TSS: Reading the awards

I am kind of still finding my way with this whole Sunday Salon thing and so I think that for the time being, I am going to keep unofficially participating in Sunday Salon and also officially participating in Muse in the Fog's Suddenly Sunday at the same time.

In case you hadn't noticed the longlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction was announced this week. It has been mentioned one or two times around the blogosphere, and yes, I am going to talk about it here. What I wanted to focus on though was what it means to a reader if a book is long listed for one of the big prizes, let alone wins one. First, here's the list of books that made the long list:

Rosie Alison: The Very Thought of You (UK)
Eleanor Catton: The Rehearsal (New Zealand)
Clare Clark: Savage Lands (UK)
Amanda Craig: Hearts and Minds (UK)
Roopa Farooki: The Way Things Look to Me (UK)
Rebecca Gowers: The Twisted Heart (UK)
M.J. Hyland: This is How (UK)
Sadie Jones: Small Wars (UK)
Barbara Kingsolver: The Lacuna (US)
Laila Lalami: Secret Son (Morocco)
Andrea Levy: The Long Song (UK)
Attica Locke: Black Water Rising (US)
Maria McCann: The Wilding (UK)
Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall (UK)
Nadifa Mohamed: Black Mamba Boy (UK)
Lorrie Moore: A Gate at the Stairs (UK)
Monique Roffey: The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Spain/UK)
Amy Sackville: The Still Point (UK)
Kathryn Stockett: The Help (US)
Sarah Waters: The Little Stranger (UK)


My initial thoughts when I first saw this list was 'oh my goodness I haven't read any of these'! I own Wolf Hall, I have The Help out from the library at the moment, and I have had The Little Stranger out as well, but I had to return it unread. I will borrow it again eventually I am sure. There are several others that I have been meaning to read as well, but haven't actually done anything about.

My second reaction was based purely on my affection for Historical Fiction as a genre. Of the twenty books that are listed, twelve of them have a historical setting, or at least are partially set in a different era! The Very Thought of You is set on the eve of WWII (so a must read for me)and Savage Lands by Clare Clark is set in 1700s Louisiana and sounds fascinating and The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver is set during the Mexican Revolution. I really loved The Poisonwood Bible and so this is already on my TBR list. The Long Song by Andrea Levy is about slavery and The Wilding by Maria McCann is set in the post English Civil War era (a time that I find fascinating too). Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel is a Tudor novel that has been garnering critical awards all over the place, and Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed is set in 1930s Africa. I can't get enough of books set in Africa. The White Woman on a Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey is set in post Colonial Trinidad, which it is fair to say I have never read about before, and The Still Point by Amy Sackville is partially set at the end of 19th century. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (1960s American South) and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (post WWII UK) round out the list.

Then I saw the longlist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, which is Australia's most prestigious literary fiction prize, and again, I hadn't read any of them. I had heard of some of the authors - let's face it, you can't be a reader in Australia and not have heard of Peter Carey and Tom Kenneally at the very least - and I have read Sonya Hartnett, and have been meaning to read Peter Temple for the longest time too. It is interesting to have a crime novel make the long list too. That's not something that you see that often.

Figurehead, Patrick Allington (Black Inc. Publishing)
Parrot and Olivier in America, Peter Carey (Penguin Group)
The Bath Fugues, Brian Castro (Giramondo Publishing)
Boy on a Wire, John Doust (Fremantle Press)
The Book of Emmett, Deborah Forster (Random House)
Sons of the Rumour, David Foster (Pan Macmillan)
Siddon Rock, Glenda Guest (Random House)
Butterfly, Sonya Hartnett (Penguin Group)
The People's Train, Tom Keneally (Random House)
Lovesong, Alex Miller (Allen & Unwin)
Jasper Jones, Craig Silver (Allen & Unwin)
Truth, Peter Temple (Text Publishing)

So heres the thing. Apparently, despite the fact that in the past 15 months I have read approximately 150 books, I am not reading the books that are garnering the critical praise that comes associated with being nominated with these prestigious prizes. Coincidentally, this week also saw the launch of the third annual DWABAHA tournament, where popular romance novels that have been released in the previous 12 months are pitted against each other in brackets. Participants then vote, until finally there is one book left that is called champion! The initial list was 64 books long, and out of that list, I had read a miserly total of 4. This means that I am not reading the critically acclaimed books and I am not reading the popularly acclaimed books in the genres that I enjoy reading, so what the heck am I reading?

