What do you think?
Rate this book
Mr. Booker und ich
Im Nachhinein konnte Martha nicht sagen, wann sie Mr. Booker das erste Mal küsste
Vernünftig wäre es gewesen, den verheirateten Mann nicht zu begehren. Doch Martha ist sechzehn und lebt in einer Kleinstadt, die in ihren Augen ein Friedhof mit Beleuchtung ist. Sie wartet darauf, dass der Rest ihres Lebens endlich beginnt. Mr. Booker erhellt ihre Welt mit Stil, Abenteuer, Whiskey, Zigaretten und Sex. Die Wucht ihres Verlangens zerstört und ermächtigt sie. Nur hat Martha die Konsequenzen nicht bedacht.
„Mr. Booker und ich“ erzählt von dem Gefühl, erwachsen zu sein, wenn man jung ist, und sich jung zu geben, wenn man es nicht mehr ist.
Vernünftig wäre es gewesen, den verheirateten Mann nicht zu begehren. Doch Martha ist sechzehn und lebt in einer Kleinstadt, die in ihren Augen ein Friedhof mit Beleuchtung ist. Sie wartet darauf, dass der Rest ihres Lebens endlich beginnt. Mr. Booker erhellt ihre Welt mit Stil, Abenteuer, Whiskey, Zigaretten und Sex. Die Wucht ihres Verlangens zerstört und ermächtigt sie. Nur hat Martha die Konsequenzen nicht bedacht.
„Mr. Booker und ich“ erzählt von dem Gefühl, erwachsen zu sein, wenn man jung ist, und sich jung zu geben, wenn man es nicht mehr ist.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2011
18 people are currently reading
970 people want to read
About the author
Cory Taylor
23 books45 followersCory Taylor was born in 1955 and was an award-winning screenwriter who has also published short fiction and children’s books. Her first novel, Me and Mr Booker, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Pacific Region) and her second, My Beautiful Enemy, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Her final book was Dying: A Memoir.
Taylor was survived by her Japanese-born artist husband of 33 years, Shin, and their sons, Nat and Dan, both in their 20s.
Taylor was survived by her Japanese-born artist husband of 33 years, Shin, and their sons, Nat and Dan, both in their 20s.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
October 27, 2015
Such a treat to hear an authentic Aussie voice tell a universal story.
What teen-aged girl hasn’t imagined attracting the attentions of a handsome older man and escaping? And what older man (only early 30s, so not ‘older’ to many readers), hasn’t fantasized about seducing a ripe-for-the-picking young student?
Cory Taylor stretches out Martha’s boring days in a hot, dusty small town without ever dragging us into a classroom or shopping with Martha’s friends, or any of the things Martha must be doing to fill her days.
Instead, we hear from Martha, a fairly typical 16-year-old, bored with her life, her family, and where she lives.
And then, the exotic Bookers arrive from England. An odd, colourful pair, Mr Booker flirts with pretty much everyone, while Mrs Booker drinks to oblivion.
They ‘adopt’ Martha and regularly shop and lunch or dine out as a threesome, which is fine with Martha’s mum. But most times, Mrs B overindulges and is taken home to be tucked in bed, leaving Mr B and Martha alone. . . probably not fine with her mum, if she knew. We’re never entirely sure who knows or suspects what.
There are languid, lazy afternoons under the trees in the country and occasional steamy assignations in kind of seedy motel rooms. Although sex punctuates the story, it’s not the focus, and the occasional graphic phrase or scene can appear suddenly. Which is kind of the point, I think. Little is planned.
The author captures the transition from girlhood to would-be siren as Martha begins to sense men noticing her. That’s the real coming-of-age story. Beautifully written and very satisfying. I loved it.
What teen-aged girl hasn’t imagined attracting the attentions of a handsome older man and escaping? And what older man (only early 30s, so not ‘older’ to many readers), hasn’t fantasized about seducing a ripe-for-the-picking young student?
Cory Taylor stretches out Martha’s boring days in a hot, dusty small town without ever dragging us into a classroom or shopping with Martha’s friends, or any of the things Martha must be doing to fill her days.
Instead, we hear from Martha, a fairly typical 16-year-old, bored with her life, her family, and where she lives.
And then, the exotic Bookers arrive from England. An odd, colourful pair, Mr Booker flirts with pretty much everyone, while Mrs Booker drinks to oblivion.
They ‘adopt’ Martha and regularly shop and lunch or dine out as a threesome, which is fine with Martha’s mum. But most times, Mrs B overindulges and is taken home to be tucked in bed, leaving Mr B and Martha alone. . . probably not fine with her mum, if she knew. We’re never entirely sure who knows or suspects what.
There are languid, lazy afternoons under the trees in the country and occasional steamy assignations in kind of seedy motel rooms. Although sex punctuates the story, it’s not the focus, and the occasional graphic phrase or scene can appear suddenly. Which is kind of the point, I think. Little is planned.
The author captures the transition from girlhood to would-be siren as Martha begins to sense men noticing her. That’s the real coming-of-age story. Beautifully written and very satisfying. I loved it.
January 9, 2017
3 stars - It was good.
Such a strange and raw novel, full of despicable characters and set during a time that is so different from today, despite not being that far away from the present. It kept my interest throughout and would provide a plethora of discussion points for a book club.
-------------------------------------------
First Sentence: Everything I am about to tell you happened because I was waiting for it, or something like it.
Such a strange and raw novel, full of despicable characters and set during a time that is so different from today, despite not being that far away from the present. It kept my interest throughout and would provide a plethora of discussion points for a book club.
-------------------------------------------
First Sentence: Everything I am about to tell you happened because I was waiting for it, or something like it.
September 26, 2014
Narrated by a 16 year old girl, Martha tells her story of life in a small country town, living with her dysfunctional family and her affair with an older married English man Mr Booker.
Her father is a twisted individual who often abuses his wife physically and mentally. He is cold hearted, lazy and can’t seem to hold down a job. Her mother had a history of giving in to her interfering ex-husband, and his lame excuses for things he was responsible for. For some reason she still felt obligated and couldn’t seem to let him go.
When Martha met the Booker’s she was a lonely teenage girl who didn’t have any friends or someone to talk too, so the Booker’s were an escape from her family life. She was fascinated by the English couple as they showed an interest in her, and really seem to enjoy her company. Initially an innocent friendship was formed between the Booker’s and Martha. It was when Mr Booker kissed Martha for the first time that their relationship took a different angle. This stirred up feeling’s that Martha had never experienced before and for Mr Booker it became an obsession.
What developed was an intense sexual relationship that was terribly risky. I was holding my breath the whole time, just waiting for a disaster to happen. Toward the second half I could see that Martha had grown up. She became more aware how this was affecting Mr Booker, the people around her, and an understanding where this relationship was headed.
I found this book very difficult to put down. It was additive, daring, and at times humorous. I loved it.
