist is announced.

Wow! You are FAST, sir.

What's the schedule? Short list, winner announcements? I could go look it up but I'm incredibly lazy.

eta I have The Long Song and the Thousand Autumns both on hold at the library - the latter will be awhile; the former I can unfreeze at any time I'm ready for it.

The shortlist will be announced on September 7th, and the winner on October 12th.

From what I can tell, the following are currently available in the US: the Carey, Galgut, Levy, Mitchell, Moore, and Tsiolkas. The Murray will be available by the end of next month, the Donoghue and McCarthy in September, and the Tremain by mid October.

So, I'm off to order the non-US books that I don't own from The Book Depository, as I'd like to read as many as I can by early October.

If The Slap wins, I'll lose all respect for the Booker ;-)

I had February in my arms last time I was at Munro's Books. They had it on their sale table for $5.99. But when I got home, I didn't have it, so I guess I felt a twang of guilt/responsibility/self-restraint or some such ridiculous emotion and took it out of the stack I was buying that day. However, all is not lost--I just bought one of the 43 remaining copies from their website. It came to $13.01 CDN with shipping. If you're interested, go to: http://www.munrobooks.com/by_isbn.cfm?view=DETAILS&isbn=088784202x-Discounte...

What a disappointing list - predictable, boring, middle-brow. Is that really the best the Commonwealth (& Ireland) can come up with? Looks like the Booker is in a period of chasing readers again...

Oh my goodness - here we go again!

I've only read The Slap.

I bet the one with the longest waiting list at Brisbane City Council library wins!

A laborious check of the catalogue reveals the following:

Room by Emma Donoghue is on order.

Parrot and Olivier in America is available.

They have absolutely no record of Howard Jacobson's The Finkler question, though they do have lots of Howard Jacobson books.

Or C by Tom McCarthy.

There are 51 holds on The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet .

They only have Alligator by Lisa Moore.

Lots of copies of Skippy Dies on the shelf.

Seven copies of Trespass by Rose Tremain are available.

45 copies of The Slap are available.

No mention of The Stars in the Bright Sky by Allan Warner.

So in typical Australian gambling style, my fictional money's on The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

I really liked Lisa Moore's February. I heard her at a book reading last year.
The Dunsmore? I got it via ER and thought that it was o.k.
I have the Mitchell and can hardly wait to start reading.
I have started The Slap twice and put it down.

I'm with Nickelini on The Slap--hated it. The only other one I've read is the Mitchell, which I liked.

Hummm.... I returned The Slap to the library unread as I wasn't sure I was up to the subject matter at the time, so I am a little surprised to see it made the long list.

I haven't read any of them but I do have a hold at the library for Room by Emma Donoghue, but it isn't available in Canada until September so I won't be able to check that one out until close to or after the Booker prize winner has been announced.

The last time I read a Booker prize winner (The Gathering by Anne Enright) I was completely disgusted the book actually won. Fingers crossed this year's winner doesn't produce a repeat of that reading experience.

As usual I haven't read any of them prior to them being longlisted although the David Mitchell and Paul Murray were both on my radar.

Ikernagh - I hated The Gathering too and found it impossible to believe that was the best book that year.

Hi guys.

I run a website - The Omnivore - that's rounded up all the press reviews for the longlisted books, bringing you a digest of quotes from UK and US newspapers and literary journals:

http://blog.theomnivore.co.uk/2010/07/27/man-booker-prize-2010-longlist-reviews/

Hope you find this useful!

Anna

18:

It may interest you to learn that the content of UK and US newspapers don't make up "all the press reviews" for any given book. February received mixed reviews in its actual country of publication. I'll leave it to you to look that country up, as a way of expanding your geographical knowledge.

Interesting discussion. I was also hugely disappointed with The Gathering, so hope for redemption on the choice this year.

Have read Trespass and can highly recommend it. Also a huge fan of Peter Carey.

Lisa Moore is Canadian, so that one is a must read, too.

Read the first book of Damon Galgut and a little underwhelmed so hope his second is better - if I get to it.

Heard David Mitchell interviewed on national radio recently and rushed out to buy his book after that.
He has spend time in Japan and married a Japanese woman, and this book perhaps reflects that interest. WIll have to see.

