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In a former life I was a librarian at the Guardian, answering queries from journalists and, among other things, blogging historical content from the digital archive. In 2011 I wrote a blogpost about the history of the Booker Prize<\/a>, the UK\u2019s biggest prize for literature but also its most controversial.<\/p>\n 2011 was the year the Booker was criticised for being too mainstream, as if a book cannot be \u2018great literature\u2019 and also a cracking read. Some even suggested setting up a new, \u2018proper\u2019 literary prize, though in the event the traditionalists prevailed and the prize was awarded to Julian Barnes<\/a>, the only \u2018proper\u2019 author on the shortlist.<\/p>\n In a moment of \u2018all I ever read is trash\u2019 I decided to read all six, before the winner was announced \u2013 giving myself about three weeks to plough through some of the finest contemporary literature on offer. Not so much reading as inhaling words.<\/p>\n There were some really very good books that just missed out, despite the snobbish attitude of the establishment (Andrew Motion<\/a> I\u2019m looking at you) \u2013 Pigeon English<\/a> by Stephen Kelman, about a young boy caught up in gang warfare on a Peckham estate; Esi Edugyan\u2019s Half Blood Blues<\/a>, set in the jazz world of 1930s Berlin; and Snowdrops<\/a>, about corruption and deceit in Putin\u2019s Russia (\u2018snowdrop\u2019 is the nickname for the bodies that turn up every year when the snow thaws).<\/p>\n Each of those stories has stuck with me. Maybe it was the intensity of reading a novel in two or three days, something I don\u2019t normally allow myself, snatching chapters here and there on the bus or the train, disparate moments wedged between telly and Twitter. Maybe I\u2019m just a mainstream reader and the literary heights of a normal Booker shortlist is beyond me.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve tried to read the shortlist every year since, with varying degrees of success. I\u2019ve only connected with a few \u2013 2013 winner The Luminaries<\/a> by Eleanor Catton, set in the New Zealand gold rush, each chapter half as short again as the last. Will Self\u2019s Umbrella<\/a>, a dense 800-page novel with few paragraph breaks and no chapters, which sounds awful but was properly immersive. Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh\u2019s tale of a disaffected teen in 1960s New England, the only 2016-nominated book I\u2019ve read so far.<\/p>\n This year I\u2019m five books in already, though the sheer scale of Paul Auster\u2019s epic 4 3 2 1 meant I hadn\u2019t read them all before the winner was announced<\/a>. And I\u2019ve properly enjoyed every book so far. Elmet and History of Wolves, by debut novelists Fiona Mozley and Emily Fridlund, have strong parallels, though the settings are very different \u2013 disconnected teenagers growing up on the fringes of society, a strong connection to nature, a sense of dread that builds as you read. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid is very different, a contemporary, slightly fantastical parable of mass migration that brings the refugee crisis to life.<\/p>\n Auster\u2019s 4 3 2 1 plays with the structure of the novel, telling four alternate versions of the life of New Jersey Jew Archie Ferguson that interweave against the backdrop of mid-century America. It\u2019s a fascinating approach to storytelling, even if it is ever so long.<\/p>\n Ali Smith\u2019s Autumn is a literary experiment, the first of four novels (one for each season) written as real-world events happen. At Brighton Festival this May, Smith said she suggested the concept to her publisher on a whim and was slightly dismayed when they leapt on it. It cuts across the decades, delving into the nature of love and connecting such apparently disparate subjects as female pop artist Pauline Boty and the Brexit vote. The second Seasonal <\/em>novel, Winter, has just been published to rave reviews.<\/p>\n George Saunders\u2019 winning novel Lincoln in the Bardo<\/a> completes the list. Set in the limbo (the Buddhist \u2018bardo\u2019 state) between life and death, Saunders uses the demise of Lincoln\u2019s son Willie at the height of the American civil war to ruminate on beliefs, false memory and attitudes to death itself. Peopled with brilliantly funny, often grotesque, characters, and told in part through contradictory quotes from historical accounts, Saunders\u2019 novel is a worthy winner.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think library staff can suggest a purchase of novels for the university any more \u2013 all mine are borrowed from the Jubilee \u2013 but if anyone wants to correct me I would happily buy copies for the benefit of students and staff!<\/p>\n Some of them may even find their way onto reading lists. ). Maybe Lincoln in the Bardo will crop up on V1425<\/a> next spring? Of the 2011 batch, the only author to have earned that particular honour is winner Julian Barnes, which shows what I know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Katy Stoddard In a former life I was a librarian at the Guardian, answering queries from journalists and, among other things, blogging historical content from the digital archive. In 2011 I wrote a blogpost about the history of the Booker Prize, the UK\u2019s biggest prize for literature but also its most controversial. 2011 was … Continue reading Reading the Booker<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[150885],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9fi5f-2j","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/files\/2017\/11\/Paul-Auster-4321-very-big-book-231x300.jpg\")
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