Her father is a twisted individual who often abuses his wife physically and mentally. He is cold hearted, lazy and can’t seem to hold down a job. Her mother had a history of giving in to her interfering ex-husband, and his lame excuses for things he was responsible for. For some reason she still felt obligated and couldn’t seem to let him go.
When Martha met the Booker’s she was a lonely teenage girl who didn’t have any friends or someone to talk too, so the Booker’s were an escape from her family life. She was fascinated by the English couple as they showed an interest in her, and really seem to enjoy her company. Initially an innocent friendship was formed between the Booker’s and Martha. It was when Mr Booker kissed Martha for the first time that their relationship took a different angle. This stirred up feeling’s that Martha had never experienced before and for Mr Booker it became an obsession.
What developed was an intense sexual relationship that was terribly risky. I was holding my breath the whole time, just waiting for a disaster to happen. Toward the second half I could see that Martha had grown up. She became more aware how this was affecting Mr Booker, the people around her, and an understanding where this relationship was headed.
I found this book very difficult to put down. It was additive, daring, and at times humorous. I loved it.
June 30, 2011
Martha is a 16 year old girl stuck in a boring little town with a family that is slowly destroying her. Then one day she meets and falls in love with a married man that will change everything for her; Mr Booker. At first I thought this movie would be like Lolita or An Education, but this took a completely different turn. It turns out this was more a story about Martha discovering who she is and what she needs to do to make her life better.
Me and Mr Booker is a sexy and yet very disturbing novel, with a great sense of pacing. Cory Taylor did an excellent job at describing the boredom of living in a small town, the emotions behind being alone and having an uncontrollable love towards someone you know you shouldn’t and know would end up hurting you. This debut novel was a quick and easy read which is well worth taking the time to read. The whole relationship between Martha and Mr Booker may be hard to take so I can’t recommend it to everyone, but if you think it wouldn’t affect you, then this book is worth reading.
Me and Mr Booker is a sexy and yet very disturbing novel, with a great sense of pacing. Cory Taylor did an excellent job at describing the boredom of living in a small town, the emotions behind being alone and having an uncontrollable love towards someone you know you shouldn’t and know would end up hurting you. This debut novel was a quick and easy read which is well worth taking the time to read. The whole relationship between Martha and Mr Booker may be hard to take so I can’t recommend it to everyone, but if you think it wouldn’t affect you, then this book is worth reading.
January 11, 2016
www.shelfnotes.com review
Dear Reader,
This was definitely a book. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it or what but I kept reading, so that's something. This has been compared to Lolita, and while I can definitely see why... I didn't have that same feeling of disgust. Martha, sixteen and bored with her small town life, meets the Bookers through one of her mother's parties. Lacking a father with any good qualities, it's hardly a surprise that Martha is taken with Mr. Booker. This couple is all glam (especially to a sixteen-year-old), with a keen interest in Martha, taking her out with them on a regular basis.
I didn't exactly have anything to gripe about but I wasn't exactly wowed either. Cory Taylor writes a great page, and you definitely get a great feel of who the cast is. I just don't have much to say about anything else. It was a book. It was a book that I read start to finish. It was a book that kept my interest. It was a book.
Happy Reading,
AmberBug
Dear Reader,
This was definitely a book. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it or what but I kept reading, so that's something. This has been compared to Lolita, and while I can definitely see why... I didn't have that same feeling of disgust. Martha, sixteen and bored with her small town life, meets the Bookers through one of her mother's parties. Lacking a father with any good qualities, it's hardly a surprise that Martha is taken with Mr. Booker. This couple is all glam (especially to a sixteen-year-old), with a keen interest in Martha, taking her out with them on a regular basis.
I didn't exactly have anything to gripe about but I wasn't exactly wowed either. Cory Taylor writes a great page, and you definitely get a great feel of who the cast is. I just don't have much to say about anything else. It was a book. It was a book that I read start to finish. It was a book that kept my interest. It was a book.
Happy Reading,
AmberBug
December 1, 2012
Although I didn’t realise it way back then, it was a minefield. I was married, probably innately conservative, maybe even naive, but the thought never occurred to me. They were forward, but I never felt anything like the attraction as obviously those who succumbed did. There was still something very much unformed about them, despite, in many cases, mature curves; and there was, to me, something necessarily inviolate. A few didn’t see it that way – and certainly not Mr Booker. The world was so much different then, and, of course, in their eyes, I very soon became ‘old’ so, if it ever was, it was no longer an issue.
In my first year of teaching, so close to where I live now in the island’s south, it was tough going in the classroom. I had no time to consider anything else, only to survive. By the end of that year I was on top it all in that small school on the rurban fringe of Hobart, and in 1975 I was transferred to a large provincial high. That was a very different beast indeed. That’s where I encountered them, those Marthas of my experience, and, in reality, there were very few years between them and me, a callow young man out front of their classroom. Martha types - while not exactly abounding, they were there.
To me, having taught so many of them over the forty years of my career, Cory Taylor’s ‘heroine’ is totally believable. Worldly and brazen, outwardly already a woman, but only sixteen, she was ready for the louche, alcoholic Mr Booker, a married teacher, but at least not at her place of education. He presented himself, was obviously much taken by her youthful attributes, and she was definitely not backward in committing to the affair, even if the results were not quite as disastrous as the back cover blurb may have the reader believe.
In the time setting of ‘Me and Mr Booker’, and when I was simultaneously operating in schools, there was less reserve between teacher and senior student than exists today. Of course the line was still there that was not to be crossed, but the hand’s off mantra so stringently enforced in this century, was a fuzzier notion, and rumours of overfamiliarisation were rampant. In my early years, one teacher was quietly shifted away when it became apparent he was enticing senior girls to pose ‘artistically’ for his camera, and another was known to be ‘entertaining’ some female students in his own abode. Two male colleagues were seemingly very enamoured with the same young lady, to the extent they were engaged in spatting over her, and a starting out female teacher was rumoured to be throwing parties for her senior lads. But all of that was when I too was a novice, and as the profession became hoarier and guidelines more rigidly enforced, ‘issues’ of that ilk diminished. So there were no Marthas for this teacher, thankfully, and that was the case for the vast number of my ‘fellow’ professionals.
I do remember one young lady from my early years in a vocation that was so much younger back then, and she came floating back as I perused ‘Mr Booker’- not that she behaved in any way resembling Taylor’s sexually overt fictional character. I took a shine to her and her to me, in a platonic fashion. Articulate, academically capable, elfin, with wonderfully twinkling eyes, she had several of the younger brigade of male teachers in a spin, as there were issues in her background that required much ‘counselling’. There was no hint of fuzzy lines being crossed and she was delightful company, seemingly more at home around adults than her peers. I remember feeling quite chuffed when she chose me as a partner for a dance at socials. It wasn’t uncool or sinister back then for staff to gyrate with pupils. In the end, it was my senior master and mentor who, realising her vulnerability, took her under his wing and saw her safely through her senior years, but more of him anon. All things come to an end, and the last I remember of her was a chaste kiss on my cheek and a whispered thank you in my ear as she bade me farewell me at her leavers’ dinner. I wonder now how her life panned out, if she made good use of her rich talents? There were others I vaguely remember who had ‘crushes’, gave me small tokens of friendship, and endearments in Christmas cards, but it was her face, rightly or wrongly, I recalled when I read this book.
