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Booker Wrong Again

By Scott Vine

Well, I'm back, and getting up to date with things that happened whilst I was on Holiday - such as the Booker Prize result. You will know dear reader, that I try (and fail usually) to read the shortlist before the prize is announced. This year I only made it through three and a half by judgment day: On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan ; Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones; The Gathering by Anne Enright; and Darkmans by Nicola Barker (the half, 400 pages down and about the same to go ...)

As you may be aware, the judges gave the prize to Anne Enright, for a book some say has echoes of Joyce's excellent 'Dubliners' collection (not for me it doesn't). It is a perfectly fine book, but one which did very little for me whilst reading it. I just didn't care about the characters. For me, it fell flat. Whilst McEwan and Jones' books are flawed (both in there endings), I still connected, delighted, and enjoyed both much more (and they will feature in xmas stockings come the end of the year). Barker's is the most 'modern' of the books and her style is in equal measure challenging and annoying, but there is a braveness in the scope of the book, which I hope it can maintain until the end.

So, yes I have reader the Booker winner, but no, I won't be recommending (or buying it) to/for anyone I know

Full post as published by Information Overload on October 22, 2007 (boomark / email).