How many Booker winning novels have you read?

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/23/arundhati-roy-interview-goddess-of-big-ideas

She has recently caused a stir for downplaying another widely admired figure, Malala Yousafzai. After she gave a TV interview in which she suggested Malala was a pawn in game of global politics, the Pakistan writer Pervez Hoodbhoy wrote an article asking why it was that Malala bothered many on the left, citing Roy as an example.

“I have no doubt she did something wonderful,” she says. “But that was not the point I was trying to make.” She says she wanted to draw attention to the fact that Dalit women are similarly mistreated in India but are never heard about. But that doesn’t make Malala a puppet. She stood up against male oppression. Isn’t that an unambiguously good thing?

“I don’t think you can isolate Malala and say ‘Oh this is wonderful.’” Why not? “I don’t think this world of prizes and awards is an innocent world. It is loaded and it’s precious to suggest it’s not.” She thinks Malala’s Nobel peace prize was an extension of the politically corrupt process that awarded one to Obama, whom she characterises as a warmonger, adding, “I’m not trying to take anything away from Malala.”

But of course she is.

Anybody read The Narrow Road To The Deep North? Also considering NBA winner Redeployment, but they're looking pretty grim, Jim, and I'm not exactly lacking that in my reader's digestion. Still...

My flatmate bought all the shortlist in hardback so yes I've read The Narrow Road.... About 1/3 staring unflinching into the abyss of japanese POW death camps, 2/3 a boring novel of relationships, the kind that certain critics periodically love to trumpet the death of.

I'm up to 9.5, maybe I got lucky but would count over half of those as worthwhile - Banville, Hollinghurst, Kelly Gang Carey, the Mantels, Coetzee, will throw a bone to Ishiguro although it's not his best. This year's winner not in that list.

six.

Barry Unsworth is a king.

Devastating read: Just after he turned 80, my father asked me to stop communicating with him. Future letters would be returned, unread. “You were always a difficult child,” he wrote. I wept at that. But there was a miserable kind of relief in the finality. https://t.co/p7RKsJBtuq

— Martin Doyle (@MartinDoyleIT) October 14, 2020

8 and I started the Finkler Question but found it awful

thought it was going to be none ended up being 4.
amis, farrell, rushdie, golding.

lols bazza u.

annoyingly that's quite a touching, thoughtful piece. there is, for me, not a lot worse than close relationships unreconciled before death. sorry for the buzzkill.

Yeah it was a very good piece on a tough subject.

Added list from Wikipedia with newest winners, sorry for formatting (phoneposting).

1969 P. H. Newby - Something to Answer For
1970 Bernice Rubens - The Elected Member
1970 J. G. Farrell - Troubles (retrospective)
1971 V. S. Naipaul - In a Free State
1972 John Berger - G.
1973 J. G. Farrell -The Siege of Krishnapur
1974 Nadine Gordimer - The Conservationist/
Stanley Middleton - Holiday
1975 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Heat and Dust
1976 David Storey - Saville
1977 Paul Scott - Staying On
1978 Iris Murdoch - The Sea, the Sea
1979 Penelope Fitzgerald - Offshore
1980 William Golding - Rites of Passage
1981 Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children
1982 Thomas Keneally - Schindler's Ark
1983 J. M Coetzee - Life & Times of Michael K
1984 Anita Brookner - Hotel du Lac
1985 Keri Hulme - The Bone People
1986 Kingsley Amis - The Old Devils
1987 Penelope Lively - Moon Tiger
1988 Peter Carey - Oscar and Lucinda
1989 Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day
1990 A. S. Byatt - Possession
1991 Ben Okri - The Famished Road
1992 Michael Ondaatje - The English Patient/
Barry Unsworth - Sacred Hunger
1993 Roddy Doyle - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994 James Kelman - How Late It Was, How Late
1995 Pat Barker - The Ghost Road
1996 Graham Swift - Last Orders
1997 Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things
1998 Ian McEwan - Amsterdam
1999 J. M. Coetzee - Disgrace
2000 Margaret Atwood - The Blind Assassin
2001 Peter Carey - True History of the Kelly Gang
2002 Yann Martel - Life of Pi
2003 DBC Pierre - Vernon God Little
2004 Alan Hollinghurst - The Line of Beauty
2005 John Banville - The Sea
2006 Kiran Desai - The Inheritance of Loss
2007 Anne Enright - The Gathering
2008 Aravind Adiga - The White Tiger
2009 Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall
2010 Howard Jacobson - The Finkler Question
2011 Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending
2012 Hilary Mantel - Bring Up the Bodies
2013 Eleanor Catton - The Luminaries
2014 Richard Flanagan- The Narrow Road to the Deep North
2015 Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings
2016 Paul Beatty - The Sellout
2017 George Saunders - Lincoln in the Bardo
2018 Anna Burns - Milkman
2019 Margaret Atwood - The Testaments/Bernardine Evaristo - Girl, Woman, Other