In relating all this, and knowing what I know, I would never take the higher moral ground when it comes to Taylor’s Mr B – if we learn his first name I missed it – and his actions with Martha. The fact remains, and I repeat, she was only sixteen. Cory Taylor handles the subject matter very well, and a highlight for me of the book was the ‘screwball’ repartee between the two leading characters, covering up any inner turmoil present. The author’s fluid style captures the tenor of those times perfectly, of lives suffered away from, and mostly lusting for, big cities, where the ‘action’ was. Mr and Mrs Booker’s domestic world of booze and marital emptiness, presumably pining for a child that could not be, saw them befriend Martha and her ‘put upon’ mother. Mr B goes one step further and carries on his not so clandestine affair, a relationship that the reader knows will have to eventually unravel, presumably big time, and unravel it does. For Martha, losing her virginity to the Englishman is her escape from tedium into a more adult world, and she handles it all with aplomb, even if she half knows it is all doomed. There is not a ‘decent’ male to be had in the novel, with Martha’s estranged father being deeply flawed and odd, the brother only marginally less so. At least the women have excuses for being the way they were. Mostly, it seemed, they were ambivalent to the goings on, till Mrs B spits it volcanically. Nasty possibilities rear their head as to possible outcomes for the two affairees as the narrative progresses, but – spoiler alert - none are forthcoming, and the novel ends with more of a whimper than a bang, so to speak. It is decidedly a better work of fiction for that. It was not happy-ever-afters though.
And for a happy ending in similar circumstances, let’s go back to the man who shepherded the aforementioned non-fictional young lady, the one who shone so brightly in my memory during my reading of this fine debut. He too fell in love with one of his senior girls during his early years of teaching but, unlike Mr B, he waited for her to reach a more acceptable age. When I knew them they were happily married and devoted. She was gorgeous, and he went on to a long and successful principalship at one of my island’s prestigious schools for girls – and that’s the way it should be.
Cory Taylor with this, for me, has proven her chops and I avidly await the arrival of her sophomore effort, ‘My Beautiful Enemy’, due for release in April ’13 – a book that also deals with matters of the heart, but in very different circumstances. It’s in my diary.
In my first year of teaching, so close to where I live now in the island’s south, it was tough going in the classroom. I had no time to consider anything else, only to survive. By the end of that year I was on top it all in that small school on the rurban fringe of Hobart, and in 1975 I was transferred to a large provincial high. That was a very different beast indeed. That’s where I encountered them, those Marthas of my experience, and, in reality, there were very few years between them and me, a callow young man out front of their classroom. Martha types - while not exactly abounding, they were there.
To me, having taught so many of them over the forty years of my career, Cory Taylor’s ‘heroine’ is totally believable. Worldly and brazen, outwardly already a woman, but only sixteen, she was ready for the louche, alcoholic Mr Booker, a married teacher, but at least not at her place of education. He presented himself, was obviously much taken by her youthful attributes, and she was definitely not backward in committing to the affair, even if the results were not quite as disastrous as the back cover blurb may have the reader believe.
In the time setting of ‘Me and Mr Booker’, and when I was simultaneously operating in schools, there was less reserve between teacher and senior student than exists today. Of course the line was still there that was not to be crossed, but the hand’s off mantra so stringently enforced in this century, was a fuzzier notion, and rumours of overfamiliarisation were rampant. In my early years, one teacher was quietly shifted away when it became apparent he was enticing senior girls to pose ‘artistically’ for his camera, and another was known to be ‘entertaining’ some female students in his own abode. Two male colleagues were seemingly very enamoured with the same young lady, to the extent they were engaged in spatting over her, and a starting out female teacher was rumoured to be throwing parties for her senior lads. But all of that was when I too was a novice, and as the profession became hoarier and guidelines more rigidly enforced, ‘issues’ of that ilk diminished. So there were no Marthas for this teacher, thankfully, and that was the case for the vast number of my ‘fellow’ professionals.
I do remember one young lady from my early years in a vocation that was so much younger back then, and she came floating back as I perused ‘Mr Booker’- not that she behaved in any way resembling Taylor’s sexually overt fictional character. I took a shine to her and her to me, in a platonic fashion. Articulate, academically capable, elfin, with wonderfully twinkling eyes, she had several of the younger brigade of male teachers in a spin, as there were issues in her background that required much ‘counselling’. There was no hint of fuzzy lines being crossed and she was delightful company, seemingly more at home around adults than her peers. I remember feeling quite chuffed when she chose me as a partner for a dance at socials. It wasn’t uncool or sinister back then for staff to gyrate with pupils. In the end, it was my senior master and mentor who, realising her vulnerability, took her under his wing and saw her safely through her senior years, but more of him anon. All things come to an end, and the last I remember of her was a chaste kiss on my cheek and a whispered thank you in my ear as she bade me farewell me at her leavers’ dinner. I wonder now how her life panned out, if she made good use of her rich talents? There were others I vaguely remember who had ‘crushes’, gave me small tokens of friendship, and endearments in Christmas cards, but it was her face, rightly or wrongly, I recalled when I read this book.
In relating all this, and knowing what I know, I would never take the higher moral ground when it comes to Taylor’s Mr B – if we learn his first name I missed it – and his actions with Martha. The fact remains, and I repeat, she was only sixteen. Cory Taylor handles the subject matter very well, and a highlight for me of the book was the ‘screwball’ repartee between the two leading characters, covering up any inner turmoil present. The author’s fluid style captures the tenor of those times perfectly, of lives suffered away from, and mostly lusting for, big cities, where the ‘action’ was. Mr and Mrs Booker’s domestic world of booze and marital emptiness, presumably pining for a child that could not be, saw them befriend Martha and her ‘put upon’ mother. Mr B goes one step further and carries on his not so clandestine affair, a relationship that the reader knows will have to eventually unravel, presumably big time, and unravel it does. For Martha, losing her virginity to the Englishman is her escape from tedium into a more adult world, and she handles it all with aplomb, even if she half knows it is all doomed. There is not a ‘decent’ male to be had in the novel, with Martha’s estranged father being deeply flawed and odd, the brother only marginally less so. At least the women have excuses for being the way they were. Mostly, it seemed, they were ambivalent to the goings on, till Mrs B spits it volcanically. Nasty possibilities rear their head as to possible outcomes for the two affairees as the narrative progresses, but – spoiler alert - none are forthcoming, and the novel ends with more of a whimper than a bang, so to speak. It is decidedly a better work of fiction for that. It was not happy-ever-afters though.