Not a huge fan of Dunmore or Donogue - but that is personal taste.

Prediction - I think that Carey, Tremain and Mitchell will be on the short list.

#21 -- I agree with your predictions.

#14 - I agree with you about February by Lisa Moore. Moore captures the emotional impact of * at various levels. (*Don't wish to spoil it for those who have yet to read it.)

I am stilling waiting for my copy of The Thousand Autumns of August De Groot, which I hope will live up to my expectations.

I also ordered a copy of The Slap which has received mixed reviews, but starts with an intriguing, if not inflammatory scenario.

I rather liked The Gathering, though I was surprised it won. Of course, a number of winners have been a surprise to me.

How odd, the only Touchstone working in my message was the first one.

#14 & 23 -

Great to hear! My copy of February arrived today ( less than 24 hr service --great service by the indie book store!). Looking forward to this one.

The only one I have read is The Long Song and I liked it a lot - I was shocked when it didn't advance to the Short List on the Orange Prize, so I'm glad to see that it is getting some Booker love.

I saw The Slap on the shelf at my local library so I picked up, but I've got to say I probably wouldn't have otherwise. The cover text comes across as a little melodramatic - 'at a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own...THE SLAP'. I suppose I really ought to read Parrot and Olivier in America because I have heard it mentioned in a lot of places, but to be honest I abandoned True History of the Kelly Gang and have been wary of reading Carey ever since. The nominee that I haven't read before and am most interested in is The Thousand Autumns of Jackob de Zoet, and so I put myself in line for it at the library. I was surprised at just how long the 'hold' list is!

I stand corrected; the Galgut novel in book form is not currently available in the US. However, its three parts are available in issues 174 (Summer 2005), 187 (Winter 2008) and 189 (Summer 2009) of The Paris Review.

I'll start Parrot and Olivier in America later this week.

I'm a big Tremain fan but was disappointed in Trespass, the only nominee I've read.

#27: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that Trespass was a disappointment.

So far I've read three of the longlisted books: the Mitchell (5 stars), the Galgut (4-1/2 stars), and the Levy (3-1/2 stars). I put aside the Carey for the time being, but I'll probably get back to it later this week or the following week, and I've barely started the Jacobson, which received a strong review by Alex Clark in today's Guardian Review:

The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson

I've now read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and The Slap, neither of which I thought great. If The Slap advances I will be shocked. The Mitchell I think will make the short-list to fill the "sweeping historical novel" slot, but since a historical novel won last year, I don't think it will this year.

I'm about to start In a Strange Room, which is the novel I am most looking forward to reading.

I have just borrowed from the library In a Strange Room and The Betrayal. Damon Galgut's book is very easy to get into ...though they are both competing with Justin Cronin's epic The Passage which I hope to knock over soon...

I don't often make it a point of reading all the long-listed, yet alone the short-listed books for this prize but I did pick up The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I have to say that I found it superb, with the last twenty pages or so, especially, being heartbreaking; not something I often say about a novel.

Atmospheric, emotive, exciting, chilling, ever so slightly spooky in parts, funny and elucidating. What more could one ask of a novel.

The Slap continues to garner awards and praise. I don't think the subject matter is dramatic (there certainly *would* be repercussions were you to slap someone else's child on the face here in Australia; witness this very topic in the news this week!), but the weight of these modern "social mores" way heavy on me. They're just not my cup of tea.

The Slap received a so-so review in the UK's Literary Review (August).

Picking a reader friendly list appears to have paid off - Best Selling List Since 2001.

jargoneer That's a great article - thanks for posting it....very interesting...

I read The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson earlier this week, and reviewed it yesterday. I thought that The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet would end up as my favorite novel from the longlist, but the Jacobson tops it, IMO.

I'll probably start The Slap tomorrow. Two LTers have given it high praise in their reviews this week, so I'm more interested in reading it now.

I disliked The Slap very much, so I'll be interested in your take (esp. on what you think as a pediatrician, of how the mom of the little boy who was slapped is raising him). (That wasn't why I disliked it).

