Reading All the Bookers!

  Booker Prize:   WINNER 2001 Plot Time and Place :   Australia, 1870's Opening sentence :  "I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false." Plot summary :  This is a fictional account of Ned Kelly, the famed Australian bushranger. This is the captivating tale of an outlaw who was considered a national hero. Standing up for the underdog and defying the corrupt powers of the time, Kelly robbed banks, stole horses and murdered police officers with the help of his gang of outlaw misfits. (from thebookerprizes.com) Review :  Well written, fun to read and full of adventures, but I thought it was too long and at times just felt like more of the same. Rating :   3/5

  Booker Prize :   Shortlisted 2007 Plot Time and Place : USA, Pakistan, around 2001 Opening sentence :   "Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you." Plot summary : A Pakistani immigrant who since 9/11 has become alienated with the USA tells his story to an American stranger. (from thebookerprizes.com) Review : It was i nteresting to get to know the point of view of an immigrant in America. I also really enjoyed the writing: the unreliable narrator, the leaving some aspects open to the reader's interpretation or imagination, the stream of consciousness writing. Also it is a critique of American prejudices, sense of superiority, and out of control capitalism. Rating : 4/5

  Booker Prize :  Shortlisted 2004 Plot Time and Place :  19th century, 1931, 1975, early 21st century, 22nd century, distant future; Chatham Islands, Belgium, California, Britain, Korea, Hawaii Opening sentence :   "Beyond the Indian hamlet, upon a forlorn strand, I happened on a trail of recent footprints." Plot summary :   An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution. The book consists of 6 nested stories; each is read or observed by the protagonist of the next, progressing in time through the central sixth story. Review :   I don't understand how this didn't win the Booker. It's absolutely brilliant, mind-bending, exhilarating, and thought-provoking. Rating :   5/5

Booker Prize:  Shortlisted 2002 Plot Time and Place :   Ireland, Italy, 20th century (from 1921 to the present time) Opening sentence :    "Captain Everard Gault wounded the boy in the right shoulder on the night of June the twenty-first, 1921". Plot summary :   It follows Lucy, the protagonist, through childhood, middle age and later years. Review :   Beautiful and lyrical writing. I loved this author. Wonderful, moving story. Quite sad. Rating :   4/5

  Booker Prize :  WINNER 2007 Plot Time and Place :  Dublin, present day Opening sentence :    "I would like to write down what happened in my grandmother's house the summer I was eight or nine, but I am not sure if it really did happen." Plot summary :  The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house, in the winter of 1968. Review :   I liked it. It's very easy to read. I enjoyed the themes of sadness, grief, family, memory, sibling relationships. Rating :   4/5

  Booker Prize :  WINNER 2003 Plot Time and Place :  Present day Texas, USA Opening sentence :    "It's hot as hell in Martirio, but the papers on the porch are icy with the news." Plot summary : In this darkly comic novel, an acerbic, foul-mouthed 15-year-old boy goes on the run after a mass shooting at his Texas high school. Review :   This is brilliant. It's hard to say I liked it, because it's so depressing, but at the same time laugh-out-loud funny. Funny, smart, satirical, realistic. Rating :  4/5

  Booker Prize :  Shortlisted 2009 Plot Time and Place :  1940s, Warwickshire, England Opening sentence :    "I first saw Hundreds Hall when I was ten years old". Plot summary :  A country doctor, Dr. Faraday, makes friends with an old gentry family of declining fortunes, who own a very old estate that is crumbling around them. Perplexing events unfold, which may or may not be of supernatural origin, culminating in tragedy. Review :  This is a ghost story, a love story, a critique of the English class system, and a mystery, with a great atmosphere and a great final twist.  Rating :   5/5

  Booker Prize : Shortlisted 2003 Plot Time and Place :  Present day England Opening sentence :   "The other night, at dinner, Sheba talked about the first time that she and the Connolly boy kissed." Plot summary :  The narrator, Barbara Covett, is telling us this story with a clear aim in mind: she is in the middle of a national scandal and, without confiding her plans to the woman on whose actions this scandal has turned, plans to publish this account for the public eye later. Barbara is a History teacher. She is a lonely old woman and very judgemental.  Her co-worker, Sheba, is a 40-something-year-old Pottery teacher who is having an affair with a 16-year-old male student.   Review :   Very good psychological portrait of the inner life and motivations of a lonely and unhappy person. In the end you don't know if you hate the villain or feel sorry for her.  Rating :   4/5

  Booker Prize:  Winner 2008 Plot Time and Place :  Present day India Opening sentence:    "Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English." Plot summary:  The novel provides a darkly humorous perspective of India's class struggle in a globalized world, as told through a retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy. Review:   This one grew on me. At first, I wondered why such an apparently light, funny read had won the Booker. But as I went on reading, I really liked the social critique embedded in the story. It's easy to have moral scruples when you've never been hungry... Lots of food for thought and very funny at the same time. A nice surprise.  Rating:   3/5

  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