And for a happy ending in similar circumstances, let’s go back to the man who shepherded the aforementioned non-fictional young lady, the one who shone so brightly in my memory during my reading of this fine debut. He too fell in love with one of his senior girls during his early years of teaching but, unlike Mr B, he waited for her to reach a more acceptable age. When I knew them they were happily married and devoted. She was gorgeous, and he went on to a long and successful principalship at one of my island’s prestigious schools for girls – and that’s the way it should be.
Cory Taylor with this, for me, has proven her chops and I avidly await the arrival of her sophomore effort, ‘My Beautiful Enemy’, due for release in April ’13 – a book that also deals with matters of the heart, but in very different circumstances. It’s in my diary.
February 19, 2012
I’m not sure what it was about this book but I really felt there was something lacking. Overall I would say that it is a well written book with some interesting devices used throughout but it still felt slightly empty and left me with a sense of detachment at the end.
All the characters are to some extent lonely. Taylor describes this very well and you can see how loneliness can affect the characters in different ways. Martha’s mother tries to cope with her loneliness by throwing regular parties but this still is not satisfying. Mrs Booker turns to alcohol and cigarettes to cope with any pain. Victor is wonderfully described and was the character that most came to life for me. Taylor brought some humour out through his character, providing some relief from the serious content. However whilst she describes people’s loneliness and flaws brilliantly, when it came to love, I felt she was lacking.
I never really believed that Martha and Mr Booker loved each other, and as the narrative progresses it comes to be that maybe this is the point. They were more using each other to escape from their problems. Her; escaping the boredom of living in such an isolated place, her problems with her parents split and her father’s actions. Him; trying to escape a marriage that on the surface looks good but deeper has many problems beset as it is by drinking and pregnancy problems. As a result though because of this lack of love I felt detached from the whole relationship and wasn’t bothered whether they ended up together or not. However I did enjoy the development of Martha and her journey from being a girl to a woman and it’s very clear that in the later chapters of the book, she has really grown into herself, she understood more where the relationship was going.
I was waiting for something big to actually happen, which didn’t and the ending just felt bland and so the storyline felt like it dragged. Once again perhaps this is the point of the story, with Mr. Booker giving a lecture at one point during the book on how experimental films often leave the ending purposefully at a loose end giving the audience a sense of un-fulfilment and something to discuss. It seems that Taylor was aiming for this and in a way showing that whilst Martha had grown she still had the rest of her life ahead of her and the story for her didn’t simply stop.
However it was very quick and easy to read and is a good book if you just want to kill a few hours.
All the characters are to some extent lonely. Taylor describes this very well and you can see how loneliness can affect the characters in different ways. Martha’s mother tries to cope with her loneliness by throwing regular parties but this still is not satisfying. Mrs Booker turns to alcohol and cigarettes to cope with any pain. Victor is wonderfully described and was the character that most came to life for me. Taylor brought some humour out through his character, providing some relief from the serious content. However whilst she describes people’s loneliness and flaws brilliantly, when it came to love, I felt she was lacking.
I never really believed that Martha and Mr Booker loved each other, and as the narrative progresses it comes to be that maybe this is the point. They were more using each other to escape from their problems. Her; escaping the boredom of living in such an isolated place, her problems with her parents split and her father’s actions. Him; trying to escape a marriage that on the surface looks good but deeper has many problems beset as it is by drinking and pregnancy problems. As a result though because of this lack of love I felt detached from the whole relationship and wasn’t bothered whether they ended up together or not. However I did enjoy the development of Martha and her journey from being a girl to a woman and it’s very clear that in the later chapters of the book, she has really grown into herself, she understood more where the relationship was going.
I was waiting for something big to actually happen, which didn’t and the ending just felt bland and so the storyline felt like it dragged. Once again perhaps this is the point of the story, with Mr. Booker giving a lecture at one point during the book on how experimental films often leave the ending purposefully at a loose end giving the audience a sense of un-fulfilment and something to discuss. It seems that Taylor was aiming for this and in a way showing that whilst Martha had grown she still had the rest of her life ahead of her and the story for her didn’t simply stop.
However it was very quick and easy to read and is a good book if you just want to kill a few hours.
August 6, 2021
Meine Erwartungen anhand des Klappentextes wurden nicht erfüllt - enttäuschend, teils gar abstossend und plump. Der letzte Absatz riss jedoch das Ruder herum, faszinierender und unerwartet subtiler Kniff.
August 11, 2019
review originally posted on my blog / allieereads.com
Oh, Lord.
From the perspective of an Australian reader, I do understand the reasons as to why Me and Mr Booker received critical acclaim and vibrant reviews, not only from Australian critics but global reviewers as well. However, I found it to be one of the most ridiculous novels I have ever read. Claiming it to be a raw and powerful novel, set in a sort-of contemporary world that intends to emphasise the flawed human to its greatest capacity, may be overestimating this book a little. The novel follows the character, Martha, a sixteen-year-old high school student who lives with her mother. Martha is craving adventure and a sense of a life outside of the suffocating boundaries of her small country town. This is where Martha meets the likes of Mr Booker, with no first name, a thirty-four-year-old married man who moved to the country from London, England.
Martha had the capacity to be a wonderfully insightful character, instead, she was portrayed as a woman twice her age. She was lost, and the adults surrounding her, one could say, encouraged an underaged girl to have an affair with a married man. Martha was completely obsessed with the idea of Mr Booker and showed no real emotional maturity one expects from a coming of age novel. It was honestly all about the sex. Consequently, Me and Mr Booker was overrun by the frantic need for adulterous sex. Sex in a motel. Sex in Mr Booker's bed. Sex in the car. The relationship between Martha and Mr Booker was utterly and completely physical. There were no emotional attachments; Martha was a pretty girl and Mr Booker, a predator.
That would be how I would characterise Mr Booker. A predator. He was first and foremost, a boring character who lacked any sort of personal conviction or strength. I was not interested in his character; his personality was bland and as dull as Martha described her little country town. His humour constantly missed the mark and one could not consider it 'black humour' in any form - it was the dialogue of a man who desperately wanted to be someone other than himself. He was not sexy in any capacity and I did not long for him and Martha to have their happy ever after. I'll put it quite bluntly: I found Mr Booker as a character completely pathetic and disgusting. It was not a compelling read and it could be described as mediocre at best. It was paedophilia and statutory rape masked as a 'coming of age' novel. It was not raw, it was absolutely ridiculous.
I don't quite understand the reason as to why a novel is considered and labelled as a 'coming of age' when all it is, is an older man preying on an underaged girl. Coming of age novels with female protagonists, and male, should not automatically mean that their maturity and development need to be linked alongside a romantic and physical relationship with a man. I was longing for this book to show us deeper emotional instabilities and the insecurities of growing up as a woman, as a daughter of a single mum, and a father who struggles with his mental illness. A novel that considers emotional and personal growth and not only sexual development. Although, I wouldn't even consider it sexual development. It was a mess.
