Reading All the Bookers!

  Booker Prize:   Shortlisted 1981 Plot Time and Place :   Vienna, Kiev, Palestine; 1920's and 1940's Opening sentence :  "Dearest Gisela, I give you a warm bear-hug from the new world!" Plot summary :  This story follows the life of Lisa Erdman, an Austrian opera singer treated by Sigmund Freud for psychosomatic pain. Lisa, who possesses prophetic abilities, shares her erotic hallucinations with Freud, which hint at her future, rather than her past trauma.  Blending fictional narratives with Freud's real case study techniques, the novel delves into Lisa's complex life, and eventual fate. (from supersummary.com) Review : I had never he ard of this book before, and I went into it without knowing anything about it. So at first, I thought it was just a badly wriiten piece of erotic fiction, mixed with a fictionalization of Freud's life. (The erotic parts are not particularly well written). Then I read some reviews on Goodreads and I still couldn't un...

Booker Prize :  Shortlisted 1987 Plot Time and Place :  Eastern Europe, before the fall of Communism. Opening sentence :    "The car taking him back to the Residence entered Proclamation Square sometime between nine and nine-fifteen." Plot summary :  It's a political thriller about Stephen Bem, a Cardinal who is in conflict with the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy and finds himself caught in the middle of an escalating revolution.  Review :   It is very engaging, well written, with a good pace and interesting characters.  Rating :   4/5

  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