Karl's Reading List

Published by Vintage/Penguin Random House UK: Dublin, 2024 (2023). This most recent Booker prize winner is also one of (if not the ) shortest Booker prize winner in history. It also is one of the cleanest Booker prize winners I've ever read, and also holds the distinction of being the first Booker prize winning book I have read without owning a copy in advance - a sign that my original Bookerworm goal is weakening somewhat, after so many books that have turned my stomach. Anyway, Orbital is a short book about a day in the life of six astronauts/cosmonauts living on the International Space Station. They orbit the world 16 times over the course of a day, reminiscing about life, facing personal highs and lows, observing a massive typhoon heading for the Philippines, thinking about a concurrent mission to the moon and whether that will make their role obsolete... ...and then they go to bed, and sleep, and the final chapters (each chapter covers either half an orbit or the whole orbit) ...

Published by Vintage: Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, UK, 2015. First published 1978. Way back in 2020, the second Booker book I ever read was entitled The Sea . Now, I have finally read The Sea, The Sea, which - despite the similar titles - is in no way connected to The Sea , other than that they both won Booker prizes and both are set near - surprise - the sea. In fact, The Sea is from 2005, whereas The Sea, The Sea is from 1978, meaning that The Sea was written 27 years after  The Sea, The Sea. See? Anyway, The Sea, The Sea follows retired stage actor/playwright/director Charles Arrowby who has moved to an old run-down house near the sea in England. He has decided to withdraw from society, and doesn't want to do anything except reminisce on his life, swim in the sea, and perhaps reconnect romantically with an old flame. The first part of the book, in which Charles looks back on his life and swims a lot, is the bit I found the most interesting. Actually, for a lot of this section I...

Published by Faber and Faber Limited: London, 1981 (1980). I have previously only read one book by William Golding, Lord of the Flies, and that was all the way back in high school, in the year (cough). So, I have vague recollections of the 'feel' of that book. This book 'feels' similar, which I guess makes sense. This book, like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society , is told in an epistolary fashion; in this book, we are reading the journal of Edmund Talbot, also intended as a letter to his godfather, as Talbot travels by ship from England to Australia. This is in the colonist days, and other passengers include the loud artist Mr Brocklebank with his 'daughter' and 'wife', the humanist philosopher Mr Prettiman, and the hapless parson, Mr Colley. Talbot is a fairly arrogant, opinionated, cynical figure with an inbuilt belief in his own class superiority, as well as a distain for established religion, yet the captain of the ship, Captain Ander...

Published by Chatto & Windus/Penguin Random House: Dublin, Ireland, 2021. The Promise is an oddly written book. For example, it uses no speech marks or 'section breaks', meaning that at times it is hard to tell who is speaking, if they are speaking or simply thinking, and occasionally even whether something is happening in the same scene or time and the thing that happened just before it. Fortunately for the story as a whole, it is very apparent that author Galgut has done this on purpose, and that any sense of disorientation that results from his stylistic choices are ones that he intended to allow. This is because disorientation and upheaval are two of the main themes of The Promise. Each section of the book is named for one member of the Swart family - with the named member being fated to die in their section of the story. We begin with the family gathering following the death of 'Ma' (Rachel), who had caused a rift in the family by returning to her Jewish faith ...

Published by Vintage Books: London, 2010. First published 1993. This is a 'coming-of-age' story of sorts, starring ten-year-old Paddy Clarke. He hangs out with his mates, getting into low-level trouble (the sort that ten-year-old 'gangs' would get into) in his home town of Barrytown. The story is told from his perspective, and really leans into it, using short sentences and changing scenes abruptly, as if the ten-year-old narrator has suddenly thought of something else he wants to talk about. As the book progresses, Paddy's voice does mature a bit, but the overall timeframe of the narrative is not enough for him to change his narration style all that much. Sometimes this 'purposefully simplistic' style can be to a book's detriment ( Life and Times of Michael K springs to mind), but Doyle finds the balance - Paddy's story may meander but the innocent feel is enough to keep the reader hooked.  This 'innocent' feel is slowly challenged as Paddy...