Thus, I would rate this book 1 star out of 5, because it had words and the writing flowed. But the storyline was horrendous and the characters, even more so. I understand that this book was supposed to be one that shocked, and was meant to illustrate the sinful nature of men and women, but it just was not executed well enough at all. In saying that though, why would anyone want to write about a thirty-four-year-old man and his 'relationship' with a sixteen-year-old girl, and call it romance? Sexy? How? Please, I need to understand!
Allie
Oh, Lord.
From the perspective of an Australian reader, I do understand the reasons as to why Me and Mr Booker received critical acclaim and vibrant reviews, not only from Australian critics but global reviewers as well. However, I found it to be one of the most ridiculous novels I have ever read. Claiming it to be a raw and powerful novel, set in a sort-of contemporary world that intends to emphasise the flawed human to its greatest capacity, may be overestimating this book a little. The novel follows the character, Martha, a sixteen-year-old high school student who lives with her mother. Martha is craving adventure and a sense of a life outside of the suffocating boundaries of her small country town. This is where Martha meets the likes of Mr Booker, with no first name, a thirty-four-year-old married man who moved to the country from London, England.
Martha had the capacity to be a wonderfully insightful character, instead, she was portrayed as a woman twice her age. She was lost, and the adults surrounding her, one could say, encouraged an underaged girl to have an affair with a married man. Martha was completely obsessed with the idea of Mr Booker and showed no real emotional maturity one expects from a coming of age novel. It was honestly all about the sex. Consequently, Me and Mr Booker was overrun by the frantic need for adulterous sex. Sex in a motel. Sex in Mr Booker's bed. Sex in the car. The relationship between Martha and Mr Booker was utterly and completely physical. There were no emotional attachments; Martha was a pretty girl and Mr Booker, a predator.
That would be how I would characterise Mr Booker. A predator. He was first and foremost, a boring character who lacked any sort of personal conviction or strength. I was not interested in his character; his personality was bland and as dull as Martha described her little country town. His humour constantly missed the mark and one could not consider it 'black humour' in any form - it was the dialogue of a man who desperately wanted to be someone other than himself. He was not sexy in any capacity and I did not long for him and Martha to have their happy ever after. I'll put it quite bluntly: I found Mr Booker as a character completely pathetic and disgusting. It was not a compelling read and it could be described as mediocre at best. It was paedophilia and statutory rape masked as a 'coming of age' novel. It was not raw, it was absolutely ridiculous.
I don't quite understand the reason as to why a novel is considered and labelled as a 'coming of age' when all it is, is an older man preying on an underaged girl. Coming of age novels with female protagonists, and male, should not automatically mean that their maturity and development need to be linked alongside a romantic and physical relationship with a man. I was longing for this book to show us deeper emotional instabilities and the insecurities of growing up as a woman, as a daughter of a single mum, and a father who struggles with his mental illness. A novel that considers emotional and personal growth and not only sexual development. Although, I wouldn't even consider it sexual development. It was a mess.
Thus, I would rate this book 1 star out of 5, because it had words and the writing flowed. But the storyline was horrendous and the characters, even more so. I understand that this book was supposed to be one that shocked, and was meant to illustrate the sinful nature of men and women, but it just was not executed well enough at all. In saying that though, why would anyone want to write about a thirty-four-year-old man and his 'relationship' with a sixteen-year-old girl, and call it romance? Sexy? How? Please, I need to understand!
Allie
May 22, 2019
Cory Taylor’s
Me and Mr. Booker
, a novel about a sixteen-year-old Australian girl’s affair with a married man in his thirties is sometimes compared to Nabokov’s
Lolita
, only it presents the perspective of the younger person, not the pedophile. I wouldn’t know. I haven’t read Nabokov (nor do I intend to). Recently, though, I read Taylor’s exceptional memoir,
Dying
, composed at the end of a life that was being consumed by metastatic melanoma. That memorable reading experience made me curious about Taylor’s two novels.
Taylor’s protagonist, Martha, first encounters the alcoholic, dysfunctional Mr. and Mrs. Booker, English transplants to Australia, when they attend one of the many parties thrown by her divorced mother, Jessica. Bored by life in a backwater and chafing for adventure, Martha inserts herself into the childless couple’s life as a kind of surrogate child, allowing them to take her shopping and dining. Soon Martha is engaged in a full-out affair with Mr. Booker, about which Taylor provides frank but hardly sordid or titillating details. While Martha does become rather obsessed with Mr. Booker—and, for a time, naively believes he will leave his wife for her—it is clear that her relationship with this man is not a love affair by any stretch of the imagination; rather, it’s a testimony to the deadness and dullness both feel about their lot.
Taylor’s prose is light, playful, easy to read, and occasionally very funny. I didn’t much care about the affair, to be honest, though it struck me as strange that Martha’s mother—who has a strong bond with her daughter and is aware of the relationship—should allow it to continue. Martha is like none of the girls I knew in my teens, nor is her remarkably honest, open, and nonjudgmental relationship with her mum representative of the norm.
What interested me the most about the book was Taylor’s use of autobiographical details to create Martha’s home life. Martha’s family, like Taylor’s own, lived a largely peripatetic existence—i.e., it was dragged all over hell’s half acre because the father, Victor, (like Taylor’s own) was mentally ill and could not hold a job for any length of time. When Taylor’s mother finally divorced him, she still felt responsible for her ex-husband, just as Jessica does in the novel. These details, recreated in Me and Mr. Booker are a surprising source of comedy. Martha’s variously direct, ironic, flippant, and baldfaced remarks to her father, who (for a time) lives in a trailer in the garden, are often laugh-out-loud funny. That’s likely what I will remember most about this unusual, quirky novel.
Taylor’s protagonist, Martha, first encounters the alcoholic, dysfunctional Mr. and Mrs. Booker, English transplants to Australia, when they attend one of the many parties thrown by her divorced mother, Jessica. Bored by life in a backwater and chafing for adventure, Martha inserts herself into the childless couple’s life as a kind of surrogate child, allowing them to take her shopping and dining. Soon Martha is engaged in a full-out affair with Mr. Booker, about which Taylor provides frank but hardly sordid or titillating details. While Martha does become rather obsessed with Mr. Booker—and, for a time, naively believes he will leave his wife for her—it is clear that her relationship with this man is not a love affair by any stretch of the imagination; rather, it’s a testimony to the deadness and dullness both feel about their lot.
Taylor’s prose is light, playful, easy to read, and occasionally very funny. I didn’t much care about the affair, to be honest, though it struck me as strange that Martha’s mother—who has a strong bond with her daughter and is aware of the relationship—should allow it to continue. Martha is like none of the girls I knew in my teens, nor is her remarkably honest, open, and nonjudgmental relationship with her mum representative of the norm.
