Oooh exciting!
At first glance, this looks to be one of the most inspiring Booker longlists in quite some time and so much better than last year’s. I applaud the comment from Peter Stothard, editor of the TLS and this year’s chair of judges, stating that the main criterion for selection was that ‘a text has to reveal more, the more you read it.’
“If it’s disappointing that novels by famous writers aren’t there, then so be it. That’s the difference between Man Booker judges and buyers at Waterstones. We’re not looking for books that you can pick up in a shop and say ‘I must have that’. We’re looking for books that are good value for money, that you don’t leave on a beach, that you read again and again. I love the idea of people taking the longlist to read on the beach, but these are books I want people to bring back.”
As someone who believes that the best test of any great novel is the desire to reread it, nothing could please me more in this context than this kind of attitude. And I have to say I love the look of this longlist. It feels adventurous and ambitious. There’s style as well as story. There’s even some speculative fiction on there, by God! These are books you actually want to read and talk about.
I’m especially thrilled to see Sam Thompson’s debut Communion Town making a showing. I was lucky enough to have access to an ARC of this, and I thought it was wonderful. Its inclusion was a real surprise (whether it’s actually a novel is a debatable point) but a delightful one. My review of Communion Town will be up at Strange Horizons on Friday.
It’s also good to see Ned Beauman on there. I thought the first half of his debut Boxer, Beetle was excellent – sardonic, imaginative and just a little bit whacko – and although the book lost its way for me in the end (premise to die for, wasted on an inconsequential caper novel) I still think Beauman is a writer with amazing promise.
I’m a huge fan of both Nicola Barker and Hilary Mantel, so that’s two more ticks. Alison Moore’s The Lighthouse has already been recommended to me by Nick Royle, and I can’t wait to read it. I like the sound of Deborah Levy’s Swimming Home so much I’ll be ordering it as soon as I’ve finished writing this post. I’ve also just been listening to Jeet Thayill read from and talk about his novel Narcopolis. The prose is gorgeous – resolutely poetic and yet uncluttered – and the idea of this book excites me greatly.
Even the Will Self sounds interesting! My only regret is that I won’t have time to read the whole list before September, because ideally I’d love to blog each book and be a proper armchair judge this year. Hopefully I’ll be able to get part of the way there, though, and I know there’ll be plenty of informed opinion and debate cropping up online for me to enjoy as I go along.
Clearly the stink that was kicked up over last year’s Booker has had some effect. Let’s just hope we’ll be able to say the same about next year’s Clarke…..