Man Booker 2010 - the shortlist

 

 The Man Booker dozen has been reduced to just six books:

Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America 

Emma Donoghue, Room

Damon Galgut, In a Strange Room

Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question

Andrea Levy, The Long Song

Tom McCarthy, C

So, no David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet - that's a poor show.

The winner will be announced on 12th. October.

Comments

[adele geras]

Well, I'm delighted that Howard Jacobson is on there, even though I haven't read his book yet. But this list fills me with a kind of....I dunno....lack of enthusiasm. Am I wrong? I've never been a Carey fan, the Tom McCarthy looks far too experimental. I don't fancy the Galgut at all and ROOM, which is amazing apparently is about a subject that kind of puts me off. Having said which, I have to confess (a hard confession here on Cornflower!) to being a de Zoet drop out. Though I love Mitchell's other books. Oh, well. There's always next year, eh?

[Claire]

I agree with Adele. I don't feel inspired to rush out and buy any of them unlike last year when I was so excited about Wolf Hall.

[Cornflower]

I too am underwhelmed!

[Julie Fredericksen]

I am so glad to have read the previous comments, especially Adele's. (Although I think Room will be the only book out of these I would want to read.) I was feeling extremely un-intellectual when I read the reviews on amazon.com and was thinking "these are not for me".

I gave .... Jacob De Zoet to my husband for his birthday. He perused the end papers and pushed it aside. Now it is on MY TBR pile. But after what Adele said I'm kind of hesitant to start it.

[Cornflower]

For what it's worth, Julie, I loved The Thousand Autumns..., as did my husband and a young friend, but nothing much else there grabs me.

[Dark Puss]

Julie, following Cornflower's enthusiasm my son spent his birthday money on the De Zoet; he finished the book in one day and loved it. Go with Cornflower on this one!

[Sandy]

Taste is personal. De Zoet is a great book for me and that's all that matters to me,

Thanks to Cornflwer & this site for bringing it over my horizon.

Good luck to the short list.

[Eva]

I'm rather shocked that Mitchell hasn't been short-listed. It is a masterful work. I find the rest of the list unappealing, though I have tried to read a couple. I have Room on reserve at the library and just put a hold on Levy's, although it didn't appeal to me at all.

[Julie Fredericksen]

Thank you Karen, Dark Puss, Sandy and Eva. I will definitely read the Mitchell book now. Then I will tell my husband how good it is and that he must read it. I thought giving it to him was a no-brainer since he loved Shogun so much and is constantly re-reading it.