What interested me the most about the book was Taylor’s use of autobiographical details to create Martha’s home life. Martha’s family, like Taylor’s own, lived a largely peripatetic existence—i.e., it was dragged all over hell’s half acre because the father, Victor, (like Taylor’s own) was mentally ill and could not hold a job for any length of time. When Taylor’s mother finally divorced him, she still felt responsible for her ex-husband, just as Jessica does in the novel. These details, recreated in Me and Mr. Booker are a surprising source of comedy. Martha’s variously direct, ironic, flippant, and baldfaced remarks to her father, who (for a time) lives in a trailer in the garden, are often laugh-out-loud funny. That’s likely what I will remember most about this unusual, quirky novel.
March 8, 2011
Me and Mr Booker, Cory Taylor’s first novel, has been described as a coming of age novel. Martha is sixteen and tells people she is emotionally scarred from her parents’ marriage break-up. She considers her unemployed (and seemingly unemployable) father, Victor, mad, and in a frightening rather than an amusing way. Her mother, Jessica, a teacher, throws parties every weekend to ward off the boredom and loneliness of weekends, and her older brother Eddie is away in New Guinea. In this dysfunctional atmosphere, Martha finds herself waiting for something to happen in her life. As luck will have it, that something is Mr Booker: English, sophisticated, charming and impossible to resist, despite the fact that he comes complete with a wife. Very little is learned about Mr Booker (and never his first name) until the last chapter: the very last line of the book reveals much.
Taylor expertly captures the feel of the dull country town, the sense of boredom and even hopelessness. She lets us inside the mind of a sixteen-year-old girl, one who feels “old” because of her parents’ attitude and the way men have started to look at her. Her affair with Mr Booker seems inevitable, and Taylor builds the tension throughout the book, giving the reader a sense of “this can’t end well”. This tension is regularly eased by the witty repartee between the characters. As well as this, Victor’s delusions and his letters to Jessica, full of inappropriately grandiloquent language, are quite a source of humour. Some of his later letters are, unintentionally, truly hilarious.
Taylor gives us believable characters and authentic dialogue. As we join Martha’s journey towards adulthood and maturity, it is hard not to hope she finds her way without too much heartbreak. The last page, a touching ending, has the reader wondering who really has the power over whom? Me and Mr Booker is funny, sexy, moving: altogether a great read. Let us hope Cory Taylor has more like this one to share with her readers.
Taylor expertly captures the feel of the dull country town, the sense of boredom and even hopelessness. She lets us inside the mind of a sixteen-year-old girl, one who feels “old” because of her parents’ attitude and the way men have started to look at her. Her affair with Mr Booker seems inevitable, and Taylor builds the tension throughout the book, giving the reader a sense of “this can’t end well”. This tension is regularly eased by the witty repartee between the characters. As well as this, Victor’s delusions and his letters to Jessica, full of inappropriately grandiloquent language, are quite a source of humour. Some of his later letters are, unintentionally, truly hilarious.
Taylor gives us believable characters and authentic dialogue. As we join Martha’s journey towards adulthood and maturity, it is hard not to hope she finds her way without too much heartbreak. The last page, a touching ending, has the reader wondering who really has the power over whom? Me and Mr Booker is funny, sexy, moving: altogether a great read. Let us hope Cory Taylor has more like this one to share with her readers.
April 17, 2011
I was pretty disappointed with this book, I had to force myself to finish it. I found it quite dull, not much of a story line, and none of the characters were particularly likeable. There was not much suspense or drama, they were sleeping together then they weren’t, then they were, then they weren’t. And I didn’t particularly care too much one way or the other.
June 21, 2019
Small town Australia is a hard place to be when you're 16 and waiting for life to start happening. It's just a matter of time before Martha will fly the nest and head off to a life of adventure and experience, but until school's finished she's home with mum, Jessica. When Martha's parents split up it gives her the perfect excuse for behaving badly. Whilst others might say Martha's father, Victor, has mental health issues, Martha herself doesn't mince her words; she says Victor is mad, plain and simple. Martha's mum has been a doormat all her married life and even with the separation, it's hard to shake off her husband. She's suddenly throwing parties, trying to meet lots of new people and make up for years of being pushed around by her ex. When mum's friend brings an English couple, Mr and Mrs Booker, to one of her parties, they soon become regular visitors, turning up to hang out with Martha and her mum.
At 16 years old, Martha's a sassy, confident, down-right rude teen. She's realised that older men are looking at her in a funny way that she doesn't entirely understand but seems to quite enjoy. Mr and Mrs Booker take a shine to her. Soon the Bookers are adopting her as their pet, taking her out to buy clothes and getting a hairdresser to give her a new look. At around twice her age, they're somewhere between surrogate parents and big brother and sister. They drink, they smoke, they swear and they're fun to be with. It's all going wonderfully right up to the point where Mr Booker kisses Martha.
What starts with a kiss quickly moves to furtive assignations, meetings in cheap motels, shagging in the woods, and sneaking around behind Mrs Booker's back. Her father Victor is not impressed and keeps threatening his daughter and Mr Booker, but nobody's going to believe the rantings of a mad estranged father. It's hard to believe that Mrs Booker suspects nothing and that they keep getting away with it as long as they do but inevitably they can't keep it secret forever.
When I realised that I'd downloaded a Kindle book about a 16 year old having an affair with a 34 year old, I felt slightly sick. By making Martha 16, Cory Taylor has managed to narrowly avoid an illegal relationship but it's still just plain wrong and exploitative. To add insult to injury, Mr Booker is a university lecturer, someone who works with young women and for whom the phrase 'ought to know better' has to apply. It's hard to blame Martha, falling in love, getting into something toxic but loving the attention, relishing the sex, but there are absolutely no excuses. It's not like she doesn't know he's married when she's hanging out with his wife almost as much as with him.
Why is it hard to blame Martha and to dislike her? She's just so incredibly funny that I could have forgiven her almost any behaviour because she made me laugh so hard. As I was reading on the Kindle, I was repeatedly bookmarking my favourite bits – almost all of which were Martha's cutting responses and witticisms. However, you can't get away with the fact that this is a highly dysfunctional relationship that has no potential to end any way other than badly. This is a car crash relationship from start to finish.
Martha never refers to her lover as anything other than 'Mr Booker' and his wife as 'Mrs Booker' and this seems to represent the distance between them. Mr Booker is a nasty piece of work which we, as readers, can see clearly. He thinks he's funny, sophisticated, urbane but anyone over 16 will soon work out that the guy's an arse. He's all front, all bluster and he's very easy to dislike; this guy has hidden shallows. Mrs Booker drinks and parties too hard but is easy to pity. Is there a word for a female equivalent of a 'cuckold'? I'm not sure but it's painful to watch her continuing to be friends with a girl half her age who's shagging her husband.
