Last week Paul Beatty was announced as the winner of the Man Booker Prize 2016 for his biting satirical novel The Sellout. He is the first American author to win the prize, since the criteria was changed in 2014.
Six of our reading groups shadowed the prize this year, each reading and reviewing one of the shortlisted titles and joining in with the conversation on line. Read on to find out what they thought of their books and the experience.
Gloucester Book Club
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
“Eileen – she’s our girl and what an unhappy, disturbed young woman she is!
The story is set over one week in Eileen’s life, prior to Christmas and leading up to her hasty departure from X-ville, and is narrated by Eileen herself some 50 years later.
Resentful and unassuming, aged 24, she’s caught between caring for her paranoid, alcoholic father and her job working in the office at a boys’ prison. Lonely and friendless, tempering her dreary days with perverse fantasies and feeling trapped in her small town, she longs to start afresh in the big city.
There’s hope when the beautiful Rebecca joins the prison staff and Eileen is immediately enchanted and drawn to her. Can Rebecca transform Eileen’s suppressed life? Dear reader, you will have to acquire the novel to find out.
For our group this book provoked strong feelings! It could be described as a kind of ‘Marmite’ experience. Some loved it, a few hated it, some felt it lacked direction halfway through but redeemed itself somewhat towards the end. Some found the ending an anti-climax and disappointing. Others thought it a fantastic read making the mundane fascinating and totally addictive. Gripping, sordid, brilliant, dark, ugly, engrossing, tedious, uncomfortable – all are adjectives we’ve used to describe our novel.
What came through strongly was Eileen’s self-loathing, her complicated and possibly semi-sexual relationship with her father, living together in their squalid, blackly humorous world, and not forgetting the dead mouse treasured in a glovebox.
It’s a combination of coming of age, crime and leaving home. However, for some of us it falls short of a psychological thriller despite the accolade on its cover.
Moshfegh asks people to sit through things they wouldn’t ordinarily feel comfortable with. For some of us Eileen’s disordered life was too much and we threw in the towel. However, most of us persevered and agreed that Eileen is well written, and thought provoking. She is not a character that will easily be forgotten. Our scores range between 1 and 10, such was the diversity of our opinions, and we were fairly evenly split between love and hate. Will it be a Man Booker winner? While opinion is divided, some of us will certainly be shouting ‘Come on Eileen’.”
Take a look at the individual reviews of Eileen and leave your own.
Wine Women and Words
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
“This book certainly divided our book group directly down the middle. Some of us loved it for its humour and wit whilst others lamented its lack of plot or the author’s inability to draw the reader into the characters’ lives.
We all agreed that it was a thinking-person’s book; full of beautiful metaphors, thought-provoking symbols and intelligent writing. An original – almost dream-like – study of human nature and relationships. As for me, well as both a mother and a daughter, I enjoyed the exploration of parental exploitation alongside the guilt and frustrations felt with filial obligation.
Spoiler alert Whether you enjoy this book may indeed be dependent on your own mother-daughter relationship and may make you wonder whether you could become that mad desperate mother refusing to let go or whether you should be the daughter who’s best ever decision was to abandon your mother by the side of the road!”
Take a look at the individual reviews of Hot Milk and leave your own.
Book and Brew
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
“Our book club debates are always lively but discussing this book was extraordinary.
His Bloody Project is a story about a 19th century Scottish crofter who kills three people in his village. That’s not a spoiler, we know it up front and the rest of the novel considers the event from various points of view. There is a large diary-style retelling from Roddy, the murderer, as well as ‘found documents’ from the coroner and transcripts from the trial. The book subtly weaves layers of detail together to present a narrative in which multiple outcomes are possible, none of which the author specifically advocates.
The structure of Burnet’s novel and the reliability of the information he presents to the reader make you question every piece of information you receive in this book. It was a joy to review it as a group as we challenged each other’s original readings of text – there were lots of gasps and pondering as we went back to the drawing board on the conclusions we thought we had secured in our individual readings. There were even cakes left after we finished – that never happens and proves just how much we were talking about it.
Burnet has certainly created a unique novel – both in terms of its structure and style. It is provocative, harrowing and emotive. It was one of the best books we have read in a long time and would definitely be worthy of the Man Booker Prize. (But we might be biased).”
Read more about Book and Brew’s Man Booker experience on their blog.
Take a look at the individual reviews of His Bloody Project and leave your own.
Wordsworth House Book Group
Do not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
“The members of Wordsworth House Book Group are rarely in full agreement about what we think of a book, and this was no exception.