Surprised by as many as 9? Of these, Oscar and Lucinda is by far my favourite, I’ve read it about eight times, Midnight’s Children would also make a list of ten books to keep if I could only read ten the rest of my life. Was pretty unimpressed by The Testaments (it’s already marked for our train station’s free books shelf), which was a shame because I loved The Handmaid’s Tale. I know I personally own about five more of these, and there’s at least twenty more around the house, so will probably expand the list during lockdown 2: nothing to do.

a grand total of 2

1994 How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman
1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

the Kelman is my favourite novel

I've only read the 2x Coetzee books (Michael K is great imo). Love to read the Kelman, maybe Gordimer.

oh the kelman is superb.

17! including 6 of the last 7 (all but paul beatty). je ne regrette rien. milkman v good, the narrow road to the deep north v bad.

The English Patient was good. Beautiful evocative prose. Postcolonial with a decent amount of sex?(These things are important when you’re 15). Ended up reading some of his other work, liked In The Skin of a Lion a lot too. Obviously not overshadowed by the film/Seinfeld, but a good way to pass the time in itself.

I missed some, I've read 10 actually, but none later than "Kelly Gang." I bought The Milkman and it seems great from looking at in the bookstore but just haven't gotten to it yet.

I have never heard of J.G. Farrell and he won twice in close succession!

Since there's been hardly any discussion here of the Famished Road let me record here that a) I thought it was amazing and b) I remember absolutely nothing about it

Byatt, Kelwood, seems like enough tbh

lol Kelman excuse my fingers

Ended up reading some of his other work, liked In The Skin of a Lion a lot too

I've never read a novel by Ondaatje I didn't like, and his poetry is quite good too. Definitely my favourite of the 'big' (anglophone) Canadian writers.

A Brief History of Seven Killings is tremendous, surprised there isn't more love for it here.

tbf that's the other one I want to read

I've read sixteen of these I think including several I didn't know had won it.

Oh I think I started Vernon God Little but it was atrocious. Howard Jacobson's Independent column was so terrible that I would rather read literally anything else on this list than even one paragraph of his.

3. God of Small Things, Amsterdam, Milkman. I own Girl, Woman, Other but not got round to it yet. Quite a few authors that I've read other books by, though mostly boring middlebrow writers that I wouldn't read much more of (to be honest I might even be confusing Amsterdam with some other McEwan book, I read a fair few of his as a teen trying stuff out and feel like I wasted my time).

Out of the three I've read, Milkman towers above the other two (I think I said on another thread that I highly rate it, would recommend it without hesitation).

I've read 17, but only 3 of the 21st Century ones.

Rites of Passage - studied at school. Is pretty good I guess
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - read it ages ago and have completely forgotten it
Vernon God Little - I enjoyed it as a teenager, probably because that is its only demographic
The Line Of Beauty - masterpiece, there's every chance that if I read every book here it'd still be my favourite
The White Tiger - a really good & shocking journalistic exposé first, a novel second

The Line Of Beauty - masterpiece, there's every chance that if I read every book here it'd still be my favourite

Mine too. It's absolutely perfect. I've only read 7 of this updated list. Hard to imagine there's a worse book than Vernon God Little in this list. It has an awful "made-up story" quality, like something you'd invent in secondary school. The author had never even been to Texas or The South, btw, so there's a good reason it sounds made up. John Carey was the head judge that year.