As I do every year, I have added the long listed books to my ever growing TBR list, and think about when I might possibly read some of them, so that I can continue my participation in the ongoing Orange Prize Project challenge at the very least.

Do you like to read the novels that are long listed for prestigious prizes? Some people try to read as many as possible of the long listed novels before the prize is nominated? If a novel does win one of these prizes, do you add it to your TBR list? Does seeing which books made the list attract your interest to those novels, or do prizes not matter to you at all? Perhaps some prizes mean more than others to you?

Let's talk prizes!

I've read one!

After realising that I hadn't read any of the longlisted novels for the Miles Franklin award, I was a little concerned about the upcoming longlists for other awards, like The Orange Prize and The Booker Prize. With The Orange Prize Longlist announced yesterday, my curiosity is sated, and I have actually read one (The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser)! Haven't heard of some of the others, but never mind, but Girl in a Blue Dress was already on my TBR list!

Debra Adelaide - The Household Guide to Dying

Gaynor Arnold - Girl in a Blue Dress

Lissa Evans - Their Finest Hour and a Half

Bernardine Evaristo - Blonde Roots

Ellen Feldman - Scottsboro

Laura Fish - Strange Music

V.V. Ganeshananthan - Love Marriage

Allegra Goodman - Intuition

Samantha Harvey - The Wilderness

Samantha Hunt - The Invention of Everything Else

Michelle de Kretser - The Lost Dog

Deirdre Madden - Molly Fox’s Birthday

Toni Morrison - A Mercy

Gina Ochsner - The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight

Marilynne Robinson - Home

Preeta Samarasan - Evening is the Whole Day

Kamila Shamsie - Burnt Shadows

Curtis Sittenfeld - American Wife

Miriam Toews - The Flying Troutmans

Ann Weisgarber - The Personal History of Rachel DuPree

Orange Prize Winner

The winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction is Rose Tremain, for the book The Road Home. The winner of the Award for New Writers is Joanna Kavenna for Inglorious!

I have only attempted to read two books by Rose Tremain. One was a collection of short stories, The Darkness of Wallis Simpson, which I didn't mind, but the other book that attempted to read by her was one that I should have enjoyed because of the subject matter, but I ended up giving up less than half way through, something that I very rarely do!

2008 Orange Prize Longlist

The 2008 Orange Prize Longlist has been announced. I have read two of them (The Blood of Flowers and The Keep), and own one other (The Gathering). I am off to add the rest to my TBR list!


Anita Amirrezvani's The Blood of Flowers (Headline Review)
Stella Duffy's The Room of Lost Things (Virago)
Jennifer Egan's The Keep (Abacus)
Anne Enright's The Gathering (Cape)
Linda Grant's The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago)
Tessa Hadley's The Master Bedroom (Cape)
Nancy Huston's Fault Lines (Atlantic)
Gail Jones's Sorry (Harvill Secker)
Sadie Jones's The Outcast (Chatto)
Lauren Liebenberg's The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam (Virago)
Charlotte Mendelson's When We Were Bad (Picador)
Deborah Moggach's In The Dark (Chatto)
Anita Nair's Mistress (BlackAmber)
Heather O’Neill's Lullabies for Little Criminals (Quercus)
Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul (Viking)
Dalia Sofer's The Septembers of Shiraz (Picador)
Scarlett Thomas's The End of Mr Y (Canongate)
Carol Topolski's Monster Love (Fig Tree)
Rose Tremain's The Road Home (Chatto)
Patricia Wood's Lottery (Heinemann)

The shortlist will be announced in mid April.

Another long term challenge

I am joining in on The Orange Prize Project. The blurb from the site is:

This reading challenge is a long-term project in which the participants will read all books that have won or been short listed for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction AND the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers. There is no time limit.

In case anyone doesn't know what The Orange Prize is:

The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction is awarded to women of any nationality who have written the best, eligible full-length novel in English. Eligible works must have been published for the first time in the United Kingdom between 1 April of the year before the prize is awarded and 31 March of the year in which the prize is awarded.

