APRIL: Booker Prize Winners

This month Book Club members were required to read a Booker Prize winner.
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe.


Joan & Ann: Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabrala 
This book was the winner in 1975.  Set in India a young woman arrives to find out more about the life of her grandfather and his wife Olivia. Her interest is based on letters written by Olivia to her sister Joan who lived in England. Her marriage had been boring , and fed up with the stuffy English traditions she has an affair with a charming Indian prince. When she becomes pregnant, her mother-in-law arranges an abortion and she retreats to live in the mountains.
When the narrator arrives in India, she too falls in love with an Indian man.
Joan didn't think it was up to the standard of a true Booker Prize winner, commenting that it was short, but not a quick read. Ann agreed with these comments and enjoyed the film more than the book.

Judy: True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
2001 winner of the Booker Prize
The author has presented us with a very sympathetic picture of the life and times of Ned Kelly. The novel is divided into 13 sections, all supposedly written by Kelly to tell the real story of his life to his 'fictional' daughter.
Judy thought it would be hard for someone who has never heard of the Kelly story before to really get into this book and to truly appreciate it, some history has to be studied.
While the general story is well known by most people, a couple of points that interested Judy were;
Ned claimed he only began robbing banks to enable him to "spread money through the community" after police began offering a reward for his capture. He justified it by claiming that the locals would protect him as long as he could help them.
Secondly, following the killing of Aaron Sherritt, Ned designs the pattern for a suit of armour to protect his friend Joe Byrnes as well as others. Several of these suits are made and buried for future use. This happened several months before and many miles from the eventual siege at Glenrowan.
Through Kelly's  eyes we see the rural landscape of the 19th century Australia, the harshness and the unfairness of it. And Peter Carey makes us see Ned Kelly as an outstanding victim of that great unfairness.

Jewels and Jo: The Remains of the Day by  Kazuro Ishiguro
1989 winner of the Booker Prize 
Set in the 1950s, the story begins with the death of the owner of Darlington Hall, and its sale to American owners. When they return home, the aging butler embarks on a trip around the UK for 5 days. Each place that he visits is a flashback of his times spent with Lord Darlington.
While Jewels doesn't normally like reading 'flashbacks', she did enjoy this.

Jo didn't enjoy it as much, but did like the references and descriptions of life during the war.
She found it interesting to read about the life of a butler, the class system and the prestige and opportunities available to the 'upper class'.

Kris:  The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson 
2010 Booker Prize winner
Kris really enjoyed this anti-Semitic comedy although she did find it difficult to get into it because of the neuroses of some of the characters.
The 3 main characters are old school friends, Julian Treslove (a former radio producer) and Sam Finkler (Jewish philosopher, writer and TV personality). They keep in touch with their old teacher Libor Sevcik, a Jewish Czech who had tutored them in Czech history and had also been a part time Hollywood gossip columnist.
The story revolves around Jewish people living in England and what it means to be Jewish. It had both comical as well as a tragic elements to the story.

Rosemary and Wendy: Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
1984 Booker Prize winner 
Rosemary found this story very boring and wondered how it could have won the prize. 
Edith Hpoe is a writer of romantic novels who has been sent, in disgrace, to a hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva. As she tries to finish her novel she observes the other guests around her.
 Rosemary thought that none of the characters were exciting, all they did was eat, shop and gossip!
 
 Wendy too found the main character boring, prepared to accept her life and not willing or wanting to change it.

Dianne and Jane: Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
Book prize winner in 1998
The story begins with the funeral of Molly Lane. Guests include not only her husband but a composer, a journalist and a transvestite MP. These last 3 know each other as well as having been Molly's lover at some time. All these lovers have flaws as well as being very egotistical. 
It is not until the end do you realise why the book is called Amsterdam and neither Dianne or Jane would give any clues.
Both really enjoyed the book. 

Tammy: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
1993 Booker Prize winner
Set in Dublin in the 1950s, it tells the story of a 10year old boy growing up, and his perception of the pretty tough life that he leads.
There were 2 things going on
* His parents were breaking up. He can feel the tension and reacts to it.
* The town is changing too. There is much building going on, and turning parts of it into a modern estate.
Tammy thought it was amazing how the author got into the shoes and eyes of a 10 year old. Maybe it was semi-autobiographical! The language was perfect for a 10 year old.
Tammy's final comments were that although it didn't have any chapters she loved it, a really sweet story, a gem!

Sheila: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
2006 Booker Prize winner
Sheila thought that this book may have lost something in its translation as she only read half of it.
A retired judge returned to the hills with his granddaughter. He had fallen on hard times but never lost the feelings of superiority of the Raj. Another theme was people's connection to white relatives and therefore their presumption of superiority.

Sheila also read In Another Light by Andrew Grigg.
A man in his late 40's wants to understand his dead father. He had been a doctor in Penang during the war, while his son was left in England. He takes a sea journey to the east to find out more about his father's mysterious life. The more he learns, the more his life seems to parallel that of his father's.

Pamela: Possession: A Romance by A S Bryatt
1990 Booker prize winner
An absolutely brilliant book, but don't be fooled, it is not a romantic story.
The novel concerns the relationship between two fictional Victorian poets, Randolph Henry Ash (whose life and work are loosely based on those of the English poet Robert Browning) and Christabel LaMotte (similarly based on  Christina Rosetti), as revealed to present day academics Roland Michell and Maud Bailey. Following a trail of clues from various letters and journals, they attempt to uncover the truth about Ash and LaMotte's past before it is discovered by rival colleagues.
The competition and race is between researchers (UK & USA) and possession is in regards to relationship.

Pamela also read  The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Booker prize winner in 1997. 
Pamela thought it was one of the most brilliant books she had read. But a reader would need to have knowledge of Hindu literature as the structure is kaleidoscopic.

Connie: The Sense of Ending by Julian Barnes 
Winner of 2011 Booker Prize.
Connie doesn't normally read prize winning books, but unexpectedly, enjoyed this one.
The first third of the book tells of 4 boys in their final year of school. One is far more intellectual, but they all get on well, particularly enjoying their History class.
The rest of the book (the next 40 years) is told by one of the boys, now retired, retelling what happened after they left school. His memory is not exactly reliable, ofter asking"is it the truth?"
It was becoming very confusing, but saved by a great ending. Connie's comment was that it 'satisfied' her and meant the rest of the book made sense.

Clarine: The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
1992 Booker Prize winner  
The story is set in a bombed Italian villa at the end of World War 11.
The main characters are - Hana, a young Canadian nurse,
her English patient with critical burns,
Caravaggio, a Canadian thief
an Indian sapper in the army who is also a bomb disposal expert.
These are all wonderful characters who interconnect in ways you wouldn't expect but it is all explained as they talk to each other. The language was beautiful and the story gripping.
Clarine thought it was wonderful book, she loved it. In fact, she read it twice and found so much more to like the second time through.

Welcome Marina a new member.
The book that Marina had recently read..... To Kill a Tsar by Andrew Williams
This a historical novel that is very easy to read. The historical facts are clearly spelt out and these are underlying the love story between an English doctor and a Russian girl helping in the clinic.