Free At Last

Hello, happy readers! I've been terribly slack in posting again - I'm sure you're all used to this by now, I should stop even referring to it! The shortlist for the 2012 prize was released a couple weeks ago, you can find that here.  I'm excited that one of the novels Locus magazine recommended, and also one of titles I personally found intriguing, both made the shortlist although I still have my suspicions that Hilary Mantel will win again.  I'm becoming very cynical in my old age!

I have finished reading another novel, V.S. Naipaul's "In a Free State".  It took me a bugger of a long time to get through it, 37 days to be exact, an average of less than 7 pages per day! I blame my unimpressive progress in the past 4 months on a 'summer holiday' mentality - I've only read 4 novels since I returned from my holidays in June.  It's depressing.  I keep looking at my shelf and imagining how many fantasy novels I could get through in a week if I weren't restricting myself to 'literature', and I have to force myself not to give into the temptation because I know if I start to read anything off the 'to-be-read' list I'll just make more excuses not to read the Man Booker list!

Anyway, "In A Free State" was a different sort novel - it's comprised of 5 sections, three short stories sandwiched by a pair of travel 'journal entries', all dealing with the idea of freedom.  It's almost the myth of freedom, as each section shows in a different way how our perception of freedom is skewed from the reality of the situation.  I found the first three sections really interesting and I was engaged in the stories, but the fourth section was very tedious for me.  It is the largest section of the novel and describes the journey of a pair of English expatriates across the country side of an unspecified African nation in a time of civil unrest.  It's an interesting plot, dealing with racism in addition to the idea that one can be free from societal pressures while living in another country, but I was completely bogged down by the descriptions of the landscape.  It's one of the major drawbacks of a 'road trip' story, and also the main reason I've never been able to read "The Lord of the Rings".  After about 25 pages I felt like saying, Yes, I get it - Africa is beautiful, the landscape is varied, seemingly constant but constantly changing and unexpected - please lets move on! Not that I didn't enjoy the novel over-all, in fact I found it quiet insightful, and I would gladly recommend it.  I find descriptions of landscape to be very dull, but if you enjoy or even don't mind that sort of thing I'm certain that you will find this an engaging and entertaining read.  Just don't say I didn't warn you about the scenery!

My favourite section of the novel was the second, 'One out of Many', which examines how a search for freedom can become a procession through various forms of enslavement.  Santosh begins his story as a servant living in near-slum conditions in Bombay, a life in which he describes himself as happy, and ends as an American citizen in Washington, "free" but trapped and lonely.  It's beautiful in it's simplicity, and I know his story will haunt me for years.  I found the third section, 'Tell Me Who To Kill', very sad.  It deals with how familial expectations can become a living prison.  I cried.

I'm jumping back up to 1993 for my next read with Roddy Doyle's "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha".  I know I said I was going to try "Something to Answer For" next, but at this point I feel like I waited so long to get it, I may save it for last to read.  It's my own weird psychology, nothing I can really explain.  Honestly, I've just really been looking forward to Roddy Doyle - in fact, I have thirty minutes to spare right now....

Happy reading!

They Do This Every Year?

I finished reading Ben Okri's "The Famished Road" on Friday (that was July 27th) having taken 37 days - a new record! Not the sort of record I've been hoping for, but a record nonetheless.  It was a really interesting read, an absolute feast of words and imagery.  I enjoyed it.  It's a story about a 'spirit child' who chooses to live rather than return to the spirit land, and the story is filled with his wanderings and various attempted abductions by spirits trying to return him to the spirit land.  It's a bit random, and the time line is difficult to follow, but it was a fun novel.

I'm a bit concerned with one of review quotes on the back of my copy.  Philip Howard of 'The Times' says "the message is universal" and to be honest, I'm just not sure what that message is! Another of the quotes, Jenny Turner of 'New Statesmen & Society', says "Overwhelming.... just buy it for it's beauty"! I think perhaps she didn't get the universal message either, and just enjoyed it for the delicious wonder of the language.  Sometimes a beautiful novel can just be a beautiful novel, right? I think I'll probably read it again though, just to be sure!

I'm already halfway into my next read, Michael Ondaatje's "The English Patient", and I'm sure if I can convince myself not to watch four-hours of Olympic coverage after work again (Go Team Canada!) I'll be able to finish it tomorrow. Of course, I'm also knitting a lovely new shawl (Memoria by Oblivious Knits, in 'Silver Lining' from the lovely & local Dragonfly Dyewerx, for those curious) so that's a bit distracting as well.  But I am impressed with the novel so far.  It's living up to my expectations of it anyhow!

It needs to be said - yes, there is no way I'm going to make my goal of reading all the Man Booker prize winners in 12 months. I have 22 books left to read, and only 42 days. If I were only reading books I absolutely loved, and not working full-time, or watching Olympics/any TV, or knitting, or sleeping, I would say 'Sure, I can make that!' but, sadly or not, I must also live outside the pages. I am not going to give up entirely, I will continue to read only the Booker books until I catch up, which means I will be doing this for the rest of my life. Did you know they do this every year?! ;)

There are a few really interesting looking titles on the 2012 long list! It will be interesting to see what happens this year, since only one of the authors is of the 'old guard' and the rest are all first-time nominees. I'm a bit cynical, though, so I admit I will be disappointed but unsurprised if Hilary Mantel's sequel to her 2010 Man Booker prize winning novel "Wolf Hall", "Bring Up The Bodies", wins - even though I've heard great things about "Wolf Hall', and I'm sure the new novel is wonderful too! It would be fantastic to see a new winner. I was a bit disappointed that Patrick Dewitt's "The Sisters Brothers" didn't win last year, since I've heard nothing but good things about it.  I had hoped that I would be finished with the past winners in time to at least read this years short-list before the prize is awarded, but again, so not going to happen.  Regardless, it will be interesting to see who wins!

Happy Reading!