Translations of books originally written in other languages are not eligible for the prize.

So here's the list of shortlisted titles since The Orange Prize began. I have highlighted the seven books that I have read (in orange of course!)


2007

Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - WINNER
Arlington Park, by Rachel Cusk
The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, by Xiaolu Guo
The Observations, by Jane Harris
Digging to America, by Anne Tyler

2006

On Beauty, by Zadie Smith - WINNER
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
Beyond Black, by Hilary Mantel
The Accidental, by Ali Smith
Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living, by Carrie Tiffany
The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters

2005

We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver - WINNER
Old Filth, by Jane Gardam
The Mammoth Cheese, by Sheri Holman
Liars and Saints, by Maile Meloy
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka

2004

Small Island, by Andrea Levy - WINNER
Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood
The Great Fire, by Shirley Hazzard
Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Ice Road, by Gillian Slovo
The Colour, by Rose Tremain

2003

Property, by Valerie Martin - WINNER
Buddha Da, by Anne Donovan
Heligoland, by Shena Mackay
Unless, by Carol Shields
The Autograph Man, by Zadie Smith
The Little Friend, by Donna Tartt

2002

Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett- WINNER
No Bones, by Anna Burns
The Siege, by Helen Dunmore
The White Family, by Maggie Gee
A Child's Book of True Crime, by Chloe Hooper
Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters

2001

The Idea of Perfection, by Kate Grenville - WINNER
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood
Fred & Edie, by Jill Dawson
Hotel World, by Ali Smith
Homestead, by Rosina Lippi
Horse Heaven, by Jane Smiley

2000

When I Lived in Modern Times, by Linda Grant - WINNER
If I Told You Once, by Judy Budnitz
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
The Dancers Dancing, by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne
White Teeth, by Zadie Smith

1999

A Crime in the Neighborhood, by Suzanne Berne - WINNER
The Short History of a Prince, by Jane Hamilton
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
Paradise, by Toni Morrison
The Leper's Companions, by Julia Blackburn
Visible Worlds, by Marilyn Bowering

1998

Larry's Party, by Carol Shield - WINNER
Lives of the Monster Dogs, by Kirsten Bakis
The Ventriloquist's Tale, by Pauline Melville
The Magician's Assistant, by Ann Patchett
Love Like Hate Adore, by Deirdre Purcell
The Weight of Water, by Anita Shreve

1997

Fugitive Pieces, by Anne Michaels - WINNER
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood
One by One in the Darkness, by Deirdre Madden
Accordion Crimes, by E. Annie Proulx
Hen's Teeth, by Manda Scott
I Was Amelia Earhart, by Jane Mendelsohn

1996

A Spell of Winter, by Helen Dunmore - WINNER
The Book of Colour, by Julia Blackburn
Spinsters, by Pagan Kennedy
The Hundred Secret Senses, by Amy Tan
Ladder of Years, by Anne Tyler
Eveless Eden, by Marianne Wiggins


I haven't read any of the books that have been nominated for the The Orange Broadband Award for New Writers. The eligibility rules are as follows:

The Orange Broadband Award for New Writers is open to all first works of fiction written by women of any age or nationality and published in the UK between 1 April of the year before the prize is awarded and 31 March of the year in which the prize is awarded. Emphasis is on potential and emerging talent.

Short story collections and novellas are also eligible.

and these are the books that have been shortlisted so far:

2007

The Lizard Cage, by Karen Connelly - WINNER
Poppy Shakespeare, by Clare Allan
Bitter Sweets, by Roopa Farooki

2006

Disobedience, by Naomi Alderman - WINNER
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, by Yiyun Li
The Dream Life of Sukhanov, by Olga Grushin

2005

26a, by Diana Evans - WINNER
Lucky Girls, by Nell Freudenberger
How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In 1960's Nigeria, at the time of the vicious Nigeria-Biafra war, three characters are swept up in the rapidly unfolding political events. One is Ugwu, a young boy from a poor village, who is employed as a houseboy for a university lecturer. The other is a young middle-class woman, Olanna, who has come to live with the professor, abandoning her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the idealism and charisma of her new lover. And the third is Richard, a tall, shy Englishman who is in thrall to Olanna's twin sister, a remote and enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone.