There's nothing erotic or titillating about Martha and Mr Booker's relationship, no attempt to dress it up as something loving or deep. Their coupling is functional, mechanical and he's constantly making excuses to push the blame onto his young lover. He talks a lot about stopping things if she wants to, pushing the responsibility to her, avoiding making it his own choice to continue. I was disturbed by such details as him neatly hanging his clothes on a tree before getting down to business in the woods on Christmas day whilst he and Martha are supposed to be out looking for a Christmas tree. There's something so cold about attending so precisely to your clothes prior to a moment of passion.
I couldn't help but wonder if this is supposed to be young adult / new adult fiction for readers of the same age as Martha. The style is simple, easy to read (even when the content is uncomfortable), easy to skip through in just a few hours but the subject matter seemed to me to need to be viewed from a distance of more years. Would a 16-year-old reader see the inevitability of this car-crash relationship when Martha herself seems to see nothing wrong in what's happening? Do you need to be a bit older to look at it and cringe in all the right places? I'm still not sure. The writing style was 'young' but the themes were more complex.
It's hard to decide what rating to give a book like this. I can't say I 'enjoyed' it because the characters, with the exception of Martha, are so unlikeable. She herself is doing something that we shouldn't love her for but she's so sharp, so witty, and so fresh that it's hard not to rather like her despite the casual way she gets herself into such a toxic situation. The dialogue is always sharp, short and incisive but when you look at the book in its entirety, it's not adding too much to the sum of written literature. This is no 'Lolita' and Cory Taylor is no Nabakov. There's no guessing, no tension, no 'will they won't they' suspense as the couple just skip all the preamble and get down to it. It's not a literary great, but it passed a few hours in an airport and I didn't hate it.
At 16 years old, Martha's a sassy, confident, down-right rude teen. She's realised that older men are looking at her in a funny way that she doesn't entirely understand but seems to quite enjoy. Mr and Mrs Booker take a shine to her. Soon the Bookers are adopting her as their pet, taking her out to buy clothes and getting a hairdresser to give her a new look. At around twice her age, they're somewhere between surrogate parents and big brother and sister. They drink, they smoke, they swear and they're fun to be with. It's all going wonderfully right up to the point where Mr Booker kisses Martha.
What starts with a kiss quickly moves to furtive assignations, meetings in cheap motels, shagging in the woods, and sneaking around behind Mrs Booker's back. Her father Victor is not impressed and keeps threatening his daughter and Mr Booker, but nobody's going to believe the rantings of a mad estranged father. It's hard to believe that Mrs Booker suspects nothing and that they keep getting away with it as long as they do but inevitably they can't keep it secret forever.
When I realised that I'd downloaded a Kindle book about a 16 year old having an affair with a 34 year old, I felt slightly sick. By making Martha 16, Cory Taylor has managed to narrowly avoid an illegal relationship but it's still just plain wrong and exploitative. To add insult to injury, Mr Booker is a university lecturer, someone who works with young women and for whom the phrase 'ought to know better' has to apply. It's hard to blame Martha, falling in love, getting into something toxic but loving the attention, relishing the sex, but there are absolutely no excuses. It's not like she doesn't know he's married when she's hanging out with his wife almost as much as with him.
Why is it hard to blame Martha and to dislike her? She's just so incredibly funny that I could have forgiven her almost any behaviour because she made me laugh so hard. As I was reading on the Kindle, I was repeatedly bookmarking my favourite bits – almost all of which were Martha's cutting responses and witticisms. However, you can't get away with the fact that this is a highly dysfunctional relationship that has no potential to end any way other than badly. This is a car crash relationship from start to finish.
Martha never refers to her lover as anything other than 'Mr Booker' and his wife as 'Mrs Booker' and this seems to represent the distance between them. Mr Booker is a nasty piece of work which we, as readers, can see clearly. He thinks he's funny, sophisticated, urbane but anyone over 16 will soon work out that the guy's an arse. He's all front, all bluster and he's very easy to dislike; this guy has hidden shallows. Mrs Booker drinks and parties too hard but is easy to pity. Is there a word for a female equivalent of a 'cuckold'? I'm not sure but it's painful to watch her continuing to be friends with a girl half her age who's shagging her husband.
There's nothing erotic or titillating about Martha and Mr Booker's relationship, no attempt to dress it up as something loving or deep. Their coupling is functional, mechanical and he's constantly making excuses to push the blame onto his young lover. He talks a lot about stopping things if she wants to, pushing the responsibility to her, avoiding making it his own choice to continue. I was disturbed by such details as him neatly hanging his clothes on a tree before getting down to business in the woods on Christmas day whilst he and Martha are supposed to be out looking for a Christmas tree. There's something so cold about attending so precisely to your clothes prior to a moment of passion.
I couldn't help but wonder if this is supposed to be young adult / new adult fiction for readers of the same age as Martha. The style is simple, easy to read (even when the content is uncomfortable), easy to skip through in just a few hours but the subject matter seemed to me to need to be viewed from a distance of more years. Would a 16-year-old reader see the inevitability of this car-crash relationship when Martha herself seems to see nothing wrong in what's happening? Do you need to be a bit older to look at it and cringe in all the right places? I'm still not sure. The writing style was 'young' but the themes were more complex.
It's hard to decide what rating to give a book like this. I can't say I 'enjoyed' it because the characters, with the exception of Martha, are so unlikeable. She herself is doing something that we shouldn't love her for but she's so sharp, so witty, and so fresh that it's hard not to rather like her despite the casual way she gets herself into such a toxic situation. The dialogue is always sharp, short and incisive but when you look at the book in its entirety, it's not adding too much to the sum of written literature. This is no 'Lolita' and Cory Taylor is no Nabakov. There's no guessing, no tension, no 'will they won't they' suspense as the couple just skip all the preamble and get down to it. It's not a literary great, but it passed a few hours in an airport and I didn't hate it.
May 24, 2017
‘Elegant and controlled and wickedly funny.’
David Vann
‘Cory Taylor’s Me and Mr Booker has the heart of Lolita and the soul of Catcher In The Rye, this is one of the most assured debut novels I have ever read. These characters feel so real that they become almost family. Refreshing, surprising, sexy and ultimately very moving.’
Krissy Kneen
‘A vibrant, questioning and unpredictable read.’
West Australian
‘Cory Taylor’s characters are magnificently created.’
Australian
‘Me and Mr Booker is sharply observed and blackly comic, but it is also a tender depiction of love, sex, power and one girl’s heartbreaking step into adulthood.’
Australian Bookseller + Publisher
David Vann
‘Cory Taylor’s Me and Mr Booker has the heart of Lolita and the soul of Catcher In The Rye, this is one of the most assured debut novels I have ever read. These characters feel so real that they become almost family. Refreshing, surprising, sexy and ultimately very moving.’
Krissy Kneen
‘A vibrant, questioning and unpredictable read.’
West Australian
‘Cory Taylor’s characters are magnificently created.’