Published by Te Herenga Waka University Press: Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. Eleanor Catton has the privilege of writing one of the few Booker books I can actually say I enjoyed! She is also a Kiwi author, which works well for the current reading challenge I am a part of. Birnam Wood is Catton's third book, and follows a group of 'eco-activists' who plant gardens in 'wasted spaces' throughout various cities, using reserves, the sides of motorways, unsuspecting people's backyards etc. The group calls themselves 'Birnam Wood' after the wood from Macbeth, which "moved"... Birnam Wood the group consider themselves to be planting 'moving' gardens. Through a series of circumstances, the founder of the group, Mira, meets Robert Lemoine, a shady American billionaire, who offers the group the chance to scale their operations way up (by planting the property of the recently knighted Sir Owen and Lady Jill Darvish), and possibly even be...

Published by Penguin Books: North Shore, Auckland, NZ, 2006. I am currently involved in a national Teacher's Reading Challenge, in which books by New Zealand authors gain double points... so you'll be seeing a few more Kiwi authors over the next few months. This book, which was nominated for a Booker prize but didn't win, was lent to me by a co-worker who had just finished it. Her comment to me was that it felt a bit like a Pacific To Kill a Mockingbird, in the way the protagonist (a young girl) was witnessing dramatic and 'adult' events but interpreting them through the eyes of an innocent child. This is an apt description.  For the Teacher's Reading Challenge, I wrote a few notes on my thoughts while reading: "sweet - happy - nice - interesting - OMGWHATSHAPPENINGMAKEITSTOP!! - epilogue."  This is also an apt description. Mister Pip is told through the eyes of Matilda, a young girl from Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. When a civil war breaks out an...

Published by Picador: London, UK, 2001. First published 1971. An odd book, containing three different narratives (along with separate prologue and epilogue narratives) all on the theme of feeling displaced in a different culture and environment.  The first main story is told from the perspective of Santosh, an Indian servant who moves to America, only to find himself questioning his life choices. The next story follows a West Indian man who travels to England to support his brother, only to become disillusioned and eventually murder someone.  The third main narrative - which is the longest and also the titular 'In a Free State' - follows follows two English expats - Bobby and Linda - as they road trip south through a progressively more war-torn African nation. On the way we learn a lot about each character - mostly through their conversations - and witness their interactions with each other and those around them. As with many of the  Booker books I have read, there is an ...

Published by John Murray (Publishers): London, 2003 (1975). I'm trying to be a bit more picky with my Booker books these days, while still aiming to get through the ones that aren't too explicit.  Heat and Dust tells two stories: the first is of Olivia, the young wife of Douglas Rivers, an English civil servant living in Satipur, India in the 1920s. Although the couple are very loving towards one another, Olivia feels isolated, unable to relate to the other (older) local British women and unable to mix much with the local English men who, because of her gender, choose not to explain the politics of the area to her. She befriends Harry, another Englishman, who is living in the palace of the local Nawab (a prince), and whom the novel implies he is in a very controlling homosexual relationship with. As time goes by Olivia is drawn more and more to the Nawab, and eventually she begins her own relationship with him, resulting eventually in her decision to elope with him. This is not...

Published by Penguin Books Ltd.: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1975. First published 1973. Like the previous book I read ( Three Men in a Boat ) this book also 'is what it says on the tin.' The Siege of Krishnapur is set in the (fictional) village of Krishnapur during the Indian mutiny of 1857. One of the British residents, known as 'The Collector', has been worrying that something like this may occur and has fortified his property and the surrounds with mud walls and other defensive elements. When the mutiny finally strikes Krishnapur, the British population retreat into this area and must defend against wave after wave of Indian attack. The book focusses almost entirely on the British element of the story, with Indian characters playing very minor roles. This might be a sign of the times in which Farrell was writing, however as with his other (retroactively awarded) Booker prize-winning work Troubles , Farrell has a very subtle edge of almost satirical humour wea...