You've probably all seen it already - it's just been published in this week's edition of The Guardian which I received on Friday - a review of http://www.librarything.com/work/9555957 C ....... http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/31/c-tom-mccarthy-novel-review - my copy turned up from Book Depository this week - hooray! It certainly sounds interesting.....

I finished The Slap yesterday, and reviewed it this morning. I liked it more than I thought it would, as I mentioned in my review.

I've now read five of the longlisted books, and here is how I would rank them:

1. The Finkler Question
2. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
3. The Slap
4. In a Strange Room
5. The Long Song

I'll probably read Parrot and Olivier in America and Trespass next.

Thanks for posting that review of C; the book will be released in the US on September 7th.

I still can't get ahold of C or the Finkler Question.

My reads in order so far would be:

1. February
2. The Slap
3. Trespass
4. Parrot and Olivier in America
5. ( a long way behind) The Betrayal

There's an app for that:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/man-booker-prize-launches-...

The shortlist was announced this morning:

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
Room by Emma Donoghue
In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
The Long Song by Andrea Levy
C by Tom McCarthy

Man Booker Prize 2010 shortlist announced

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm shocked that David Mitchell didn't make it, and disappointed that Andrea Levy did ...

I'm with you lindasac - very disappointed David Mitchell didn't make it. :(

I thoroughly enjoyed the Mitchell book, which was the only longlist nominee I had read so far. I must admit that this year's shortlist leaves me a bit cold.

What were they thinking!Acck! No David Mitchell???
I will have to read some of the short list-the Emma Donaghue has had some good reviews.

I'm sad Lisa Moore's February didn't make the shortlist. I thought it was wonderful.

I liked In a Strange Room and The Long Song, but I didn't love either. Once I finish Trespass, I think I'll try Parrot and Olivier in America, but I haven't heard spectacular things about it.

I tried reading Parrot and Olivier in America but I'm not a picaresque fan so it wasn't for me. Just picked up C this morning and The Finkler Question and Room are sitting in my TBR pile.

Thanks kidzdoc - you are very on the ball as they say.

Goodness!

That is a surprise about the Mitchell book...now I have to pick another winner...

Once again using the method of which book has the longest waiting list at Brisbane City Council Library.....I will go with Room. I was lucky enough to pick this up from the library on Sunday and am looking forward to reading it.

I'm also shocked that the Mitchell didn't make the shortlist; the Mitchell is my favorite of the seven longlisted books I've read so far, followed closely by the Jacobson. I've read four of the six longlisted books; in order of preference, The Finkler Question, Room, In a Strange Room and The Long Song. I would not be disappointed to see either the Jacobson or the Donoghue win. I'll read the Carey and the McCarthy (which was released in the US today) well in advance of the announcement of the prize winner on October 12.

42> I was also shocked that Mitchell didn't make the short list.

Haven't read Room, but I'm glad to see Donoghue on the list. She is a writer who keeps stepping out of the box, trying new things.

I am about 3/4 of the way through Room and am finding it rivetting, a real page turner. A fascinating story, but I am surprised to find it on the shortlist.

Regarding Room- Creating and maintaining the voice of the five-year-old through the 300 odd-paged novel and have it be as riveting as it is took a tremendous amount of skill. I find it odd that people are discounting it because it's not "high-brow" or "literary" enough, but the originality of the book is undeniable, and the revelations into the human condition are significant. They just come from a five-year-old who has lived his entire life in a garden shed, and he doesn't narrate in page-long sentences.

I think people should define what they mean by "highbrow" and "literary" before making that kind of criticism.

I read Room a couple of weeks ago, and I think it's the most original, memorable and brilliant book of the longlisted books I've read so far. I've now read four of the shortlisted books (all but C, which I started today, and Parrot and Olivier in America), and I would now say that Room is my favorite of the four.

Also reading C. Intrigued by Room and may take it on next.

I have both Room and C high on my list for reading so the discussion here is great!

Finished Room in two sittings - an exceptional book. The voice of young Jack is very real and his understandings of his "world" are portrayed beautifully.

My comment, which seems to have made wilsonknut need to express his frustrations ~(but I am surprised to find it on the shortlist.) ~ simply meant that it is not often you find such a readable book on the list.

Perhaps next year we should hold an alternative Booker Prize - our own nominations, our own votes. Opinion is always so mixed, and rarely complimentary regarding the Man Booker.

