Reading All the Bookers!

  Booker Prize:  Winner 2019 Plot Time and Place :  America in the future Opening sentence:   "Only dead people are allowed to have statues, but I have been given one while still alive." Plot summary:  Sequel to "The Handmaid's Tale" Review:   I thought this would be a disappointing read, as sequels usually are. But of course, The Literary Goddess (Atwood) does not disappoint! This is as brilliant as THT. Rating:   5/5

  Booker Prize:  Shortlisted 2010 Plot Time and Place :  In the backyard of a kidnapper's house, inside a locked room, present time. Opening sentence:   "Today I'm five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I'm changed to five, abracadabra." Plot summary:  Jack's mom was kidnapped five years ago, and is being kept locked up in a tiny room. She got pregnant with Jack because she was raped by the kidnapper. She has lived with Jack inside the tiny room for the past 5 years (Jack's whole life). She tries to give Jack some kind of routine and a basic education. The novel is told from 5 year old Jack's perspective.  Review:  I am not one to tear up easily with a story in a book. But this one got to my heartstrings. The love a mother has for her child, the way the story is told through a child's eyes. It's beautiful. And the movie is great too. Rating:   4/5

  Booker Prize:  Shortlisted 2006 Plot Time and Place :  1940s London Opening sentence:   "So this, said Kay to herself, is the sort of person you've become: a person whose clocks and wrist-watches have stopped, and who tells the time, instead, by the particular kind of cripple arriving at her landlord's door." Plot summary:  This is a story about several relationships, that take place in London, in 1941 during the Blitz, in 1944, and then after the war is over in 1947. Only their stories are revealed backwards. So first we find out how it ended in 1947, and we end with how it all started in 1941. Review:  I like Sarah Waters because: she's very good at making the reader feel like we're really there, she's amazing at writing sensual lesbian scenes, she's very imaginative, she writes wonderful historical descriptions, right down to the tiniest detail of day-to-day life, and you just want to read everything she's ever written.  Rating:  4/5 (Not a 5...

  Booker Prize :  2006 Shortlisted Plot Time and Place :  London, years 2000 to 2003 Opening sentence :    "Why had they pretended to kill him when he was born?" Plot summary :   Once again, the Melrose family is in peril. Patrick, the husband, who has been sexually abandoned by his wife in favour of motherhood, and who has a problematic relationship with his self-centered mother; Mary, who is consumed both by her children and by an overwhelming desire not to repeat the mistakes of her own mother. (from thebookerprizes.com) Review :   This novel is a sequel to the author's trilogy, "Some Hope" , and I think it is better understood and appreciated if you read the whole thing. It's funny, realistic, cynical, sad and smart.  Not a happy read, but it is very realistic. Rating :  3/5

  Booker Prize:  Shortlisted 2005 Plot Time and Place :  A boarding school in England, in the near future Opening sentence:    "My name is Kathy H. I'm thirty-one years old, and I've been a carer now for over eleven years." Plot summary:  This book is about a group of student clones whose main goal in life is to care for other donors before donating their own vital organs. Review:  I cannot understand why this "lost" the Booker to John Banville's "The Sea". It is a very beautiful novel about what it means to be human. And it really makes you get involved with the characters. Usually I never "get" the plot twists beforehand, so I was quite surprised (and saddened) with a few of the twists in this story. Sad and beautiful. Rating:  5/5

  Booker Prize:  Shortlisted 2003 Plot Time and Place :  In the future / North America Opening sentence:    "Snowman wakes before dawn". Plot summary :  Oryx is a mysterious woman, recognized by Jimmy and Crake as the girl from a child pornography site. Crake hires her for sexual services and as a teacher to the Crakers, but she secretly becomes Jimmy's lover as well. After the Catastrophe, her memory continues to haunt Snowman. Review:  The whole trilogy ( Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, Maddaddam)  is brilliant. This book makes us think about the future, the state of this planet, what it means to be human, personal responsibility, the dangers of tinkering with genetic engineering.  It's unforgettable and pretty disturbing, like most stuff from (The Literary Goddess) Atwood.  Rating:  5/5

  Booker Prize:  2002 Winner Plot Time and Place : 1960's and 70's, India, Mexico, Canada, Pacific Ocean. Opening sentence:   "My suffering left me sad and gloomy" Plot summary :  A young man survives a shipwreck and spends months in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Review:  Maybe I wasn't in the right state of mind when I read this, or maybe I didn't get what all the fuss was about, but I just couldn't enjoy this. I thought it was just childish, pointless, and a bit boring.  Rating:  2/5

  Booker Prize:  Booker 2002 shortlisted Plot Time and Place : Victorian-era Britain Opening sentence:   "My name, in those days, was Susan Trinder. People called me Sue." Plot summary:  Sue Trinder, an orphan raised in a "den of thieves" by her adoptive mother, Mrs. Sucksby, is sent to help Richard "Gentleman" Rivers seduce a wealthy heiress. Posing as a maid, Sue is to gain the trust of the lady, Maud Lilly, and eventually persuade her to elope with Gentleman. Review:  I went into this book not knowing anything about it, except that it was set in Victorian England. I had no idea it had a great plot twist, great characters, a lesbian angle, and a great way of making you feel like you're really there! Rating:  5/5

Booker Prize:  Booker 2000 Winner Plot Time and Place : Canada 1998 Opening sentence:   "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge". Plot summary :   The novel explores the complex relationship between two sisters, Iris and Laura. The novel is structured as a nested narrative, with the main story of the sisters' lives framed by a science fiction story about a blind assassin that Laura wrote before her death. Review:  Amazing. A story inside a story inside a story. Keeps you really concentrated. Made me a lifelong Atwood fan.  Rating:  5 out of 5 

  Booker Prize:  Booker 1986 shortlisted Plot Time and Place : USA in the future Opening sentence: "We slept in what had once been the gymnasium" Plot summary : It's about a totalitarian state called Gilead which used to be the United States. Gilead is ruled by religious extremists. Review:  I read this more than 20 years ago, and it was brilliant and scary. Reading it now is even scarier. The interesting thing is the stuff that's shown in the book is happening right now in certain parts of the world. And some other stuff could very easily be implemented in the so called "Free World"... and we wouldn't even notice it before it was too late.  It's one of those books that you will never forget.   Rating:  5 out of 5