Published by Triad/Panther Books: London, 1986 (1985). First published 1984. The shortest Booker book I've read so far, Hotel du Lac takes place almost entirely in the titular hotel, located in a small town in Switzerland. The author Edith Hope, who writes Romance novels under the pen-name Vanessa Wilde, has come to the hotel to finish her latest book and to have some distance from a traumatic decision she has made back home. While at the hotel she makes the acquaintance of the few other hotel guests, most prominently Mrs Pusey and her adult daughter Jennifer - who seem almost to embody opulence and wealth - and Monica, a quieter woman with a loud dog that is suffering from an eating disorder. She also strikes up a friendship, and possibly more, with Phillip Neville, a fairly loosely-moralled man who has come to the hotel after his wife has run away with another man. Back in London, Edith has been seeing a married man, David Simmonds, and continues to write to him throughout the n...

Published by Fourth Estate: London, 2013 (2012). Book Two of the Wolf Hall Trilogy: ' Wolf Hall '; ' Bring Up The Bodies '; 'The Mirror and the Light'. The second novel in a series charting the life of Thomas Cromwell, Bring Up The Bodies follows the template set down by Wolf Hall : Cromwell is such a central figure to the book that almost any use of the word 'he' refers to Cromwell himself, yet he is such a closed figure that his true motivations are only revealed occasionally. We see Cromwell maneuvering and manipulating, but whether he is serving his own motivations or those of his liege, Henry VIII, remain mostly concealed. Even the 'side' of various debates can remain murky, with Cromwell happy to befriend even those he means to bring down in order to fully take advantage of the situation. Bring Up The Bodies, like its predecessor, won the Booker prize, and in both cases I feel that this award was earned. The books are both very well written...

Published by Coronet Books/Hodder and Stoughton/Hemisphere Publishers Ltd: Great Britain, 1983 (1982). What a book to end the year with! Schindler's Ark is the book that inspired the movie Schindler's List (and is known by the latter name in some countries). It is also a Booker book, which meant I really had no idea what I was in for. The book (and the movie) tells the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German factory owner living in the Polish city of Crakow during World War 2, relating how he saved the lives of about 1200 Jews by labelling them as 'essential workers'. Stating it that way makes it sound as though Schindler did very little 'heroic', yet throughout the book he continually takes big risks to achieve his goal, both in terms of his own safety, and also in financial terms. The book, being about Jews in WW2, is obviously not a 'light' book, yet Keneally tells it in a way that really 'works'. His style here is an interesting one; he tells...

Published by Canongate Books: Great Britain, 2008 (2002). I knew quite a lot about the general plot of this book before I began reading, thanks to reviews about it when it first came out, as well as having seen at least part of the Oscar-winning film version. Life of Pi tells the story of Piscine Molitor Patel, who starts by growing up as the son of a zookeeper in India and choosing to follow three religions simultaneously, and later on ends up adrift in a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a Bengal tiger. With a plot like that, I knew the book would be somewhat 'quirky', but I wasn't expecting the level of humour, or the level of insight within it. The three religions thing is a bit odd, but then, so is the character of Pi. To him, the three religions of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity all overlap in numerous ways: "Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hin...

Published by Fourth Estate: London, 2010 (2009). Book One of the Wolf Hall Trilogy: ' Wolf Hall '; ' Bring Up The Bodies '; 'The Mirror and the Light'. Set during the reign of King Henry VIII, Wolf Hall follows the rise to power of Thomas Cromwell, who goes from son of a blacksmith to adviser to a cardinal, to advisor to Henry himself. The first chapter of the book is set during Cromwell's childhood, but immediately after this the book jumps to Cromwell as an adult, already adroit at political maneuvering. The 'prologue' therefore can seem a bit out of place, but it does serve as a constant reminder of where Cromwell has come from, and provides hints towards his motivations. Because Cromwell himself is fairly closed on this front. The book is written in a very close third-person narrative, with almost any mention of "he" referring to Cromwell. We get his thoughts, his conversations and actions, but at the same time very little about his mot...

