The 2016 Man Booker Shortlist

The 2016 Man Booker shortlist has been announced!

I am excited to see two Canadian authors on this list (Madeline Thien and David Szalay, who is Canadian born), as well as a nice cross section of diversity. I’m surprised that The North Water didn’t make the shortlist, but I am very much looking forward to reading the 4 that I haven’t yet picked up. I will likely read His Bloody Project next, and may try out The Sellout on audio (I tried to read this a few months ago, but just couldn’t get into it).

Check out my review of Eileen 
Check out my review of Hot Milk 

Amazon links:
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
All That Man Is by David Szalay
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeline Thien

What book are you most excited about? Any predictions for the winner?

Advertisements

BOOK REVIEW | Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh | 2016 Man Booker Long List

3/5 stars

From the publisher:
The Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman trapped between her role as her alcoholic father’s caretaker in a home whose squalor is the talk of the neighborhood and a day job as a secretary at the boys’ prison, filled with its own quotidian horrors. Consumed by resentment and self-loathing, Eileen tempers her dreary days with perverse fantasies and dreams of escaping to the big city. In the meantime, she fills her nights and weekends with shoplifting, stalking a buff prison guard named Randy, and cleaning up her increasingly deranged father’s messes. When the bright, beautiful, and cheery Rebecca Saint John arrives on the scene as the new counselor at Moorehead, Eileen is enchanted and proves unable to resist what appears at first to be a miraculously budding friendship. In a Hitchcockian twist, her affection for Rebecca ultimately pulls her into complicity in a crime that surpasses her wildest imaginings.

My thoughts:
Eileen, you strange little bird. This is the sort of book that makes you feel itchy while reading it, it’s just so vile. This is a quick and entertaining read, with a disturbing conclusion. I liked it, and will likely look for other books my Moshfegh in the future – no doubt her voice is unique!