I have fond memories of Last Orders - Ash scattering pilgrimage for several old geezers stopping off at several pubs on the way - but it's 22 years since I read it so I've no idea if it stands up.

Also this is a boring pick at this stage but Hilary Mantel is one of the best modern writers I've read when it comes to writing about ambition and the nature of power. (Also Imago I'm surprised you haven't read at least one of them).

I agree The Line of Beauty is one of the best in this list, certainly of the ones I've read. Didn't care for Oscar and Lucinda.

I'm quite favourably disposed towards Hotel du Lac, which tends to be held up as one of those mistakes that should never happen again but there's a quiet sadness, a desperation to it that's very difficult to write effectively.

I've had both Possession and Midnight's Children on my shelf for years now but there always seems to be something more appealing to read. Maybe this will finally be the year.

Cosign all the Line of Beauty praise; The Ghost Road and The True History of the Kelly Gang are two others that I would stick up for. I couldn't really get with A Brief History of Seven Killings but I figured it was me not him.

I’m kind of now tempted to read some more of the list, The Line of Beauty is one I’ve heard about for a while and I already have access to so many others. And I’ve also never heard a good word about Vernon God Little, lol?

Also I know Murdoch isn't especially popular here but I love The Sea, The Sea, the narrator is quite spectacularly awful and it contains some of the most revolting food anywhere in fiction.

Banville's The Sea is good as well. Cosign the Milkman love as well. IDK, there are lots of very good books on this list that don't really deserve the shade thrown on them by having shared a prize with outright turkeys like Amsterdam.

i had a thing where i made a point of reading the winner

1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (co-winner)
1992 Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (co-winner)
1991 The Famished Road by Ben Okri
1990 Possession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt
1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
1988 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

looks like i lasted 6 years. the Okri is sat over there unfinished...

have just this week bought The Sea The Sea (so good they named it twice)

read 7 I think and another 5 sitting in the to-read pile. Not at all the best or most important book on the list, but I enjoyed White Tiger the most of those I read

I have never heard of J.G. Farrell and he won twice in close succession!

The win for Troubles was actually the 'Lost Booker' that was awarded by public vote in 2010

anyway, you should read Farrell. He's great

The Ghost Road and The True History of the Kelly Gang are two others that I would stick up for.

wait! i was thinking of 'regeneration'. 'the ghost road' was the follow up and i wasn't into it as much, or the third one which i read anyway.

this RTÉ radio documentary on the last 149 days of JG Farrell is amazing.

I’d never heard of JG Farrell either, but the colonialist stuff is hugely rtmi, so I’m getting his two books and The Line of Beauty

Go on then, I'll admit it - zero. Although I have read 9 Hugo winners from over the same time period, so that's something.

eleven or twelve - i can't remember if i read both of the hilary mantel books or just the first one.
i've read "troubles" and "the siege of krishnapur" and thought they were both great.

i can't remember if i read both of the hilary mantel books or just the first one

Was Anne Boelyn alive or dead at the end? (Apologies for the spoiler for everyone else, but she gets beheaded).

Fuck you DC! I'll never read them now!

Nah I should, and will

i really can't recall, it was too long ago. feel free to round my total down to 11 for purposes of booker cred points

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2020/november/letter-from-america

It isn’t so much that Scotland has achieved a grown-up reckoning with its social history (warts, booze, paedophiles and all), as that these wounds have become a source of cultural and political capital. Can't wait to visit, on the way to Vatican City! Classick clickbait, and of course no consid of the text atall; has he even read it.

Think it was more a report focusing on Scotland attitudes to it's literary culture.

Yeah, but I read it as tainting the book by association with/"enabling" those people over there, who seem reduced: is it not possible that some may be nationalist significantly in terms of being anti-Brexit, anti-Tory for considerations that can be concerning beyond those who want to wear haggis and eat kilts and etc.? I mean, since he brought it up. The premise (they're going from one extreme to another) is worth developing, but stopping where he does seems like a dick move.