Published by Faber and Faber Ltd: London, England, 2008. Originally published 1968. The very first Booker Prize winner, Something to Answer For follows Townrow, a protagonist that for the first section of the book I kept misreading as “Tomorrow.” I bring that up, because it reflects, on a smaller scale, the feeling of confusion and disorientation that permeates this book. Very early on, Townrow (who has travelled to Egypt to either help or swindle an elderly widow) gets knocked on the head and left for dead, and as a result has ongoing memory problems. He forgets things that we, the readers, already know, or he remembers sequels to earlier scenes much later, and on occasion even “remembers” as having happened events that we know are fictionalised, or that may have happened to another character. The concept is clever, but having an unreliable narrator who also makes spontaneous and reckless decisions throughout the narrative also makes the book very difficult to follow. For example, at...

Published by Oneworld Publications: Great Britain, 2015 (2014). This book killed my attempt at the Bookerworm for some time. Another book with a promising beginning, Seven Killings opens in Jamaica, employing a sentence structure that accurately reflects the speech pattern of the locals, and draws me in. The early parts of the book, which talk about gang troubles in Kingston and life in the slums during the time of Bob Marley’s rising popularity are very interesting, but as with so many of the books I’ve read in this project, the story begins to lose its focus in the latter parts of the book, switching its focus to New York and honing in on various homosexual encounters. If these encounters were helping to advance the plot I could understand their appearance in the book, but Seven Killings seems to become less worried about plot as the story continues and more worried about describing the sordid details of the lives of characters that have until that time been very background. Two bo...

Published by Penguin Books: London, England, 2008 (1995). I did not enjoy this book.  By now I’m used to the idea that a lot of the Booker books will contain sordid elements, but Billy Prior, the protagonist of this work, turns my stomach with his sexual behaviour. Not only through its explicitness (which is at the higher end of the Booker books I’ve read) but through his attitude towards it: he sleeps with both men and women, but never does so with any sense of real emotional attachment. Rather, he is merely using his sexual partners – for sexual release, for revenge, for humiliation… It would be possible to give an argument for why Prior acts the way he does, both because of being a gay man in a dangerous era for gay men, and because of the horrors he has and is continuing to experience in the trenches of World War One. Yet understanding his behaviour doesn’t make reading about it any more pleasant, and any hint that his behaviour is connected to these elements is hidden, leavin...

Published by Bloomsbury Publications: London, Berlin, New York, 2010. This book started out so promising. For the first few pages I was really enjoying the humour and world building going on. Julian Treslove is a tragic romantic, always anticipating (almost eagerly) the end of any relationship before he gets into it. As the book paints the picture of this hopeless character, I chuckle to myself at how much his imagination is running away with him, and in turn how much that is negatively affecting his life. Tragically, though, Julian is not the sort of protagonist to learn from his mistakes. As the book progresses, Julian seems to make little breakthroughs, but by the end of the book is still just as confused as he began. This in itself is not a reason to dislike the book, as satire doesn’t always need to end in a redemptive arc, but the continuing unpleasantness of the behaviour that Julian and other characters indulge in during the narrative – and particularly the graphic discussions...

Published by Penguin Books: London, England, 1987. A narrative device that I’m noticing repeat itself in some of the Booker books I have read so far is that of the elderly narrator looking back on their life while also commenting on their actions as an elderly narrator. The Sea was the first one I encountered, and The Blind Assassin was the second; now Moon Tiger has become the third.  Claudia Hampton is now in care, and as she slowly begins to die, she narrates what she claims is a “history of the world” but is in reality a look back at her life, with an occasional historical fact thrown in as embellishment. Her memories are not told chronologically but as they come to her, and cover most of her life, from childhood, to youth (with an incestuous element thrown in for Booker sordidness), to her romance with a soldier during WW2, to her struggles as a mother… The book is written in a simple and easy to read style – until I encountered the first hints of incest I was wondering if...