The Booker Prize 2009 – A Summary

For a few years now, my Dad has given my Mom the books from the Booker Prize short list.  Last year was the first year that I dived into the books and began to read them and a few weeks ago I finished the fifth book of the six 2009 short-listed books for the Booker Prize.  I have tried to read Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall (the winner last year) but have not been able to get very far.  There is something about the book that doesn’t draw me in – I don’t know if it is the writing style or if it is the subject matter.  Perhaps someday I will actually get beyond page 50 and find enough in it to keep me going.

So here is my brief take on the one’s I did read with my favorite to my least favorite:

Simon Mawer’s The Glass Room: The Glass Room is about a house (based on a real house by Miles van der Rohe) built in Czechoslovakia in the late 1930’2 by a newly married industrialist and his wife.  The book is about the house and a culture that moves from the opulence of the 30’s, to the deprivations of the war, and finally to the stark harshness of the communist era.  It is about a marriage and the horrors of war and holocaust.  It is about reconciliation and remembrance, the public and the private and the lines between the two.  All this sounds like a heavy load but Mawer makes it seem almost effortless.  His prose is streamlined and transparent and the novel is wrapped up into a complete package where it all makes sense to the reader.  The Glass House is one of my favorite reads of this year.

JM Coetzee’s Summertime: A “fictionalized memoir”, Summertime is an examination of a novelist, one JM Coetzee.  An unidentified researcher, with access to the novelist’s notebooks, interviews five people who knew the man during a period of his life just prior to writing his first novel.  Throughout the book Coetzee is described as aloof, remote, socially and sexually inept.  It is difficult to get a complete picture of the man as each narrator presents different memories and agendas.  I have never heard of this author before picking up Summertime and, as always with multiple perspectives and voices, I wondered if the author could pull it off.  But once I finished it I was in awe of Coetzee’s talent.  Each voice was so distinct and well done and the language is so evocative, it made the book hard to put down.

AS Byatt’s The Children’s Book: True confession time – I did not like Possession so I have never picked up anything else by this author.  Although The Children’s Book was a long read covering an enormous amount of material, I did enjoy the book.  Perhaps this is due to an upbringing on The Forsyte Saga and Masterpiece Theater which would make a long and involved British family saga more to my liking.  This novel is vast, complex, and enjoyable, talking about art, its place in a person’s life and its effect on the artist’s family.  It is about growing up and not growing up, small betrayals and large betrayals all within the historical, political, and cultural context of six decades.

Sarah Water’s The Little Stranger: The Little Stranger takes place in the English countryside after WWII.  A local doctor becomes involved with the family of the local gentry (a widowed mother and her son and daughter) and their dilapidated estate.  As his involvement increases, so do strange incidents which lead to insanity and death.  A ghost story, Water’s is very good at creating an atmosphere and feeling for dread and darkness.  You can see where she is going in exploring evil and class differences, however I didn’t like any of the characters so at times I found it hard to go on.  I am glad I finished but I think I will wait awhile before reading anything else by this author.

Adam Fould’s The Quickening Maze: I was very excited about this novel after reading many favorable reviews but I must say I was disappointed.  Set in the 1830’s, the novel describes the inhabitants of the High Beech Private Asylum during two years of time including the poets Alfred Lord Tennyson and John Clare as well as the Director Dr. Matthew Allen and his family.  I was all set to like the book; it was about poetry and identity and the language was highly praised.  Instead, I found myself floundering through not caring about the characters or their struggles. I didn’t even enjoy the writing very much as it seemed overly flowery to me and the narrative somewhat unfocused.  Since so many other people have enjoyed this book, I would urge you to read some other reviews and perhaps you will find it to your liking after all.

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