A little reflection

A quiet day and Gordon has gone off to Newcastle for the Rugby, looking forward to seeing some of it live, after all the TV.
 
Time for a bit of a reflection and for those who are interested, my thoughts on the 2015 Man Booker Prize, the winner of which will be announced next Tuesday. Please don't feel obliged to read all the following rambling, I am recording it for myself more than anything.
 
(The extra photo is one that I wasn't able to post yesterday, but was taken at a stand that really amused us - Dogs in Jumpers!)
 


For the past few years I have really enjoyed challenging myself to read all the books on the Man Booker Prize Short List and for the last two years I have managed to do it and then have been gratified when the book, I chose as the best one, was the one also chosen by the judges.
 
2015 is disappointing, mainly because the two books that I immediately read and liked very much did not make it to the short list. I would recommend these two:
 
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
The Green Road by Anne Enright
 
So, I fairly reluctantly set about reading the actual short list and have not been impressed. For what it is worth, here are my opinions. There is only one that would have got anywhere near my short list!
 
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy - funny in parts, some interesting use of language, but I haven't a clue what it is about! Some kind of comment on current times I guess, but total rubbish is what I would say.
 
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler - I read this for the Bailey's Prize and found it quite tedious. If you like Anne Tyler's family sagas, here is yet another one!
 
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma - I enjoyed this. It is a mixture of story, myth and legend, set in a Nigerian town. I'm not sure it holds together well enough to be a best book, but as a first book it is well worth reading.
 
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James - This supposedly tells the story of the attempted murder of Bob Marley and it is possibly a fine book, but I haven't read it and don't intend reading it. I will read most things, but a book set in Jamaica in the 70s, with drug lords and gunmen, I really can't face.
 
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - This has been the outright favourite to win from the beginning and is apparently a best seller already. I read it and found it quite compelling, but I didn't like it at all. Telling (at great length) the story of a man whose mind and body has been scarred by an atrocious childhood, I found it relentless in its misery.
 
And so - the only book that would have made my short list and the only one from the actual list that I would have win.
 
The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota - A very topical, quite absorbing and beautifully written book about four migrants arriving in Britain from India. Their back stories, and their current struggles to build a future, are carefully entwined and told with a compassion that is a joy to read. I loved this book.