Samantha Harvey's Booker Prize-winning novella, Orbital, is one of those novels you want to keep by your side after you've finished it, hoping that its calm beauty and quiet provocations will stay with you just that little bit longer. And here, in this opening sentence, I am channelling the "you" voice that she slips into occasionally … Continue reading Samantha Harvey, Orbital (#BookReview)
Booker Prize
Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie Booker Prize listees
In terms of the Booker Prize, it's been a long time between drinks for Aussie writers. By this I mean that Charlotte Wood's shortlisting for the 2024 prize with Stone Yard devotional, breaks the longest drought Australian writers have had in terms of being listed for the prize since its commencement in 1969. It has … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie Booker Prize listees
Damon Galgut, The promise (#BookReview)
Damon Galgut's Booker Prize winning novel, The promise, is one of those novels that grabbed me intellectually and emotionally from its opening pages. The plot, itself, is straighforward. It concerns a White South African family's promise to give a house on their property to their Black maid, whom their grandfather had acquired "along with the … Continue reading Damon Galgut, The promise (#BookReview)
Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain (#BookReview)
How to write about a book that has made such a big splash that it has already been extensively reviewed. What more can one say? This is what I'm facing with Douglas Stuart's debut and Booker Prize-winning novel, Shuggie Bain. I haven't, in fact, read much about it, because I prefer to come to books … Continue reading Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain (#BookReview)
Bernadine Evaristo, Girl, woman, other (#BookReview)
If ever there was a "zeitgeist" book, Bernadine Evaristo's 2019 Booker Prize winning novel, Girl, woman, other is it. It might be an English-set novel about black British women, "the embodiment of Otherness", but its concerns, ranging from ingrained inequality, racism and sexism to newer issues such as globalisation, are contemporary - and relevant far … Continue reading Bernadine Evaristo, Girl, woman, other (#BookReview)
Richard Flanagan, the Booker Prize, and Books
Lisa at ANZLitlovers has posted on Richard Flanagan's (exciting-to-us) Booker Prize win for The narrow road to the deep north, and has provided links to reviews by several bloggers. So, I thought I'd do something different. In my review and follow-up post, I discussed the role of poetry in the novel. Reviewer (and novelist) Romy Ash suggests … Continue reading Richard Flanagan, the Booker Prize, and Books
Eleanor Catton, The luminaries (Review)
Now here's the thing ... I don't make a practice of reading mysteries. I really don't care about who dunnit. When Mr Gums and I watch television crime shows, I rarely concentrate enough to work out the plot intricacies, but I do watch the characters. I'm always interested in the detectives and their relationships. I … Continue reading Eleanor Catton, The luminaries (Review)
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the bodies (Review)
In her author's note at the end of her second Thomas Cromwell novel, Bring up the bodies, Hilary Mantel writes that: In this book I try to show how a few crucial weeks might have looked from Thomas Cromwell's point of view. I am not claiming authority for my version; I am making the reader … Continue reading Hilary Mantel, Bring up the bodies (Review)
Julian Barnes, The sense of an ending (Review)
I should have known I wouldn't be the first to think of it, but during my reading Julian Barnes' Booker Prize winning novel, The sense of an ending, I was suddenly reminded of TS Eliot's The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock. It was the melancholic tone, the sense of life having passed one by, … Continue reading Julian Barnes, The sense of an ending (Review)
Howard Jacobson, The Finkler question
Whispering Gums, as you would expect, writes erudite marginalia and so you'd be in for a treat if you ever obtained my copy of Howard Jacobson's 2010 Booker award winning novel, The Finkler question. The margins are peppered with my reactions, like, you know, "Ha!" and "Oh dear". Riveting stuff ... and yet, what comments … Continue reading Howard Jacobson, The Finkler question
Whispering Gums 