Archive for the ‘2010 Man Booker Shortlist’ Category

IN A STRANGE ROOM by Damon Galgut

I’d heard a lot of buzz about IN A STRANGE ROOM, one of the titles shortlisted for the 2010 Booker prize, but since I tend to react negatively to waves of publicity, as the uniform praise for this book climbed, my interest plummeted. I almost didn’t review South African author Damon Galgut’s book IN A STRANGE ROOM, but I changed my mind, and as it turns out IN A STRANGE ROOM is one of the best books I’ve read this year.

IN A STRANGE ROOM isn’t an easy book to review. It’s divided into three distinct sections, and it’s possible, I think, to write the review in several different ways. After chewing over the plot now for several weeks, I’d argue that in this extraordinary novel, Galgut uses travel as a way of exploring two heavily nuanced relationships, and at the same time, parallels are drawn between journeys taken and relationships endured.

January 1, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Man Booker Shortlist, 2010 Top Picks, Award Winning Author, Literary, Theme driven, World Literature

THE FINKLER QUESTION by Howard Jacobson

Nevertheless, Howard Jacobson does talk about it, together with gentile anti-Semitism and that philo-Semitism that may well be anti-Semitism in disguise. This brilliant novel, at once comedic and penetrating, is nothing less than a study of Jewish identity, at least as reflected by a group of middle-class Jews in contemporary London. This is satire, but equal-opportunity satire; there is nobody who may not be offended by it at one point or another, yet nobody who will not recognize the wisdom of Jacobson’s insights, as loving and humane as they are witty.

December 23, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Man Booker Shortlist, Award Winning Author, Class - Race - Gender, Humorous, Identity, Man Booker Prize, Satire, United Kingdom

C by Tom McCarthy

Tom McCarthy’s latest novel, C, is a strange book that, without the draw of a gripping plot or the pathos of interesting, well-rounded characters, somehow manages to intrigue all the same. Perhaps the appeal lies in McCarthy’s haunting prose. Or, perhaps it’s the unshakeable feeling that underneath it all – underneath the layered ideas – there’s a message of sorts, a message as profound as it is ephemeral: just as you think you’ve figured it all out, it escapes you. Whatever the reason, C, while far from perfect, is a bizarrely captivating book.

September 26, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Man Booker Shortlist, Addiction, Experimental Fiction, Literary, Reading Guide, United Kingdom, War

ROOM by Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue is not afraid of making bold choices. Her first is the narrative voice she adapts in ROOM: that of five-year-old Jack, a young boy who was born and has lived his entire life in an 11-foot by 11-foot room. One might think the voice would eventually become cloying or overly precious or manipulative or downright tiring. But it never does.

September 18, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Man Booker Shortlist, 2010 Top Picks, Award Winning Author, Life Choices, Motherhood, Unique Narrative

PARROT AND OLIVIER IN AMERICA by Peter Carey

The quote above makes Americans seem certifiably insane. And perhaps this is how many Americans appeared to French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville during his now famous visit to America’s shores in the early nineteenth century. Though not wildly popular for many years, Tocqueville’s masterpiece DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA has become standard university reading and has been heralded as the greatest, most prophetic assessment of America ever produced. Scholars have poured over its pages, and multiple biographers have attempted to capture the man who penned its eloquent insightful lines. Most recently, award-winning author Peter Carey has created an imaginative historical fiction based on the life of Tocqueville and his fruitful time in the new nation.

April 23, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Man Booker Shortlist, 2010 National Book Award Shortlist, 2010 Top Picks, Award Winning Author, Literary, Reading Guide, Real Event Fiction, Real People Fiction, Time Period Fiction, United States