We all agreed that it gave a thought provoking, vivid and often harrowing picture of Mao’s China, and the portrayal of the lives of ordinary people living through war, revolution and communist dictatorship was a real eye-opener. These events tended to be described in a very matter-of-fact way, with their emotional impact on the three main characters often glossed over. We concluded that this was a deliberate device by the author to put across the repressive atmosphere of Mao’s China. In a regime where even falling in love could be seen as a crime against the state, people did not speak openly of their feelings. The atmosphere of repression and mistrust of one’s fellow man was hauntingly portrayed, as was the need to keep one’s head down and not to be picked out of the crowd for fear of persecution or even death.
But therein lay the problem for some members of our group. This detachment made them feel very much on the edge of what was going on and unable to engage properly with the characters. There was a general consensus among them that the first quarter of the book was quite engaging and the last quarter, when events started to ramp up and big things (generally not good) happened to the main characters, also held the attention. However, the middle part failed to engage and was considered hard work. A couple of members also found the book confusing because of its moving backwards and forwards through time and place, which hadn’t helped them feel involved.
The other half of the group didn’t experience this sense of detachment at all and, while they agreed it was by no means an easy read, they felt deeply engaged with the characters and were drawn in on an emotional level. One member said she had been moved to tears at the scene where Sparrow plays his music to his daughter.
The group was equally split about the use throughout of the Book of Records. While some questioned its purpose and wondered why so many references to it had been made, others saw it as an important device to enable both the reader and the characters to keep abreast of what was happening to those who had been sent away to work camps. As one member pointed out, nobody in Mao’s China was allowed to give a true account of events, and by writing his own chapters to the Book of Records, Wen the Dreamer could at least make an attempt to do so.
In summary, there was a very clear 50/50 split between those who cared about the characters and very much enjoyed the novel, and those who just felt a bit shut out and unable to engage and found it hard going. When asked if they would pass it on to someone else to read, there was again a 50/50 split. A couple of members didn’t finish the book, but both said that they might have found the time if they had felt more gripped.”
Take a look at the individual reviews of Do Not Say We Have Nothing and leave your own.
Llangollen Library Reading Group
All That Man Is by David Szalay
“We had mixed feelings about All That Man Is, with regards to the style and eligibility of the book, as well as its content, so here are some of our thoughts:
‘Nine reflective stories show nine men at different stages of their lives and reveal their relationships to women. In different parts of Europe, from French jobless youngster to Russian billionaire, each in their unique predicament confronts past, present and future as we move from spring into winter. What links them? The oldest, in the final story, is grandfather to a student in the first. But, more intriguingly, each narrative pinpoints a moment of clarity about the value of being alive.’
‘The nine stories do not add up to a novel. The unifying theme of exploring different stages of men’s lives is far too general, and is made more difficult by the choice of men from very different backgrounds and life choices.’
‘Personally I didn’t really engage with most of the characters because they were outside my experiences and were not fully rounded. Except for Balazs the chauffeur who had a warmth about him. But maybe men will respond to this novel better. Perhaps it’s just not my type of book.’
‘All the stories are unremittingly bleak and often sordid. A very grim view of mankind. Despite this, I was drawn into the narrative and these extracts from the men’s lives seem believable to me.’
‘I appreciated the writing, and enjoyed some of the stories, but was disappointed with the whole.’
‘Szalay’s men are isolated, self-centred and often unfulfilled and delusional. They disregard or lack a strong family structure. However, Szalay does not give flesh to the characters, especially the two dimensional secondary characters, and therefore the reader does not care about their activities or their ultimate fates. The writing is easy to follow, but does not engage the reader or raise issues. Finishing the tales one can use Aleksandr’s last words. “It was over. That was it”.’”
Take a look at the individual reviews of All That Man Is and leave your own.
Scunthorpe Pageturners Book Group
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
“Our discussion of The Sellout by Paul Beatty while shadowing the Man Booker Prize resulted in a score draw – half of the group did not like its tone and the other half loved it. In particular the nay-sayers had a problem with the prologue, which they considered too long and too intense. Those that loved the book were completely bowled over by the novels wit and invention and satirical bite. Any satire worth its salt needs fire in its belly!
The one thing everybody agreed on was that they felt it unlikely that it would win the Man Booker Prize. Mainly as they felt the prize tended to reward formal character studies, so it was with some surprise but great delight to see a stunned Paul Beatty accepting the award on the BBC News channel – way to go Man Booker Prize judges!
Our group has loved the experience of shadowing the Man Booker Prize, so thanks to The Reading Agency, but especially thanks and congratulations to Paul Beatty – as I have said in my own review for the novel – I have never read his work before but intend to seek it out now.”
Find out more about the winning book, read more reviews, or leave your own.
Get involved
You can review any of the Man Booker Prize titles by clicking the links above, or comment below to tell us which was your favourite.
Find out more about Man Booker Prize judge Jon Day in this great interview with our Reading Hackers.
Want to find out more? Visit the Man Booker Prize website, follow them on Twitter and Instagram, or listen to their exclusive podcasts.
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