When Olanna witnesses deeds of unimaginable horror in the outbreak of war, all of these characters are propelled into events that will putt them apart and bring them together in the most unexpected ways. As Nigerian troops advance and they run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another. This extraordinary novel is about Africa itself; about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism: about ethnic allegiances; about class and race; and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things.

There have been several books by Nigerian authors that I have been tempted to read over the years including the debut novel by this author, called Purple Hibiscus, but I had never managed to get around to it! So, when I decided to read the long list nominees for the Orange Prize, this was the first book that I requested. And then Kailana and I were chatting about what books we shared on our TBR piles and we decided to buddy read this one!

For me, a big part of the reason for my interest in Nigerian literature is that my ex is half Nigerian and was raised in Lagos from the time he was 3 months old, and lived there until he was about 28. Whilst I wouldn't necessarily say that my relationship with him necessarily exposed me to the best parts of Nigerian culture, (I mainly got to meet his friends - all young men between the ages of 20 to 30, and for the most part they were interested in partying), the fact of the matter is that my son has a Nigerian-St Dominique-Australian heritage, and so a lot of the time I feel like I should be doing more to ensure that he understands his heritage. Right from the time my son was born, I was the one trying to push the ex into sharing language, heritage...even that there were other kids like him with a similar mixed heritage. Unfortunately, the ex never really got on board with this, and these days he doesn't even phone very often to say hello let alone to talk about anything like this. All that is a very long winded way for me to say that in some ways I feel a connection to the subject of this novel....without ever actually having been to Nigeria, or really having much interest in going to visit!! Of course, he is Yoruba, so the characters of this book would quite possibly be horrified at my idea of this sense of connection!

This book is separated into four parts. The first part is set in the early 1960's, the second in the late 1960's, with the pattern repeated for the third and fourth parts. In the first part, we meet our protagonists. Firstly we meet Ugwu, the shy young village boy who has come to the university town of Nsukka to become houseboy to the idealistic university professor Odenigbo. Then we meet Olanna, the daughter of a wealthy but, ultimately, corrupt Igbo businessman, who has decided to move in with Odenigbo, and there is Richard, who is in love with Olanna's twin sister Kainene. The early parts of the novel are filled with the zealousness of the intellectuals who want to see the Igbo tribes have a land of their own, full of the promise and the excitement of such a venture. And then in part 2 (set in 1967) we see the beginning of the war.

Not only have events changed the direction of the country of Nigeria, but within the personal lives of the characters much has changed. Ugwu is still houseboy, but he has now been educated and finds himself in the end helping assuming many roles - houseboy, babysitter, friend, confidante and even teacher in some parts of the book. Richard finds himself in the somewhat strange position of being a white man who speaks fluent Igbo and becomes involved in the war propaganda machine. However many of the key relationships in the book are now fractured, and it is only as the narrative returns once again to the early 1960s that we find out what caused those divides.

As the war continues on, we see many things through the eyes of the characters - death, destruction, rape, massacres - and the author does a fine job of giving just enough information to haunt the reader without being too overbearing with the details.

The other area where she has excelled is in showing the dichotomy of the situation in Nigeria at that time - the colonials had withdrawn to let the country men rule themselves but there were such levels of greed, mistrust and corruption that trouble was inevitable. The ethnic divides were just so strong particularly after some of the minority Igbo staged a coup, and then there were retaliatory massacres. And yet, as individuals there were friendships with people from other tribes that were able to survive all the violence - perhaps damaged, but still somewhat intact.

The double standards were not only in terms of the problems facing the nation as a whole. I remember thinking it quite ironic that even within the personal standards of the characters there was the hypocrisy. For example, at the first sign of trouble, Olanna's parents flee Nigeria to live in relative luxury in London, and return only when the trouble is over,and this happens more than once and for another small example. At one point Odenigbo is driving to Ugwu's home village:

The ride to his village was mostly silent. As they drove past some farms with rows and rows of corn and cassava like a neatly plaited hairstyle, Master said, "See? This is what our government should focus on. If we learn irrigation technology, we can feed this country easily. We can overcome this colonial dependence on imports."

And yet on arrival at his village he is offered pineapple:

Chioke shook Master's hands with both of hers. "Thank you, master. Deje!" She ran back inside and emerged with a small pineapple that she pressed into Master's hand.