#57- I liked what you had to say. The comment about being surprised about it making the shortlist just reminded me of several outside reviews that I have read describing Room as an Oprah type book not worthy of the Booker. I just finished it a few days ago and thought it was one of the best things I've read so far this year.

I have to admit I have not read any of the other contenders, but I hear that C is heavily favored.

I also have to remind myself that Oprah chose Cormac McCarthy's The Road for her book club, so that can't always be a bad thing.

Thanks wilsonknut. I will also be placing Room on the top of my list for 2010!

I have not yet read any of the others on the shortlist, but have read The Slap which has been quite polarising here on LT (I really liked it) and am currently reading Trespass from the longlist.

Just found this on the official website. It's a list of all the books shortlisted for the Booker, and the judges on the panels who chose them. http://www.themanbookerprize.com/downloads/Whos_who_2009-0.pdf

Jacobson wins with The Finkler Question.

Yay! It was my second favorite book after "Room", and I would have been happy if either book won. I'm even more happy than the "unreadable" "C" didn't win..

My first response was "what IS the Finkler Question?

So, Darryl, do you see this book becoming a best seller? Do you think it has wide appeal, or is this one of those Booker years where the novel only works for a select few readers?

Now that I've finally (as of last week) succeeded in ordering The Finkler Question from the Book Depository, I saw it in a my favorite bookstore yesterday -- and didn't buy it because it's on its way to me from England.

Good questions, Joyce. I answered your first question in my review, but Finkler is the name of one of the characters in the book, and 'The Finkler Question' (in my view) is: What does it mean to be a Jew in current day Western society? The story is set in London, but the question, IMO, would apply to any Jewish person living in the US, Canada, or elsewhere; it also refers to the relationship and responsibility of Jews to Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East.

Will it become a bestseller in the UK? I think it will sell well, but almost certainly not as well as Wolf Hall. Will it be a bestseller in the US? Highly doubtful. I think it will get a bump in sales by winning the Booker Prize, but (unfortunately) I don't think it will be a book that is widely read. NPR (National Public Radio in the US) did have a story about the book yesterday, which I haven't listen to yet; here's the link:


'Finkler' Questions The Meaning Of Jewishness

As for your last question, I do think that the book has wide appeal; at least two other Gentiles in the 75 Books group read the book after I did, and also rated it very highly. It's a great read, filled with humor and pathos, and it's definitely amongst the top 10 novels I've read this year. I'd love to see it gain wider recognition.

Along those lines, I am abandoning Parrot and Olivier in America, the only shortlisted book that I haven't read, and I'll start reading Jacobson's Kalooki Nights, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2006, I think.

Rebecca, I'll be very curious to get your take on The Finkler Question. Have you read any of Jacobson's novels?

Darryl, I never even heard of Jacobson before you told all of us about The Finkler Question (despite the fact that I joke with my sweetie, who isn't Jewish, that all us Jews know each other). Because I had so many frustrations in ordering this book, I have sort of mentally moved it down on my TBR plans, but maybe I'll be intrigued enough now that it's won to read it when it arrives. I'll certainly be interested in his take on what it means to be a Jew in England, and whether that has any resonance for me, here in the US. (Of course, there are probably as many answers to that question as there are Jews.)

>67 kidzdoc:: Darryl, Kalooki Nights was longlisted in 2006. It's great when a prize gives an author's earlier work greater visibility.

>68 rebeccanyc:: I'm quite interested in your take on it as well, Rebecca! I placed an order with the BD about 10 minutes after the prize announcement so if all goes well I'll read it next month.

Today I got emails from Border's and B&N that both featured the book, so at least they are trying to get it out there (and to generate some business by using the Booker win).

I wonder how they plot those e-mails. I got e-mails from both of them, but neither mentioned The Finkler Question. I ordered it from BN.COM.

Robert

Powell's is featuring it too, along with all the short listed books (30% off!)

I abandoned Jacobsen's Act of Love earlier this year due to its masochistic subject matter, but it did leave me wanting to read more of his books due to the writing style. I have high hopes for The Finkler Question, just waiting for my copy from the library, #3 on the list.
I thought Room was excellent.