Another writer strutting and fretting: living in Scotland
Lest you forget this is, at heart, a book blog, I'd like to interrupt the lovely Scotland talk to briefly address my annual love-hate rant about the Man Bookers. The shortlist's just come out, tripping the switch for my traditional snarky comments outlining all the reasons it's utterly ridiculous. I bitch and moan first, puffing …
Once more unto the breach. The Shortlist is upon us. I protest I have not the time read them, yet I've never let this stop me from opining with gusto. I opine because literature is my life - qualification enough. What's interesting about this year's shortlist isn't only the titles that made it through, …
Continue reading Booker Shortlist 2016: the blood-letting of Coetzee and Strout
Lo, these many years I have participated in the largely futile game of guessing the Man Booker winner. I've had successes and failures but mostly it's a maddening exercise in literary addiction, tinged with galloping insanity. Nevertheless, I am always happy to offer an opinion totally devoid of actual research or, really, much effort at …
Continue reading man booker 2015: one expert’s flawed opinions
Hardcover: 848 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; First Edition edition (October 15, 2013) Language: English ISBN-10: 0316074314 ISBN-13: 978-0316074315 “Reason is no match for desire: when desire is purely and powerfully felt, it becomes a kind of reason of its own.” - The Luminaries "It’s a lot of fun, like doing a Charlotte Brontë-themed …
Congratulations, Eleanor! Seems my guess was the kiss of death for Jim Crace and NiViolet Bulwayo. Sorry about that, you two. Especially to Jim Crace. That man should not stop writing, almost as much as I should, in order to protect the innocent. I'm upset with him for his insistence he's done. He wants to …
Continue reading Man Booker 2013. The winner is: Eleanor Catton
The Man Bookers, 2013 The days are winding down. Not long to go now. Six days until the big winner is announced. As for my own progress, I tried so, so hard to get through Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries. It's well-written but I found it so bloated with extraneous detail and repetitive material I was …
And then there were six... . Eleanor Catton - New Zealand Jhumpa Lahiri - UK/US Colm Toíbín - Ireland Ruth Ozecki - Canada/US Jim Crace - UK NoViolet Bulawayo - Zimbabwe From The Telegraph: The Books: We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo The only debut novel on the shortlist. The 31-year-old Zimbabwean author tells …
Not a secret I'm notorious for being a slave to the Bookers, pouncing on that Longlist the minute it comes out (almost literally) (literarily?) hoping to read all the eligible titles before the release of the Shortlist (to see if my picks match theirs) but this year, with the added stress of job hunting plus …