"No, no," Master said, pushing the pineapple back. "Local pineapples are too acidic, they burn my mouth."

As we get to the last quarter of the book, the war is in full swing. Even those who are wealthy are feeling the effects of the blockades imposed by the Nigerian army, and the world looks on as millions starve, as innocent people are killed. And as the situation worsens our characters are bought together again, but not before the war claims parts of their soul, and perhaps more, forever.

Many of the details in this book were fascinating. It is not an easy to read book, and nor would I say it was something that you enjoy in a light and accessible way. It is a book to savour and to contemplate as you read. I will definitely be reading more from this author.

Rating 4/5

Other Bloggers reviews:

My Own Little Reading Room
Passion for the Page
Trish's Reading Nook
Literarily

Decision time

When I made my Reading Resolutions for 2007, one of them was:

Shortlists - it is my intention to read the shortlists for the Booker and either the Orange Prize or the Pulitzer Prize.

Well, the shortlist for the Orange Prize was announced today and three of the books on the list are books that I already had on my list to read anyway, so now I have to decide which shortlist I am going to read. Given that I already do have some of them that I know that I want to read maybe I will do the Orange. The nominated books are:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Arlingtom Park by Rachel Cusk

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

The Observations by Jane Harris

Digging to America by Anne Tyler



Maybe I will make a final decision in the morning when I am not quite so sleepy!

Longlists!

Not only is the Orange long list out today, also out this week was the long list for the Miles Franklin Award, which is the most prestigious Australian literary award.

The long list for the Orange award is as following:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
Clare Allan - Poppy Shakespeare
Rachel Cusk - Arlington Park
Kiran Desai - The Inheritance of Loss
Patricia Ferguson - Peripheral Vision
Margaret Forster - Over
Nell Freudenberger - The Dissident
Rebecca Gowers - When to Walk
Xiaolu Guo - A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
Jane Harris - The Observations
M J Hyland - Carry Me Down
Lori Lansens - The Girls
Lisa Moore - Alligator
Catherine O'Flynn - What Was Lost
Stef Penney - The Tenderness of Wolves
Deborah Robertson - Careless
Rachel Seiffert - Afterwards
Jane Smiley - Ten Days in the Hills
Anne Tyler - Digging to America
Melanie Wallace - The Housekeeper

The only one of those I have read is The Tenderness of Wolves, although there are several others on the list that I have been wanting to read for a while!

The long list for the Miles Franklin is as below:

Beyond the Break by Sandra Hall
Careless by Deborah Robertson
Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
Dreams of Speaking by Gail Jones
Silent Parts by John Charalambous
Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey
The Unexpected Elements of Love by Kate Legge
The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan



I have actually only heard of a couple of those. Interestingly enough, last year all of the shortlisted books were Historical Fiction. This year, I don't think any of these books are HF!

The plan is to read the shortlists of some of these awards as the year goes on! We will see how we go.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

This was the Bookclub book for May over at The Book Bitches. I finished it a little late because I was listening to it, and because I am catching the train to work these days and reading books, I no longer get through the audiobooks I have anywhere near as quickly!

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gun-wielding terrorists breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different countries and continents become compatriots.
Without the demands of the world to shape their days, life on the inside becomes more beautiful than anything they had ever known before. At once riveting and impassioned, the narrative becomes a moving exploration of how people communicate when music is the only common language. Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion and cannot be stopped.

You know...the blurb on this one tells enough to make it interesting!

The main characters in this novel are Roxanne Coss (the opera singer), Mister Hosakawa (the opera fan), Gen (his interpreter) and Carmen (one of the terrorists), however there are several other characters that take a turn in the spotlight.

Whilst the pace of this book is ponderous at times, the writing is beautiful, and you can feel the book moving to an inevitably crashing crescendo. The hostage situation has been ongoing for many months, and whilst for the people within the compound that life has settled into a pleasant routine with music and football as part of the life they have become accustomed to, as far as the world outside is concerned the situation cannot continue.

If there was one thing that I didn't like it was the Epilogue, which certainly tied up a couple of loose ends, but in a way that was almost against the flow of the relationships that happened throughout the rest of the book.

If you are looking for a book to meander through, then this could be one for you!

Rating 3.5/5