#37 Stone Yard Devotional, by Charlotte Wood

 



Booker Prize:  Shortlisted 2024

Plot Time and Place: Present day Australia

Opening sentence: "Arrive finally at about three."

Plot summary: Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place where she grew up, taking refuge in a small religious community. She finds herself living a strange, reclusive existence almost by accident. (thebookerprizes.com)

Review:  This book is hard to define. It´s written in a diary form, by an unnamed narrator, but it's not boring or repetitive. There isn't much of a plot, but I liked the writing, the themes of grief and guilt, and all the car-crash voyeuristic Catholic saints' lives stuff.

Rating:  4/5












Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#1 The Vegetarian, by Han Kang

Image
  Booker Prize:  Winner International Booker 2016 Plot Time and Place : Present day South Korea Opening sentence:   "Before my wife turned vegetarian, I'd always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way". Plot summary : The story is about a woman who suddenly decides to stop eating meat. This generates a lot of conflicts with her family because, up until this point, she had always been a very passive, subservient person.  Review:  I really enjoyed this. The novel is divided into three parts. The first part is narrated by the protagonist, Yeong-hye's, husband. The second part is told from the point of view of Yeong-hye's brother-in-law. And the third part is told from her sister's point of view. So we almost never actually hear Yeong-hye's voice. In fact, she has no voice. She feels stifled by Korean social norms and everyday sexism. And refusing to eat meat is the way that she finds to take a stand, to fight back. Also the story includes some...
Read more

The Reading List - The Booker Prize

Image
BOOKER PRIZE WINNERS AND SHORTLISTED BOOKS FULL LIST  1969 -Something to answer for - PH Newby    WINNER -Impossible Object - Nicholas Mosley  (open) -The public image - Muriel Spark   (open) -Figures in a landscape - Barry England    (open) -The nice and the good - Iris Murdoch (bib) -From scenes like these - Gordon Williams 1970  -Eva Trout By Elizabeth Bowen  (open) -Bruno's Dream By Iris Murdoch  (open) (bib) -Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel By William Trevor  (open) -The Conjunction By Terence Wheeler -The Elected Member By Bernice Rubens WINNER  (open) -John Brown's Body By  A.L. Barker    (open) 1971 -In a Free State By V. S. Naipaul   WINNER    (bib) -The Big Chapel By Thomas Kilroy   (open) -Briefing for a Descent into Hell By Doris Lessing  -St Urbain's Horseman By Mordecai Richler    (open) -Goshawk Squadron By Derek Robinson    (open) -Mrs Palfrey...
Read more

#17 The Discomfort of Evening, by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

Image
Booker Prize :  Winner International Booker  2020  Plot Time and Place :  Present day Netherlands Opening sentence :    "I was ten and stopped taking off my coat." Plot summary :  It is narrated by ten-year-old Jas, a girl who lives with her religious family on a dairy farm in the Netherlands. Jas is grieving the death of her brother, who died in an accident. His death drives further instability in the family and deteriorates Jas' mental health.  Review :  It´s strange to say you liked a book when it is so full of disturbing scenes and imagery. But I liked it. The writing is beautiful, the descriptions very imaginative, and it was interesting to see how different people deal with grief, and the dynamic between siblings. The author is also very good at writing in the first person as a child, it really feels like a child's voice and thoughts. Rating :  4/5
Read more