Australian
‘Me and Mr Booker is sharply observed and blackly comic, but it is also a tender depiction of love, sex, power and one girl’s heartbreaking step into adulthood.’
Australian Bookseller + Publisher
November 29, 2012
Set in a small Australian town, “Me and Mr Booker” is about an affair between 16 year old schoolgirl Martha, the book’s narrator, and a 32 year old married university teacher from Britain called Mr Booker. Cory Taylor captures the voice of a 16 year old and the frustration she feels at living in a small town very well. That restless yearning to grow up, move out, and see the world is something a lot of people can relate to and Martha is a convincingly real person.
The novel explores the angle that young people, particularly teenagers, feel that they know everything and see things more clearly than their elders. Through Martha’s narration, we see a more complex relationship between Mr and Mrs Booker than the simplistic “he’s unhappy with his wife” motif that Martha imagines. Martha’s naivety is highlighted through her constantly asking Mr Booker when he will leave his wife, when they will start their new life together, and it’s painfully clear to the reader that Martha really doesn’t understand the nature of their relationship or much at all about Mr and Mrs Booker’s.
But the novel is too long. At 220 pages, it’s not a long book but despite this brevity the book felt overlong by half. Once Taylor establishes the main characters, they continue in their way straight through until the end with little variation. Martha doesn’t seem to change much and neither do the other characters. This stasis isn’t helped by a lack of plot, and the novel meanders aimlessly repeating sex scenes, clandestine meetings, and secrets hidden in public appearances. It gets very tired after a while.
There also isn’t a single likeable character in the book. Martha is bratty, deluded and a tool. Mr Booker is worse because he’s just a loser. He drinks, says horribly boring things which he and Martha think are terribly funny – his character is such a tedious bore. Mrs Booker is a pitiful character rather than likeable, she’s used as much as Martha. And then there are Martha’s parents: her emotionally damaged mother hopelessly in thrall to her separated husband, the reprehensible sponge and intellectually vacuous Victor, Martha’s father, who spends the book pursuing one pointless venture after another, borrowing money from Martha’s mother only to waste it away. The book is well written but when you don’t like any of the characters, it makes reading it that much harder.
“Me and Mr Booker” looks at the world of adult relationships through the eyes of someone who is still a child with the body of an adult and, while this is an interesting conceit, Taylor doesn’t do enough in the novel to justify its length. The story could’ve been told much more quickly and the reader spared the company of such boring and annoying characters. They are a gallery of hopeless idiots I couldn’t begin to like and by the end of the novel I’d lost all interest in their sad lives. If you’ve not read “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov, I would suggest reading that if you’re interested in this kind of story but I wouldn’t recommend reading “Me and Mr Booker”.
The novel explores the angle that young people, particularly teenagers, feel that they know everything and see things more clearly than their elders. Through Martha’s narration, we see a more complex relationship between Mr and Mrs Booker than the simplistic “he’s unhappy with his wife” motif that Martha imagines. Martha’s naivety is highlighted through her constantly asking Mr Booker when he will leave his wife, when they will start their new life together, and it’s painfully clear to the reader that Martha really doesn’t understand the nature of their relationship or much at all about Mr and Mrs Booker’s.
But the novel is too long. At 220 pages, it’s not a long book but despite this brevity the book felt overlong by half. Once Taylor establishes the main characters, they continue in their way straight through until the end with little variation. Martha doesn’t seem to change much and neither do the other characters. This stasis isn’t helped by a lack of plot, and the novel meanders aimlessly repeating sex scenes, clandestine meetings, and secrets hidden in public appearances. It gets very tired after a while.
There also isn’t a single likeable character in the book. Martha is bratty, deluded and a tool. Mr Booker is worse because he’s just a loser. He drinks, says horribly boring things which he and Martha think are terribly funny – his character is such a tedious bore. Mrs Booker is a pitiful character rather than likeable, she’s used as much as Martha. And then there are Martha’s parents: her emotionally damaged mother hopelessly in thrall to her separated husband, the reprehensible sponge and intellectually vacuous Victor, Martha’s father, who spends the book pursuing one pointless venture after another, borrowing money from Martha’s mother only to waste it away. The book is well written but when you don’t like any of the characters, it makes reading it that much harder.
“Me and Mr Booker” looks at the world of adult relationships through the eyes of someone who is still a child with the body of an adult and, while this is an interesting conceit, Taylor doesn’t do enough in the novel to justify its length. The story could’ve been told much more quickly and the reader spared the company of such boring and annoying characters. They are a gallery of hopeless idiots I couldn’t begin to like and by the end of the novel I’d lost all interest in their sad lives. If you’ve not read “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov, I would suggest reading that if you’re interested in this kind of story but I wouldn’t recommend reading “Me and Mr Booker”.
February 5, 2013
I'm having a difficult time deciding if I liked this book more than I thought I would or less than I thought I would. I decided to read it after reading a review in Shelf Awareness and while I enjoyed the story, I wouldn't necessarily say I liked the book.
The story focuses on 16-year-old Martha (although she's called by her name so infrequently in the book it doesn't really matter) and the really screwed up adults that inhabit her life. There's her mentally ill father, the mother who enables her father by not being able to break away from him, and her mother's immature friends, Mr. and Mrs. Booker included. Martha and Mr. Booker start in on an affair and the story is about what happens to them.
I read somewhere that this is a look inside the nymphet mind of Lolita. After reading this I can't really agree. Yes the story was told from Martha's point of view, but she wasn't really a deep character. And maybe that's just how teenagers are? But I wasn't that type of teenager (see over analyzing, can't shut brain off character in Prep for an idea of how my brain worked at that age).
The book was surprisingly quick to read, I went into it thinking it would be one of those books that dragged along, but I read it in two days of subway commutes. It's a fine book, it's not really funny, it's not really sad, although I guess it is quite sad, I just found the characters too over the top to relate to to really feel any emotion towards them. I can't say I would necessarily recommend it, but I wouldn't not recommend it.
The story focuses on 16-year-old Martha (although she's called by her name so infrequently in the book it doesn't really matter) and the really screwed up adults that inhabit her life. There's her mentally ill father, the mother who enables her father by not being able to break away from him, and her mother's immature friends, Mr. and Mrs. Booker included. Martha and Mr. Booker start in on an affair and the story is about what happens to them.
I read somewhere that this is a look inside the nymphet mind of Lolita. After reading this I can't really agree. Yes the story was told from Martha's point of view, but she wasn't really a deep character. And maybe that's just how teenagers are? But I wasn't that type of teenager (see over analyzing, can't shut brain off character in Prep for an idea of how my brain worked at that age).
The book was surprisingly quick to read, I went into it thinking it would be one of those books that dragged along, but I read it in two days of subway commutes. It's a fine book, it's not really funny, it's not really sad, although I guess it is quite sad, I just found the characters too over the top to relate to to really feel any emotion towards them. I can't say I would necessarily recommend it, but I wouldn't not recommend it.
May 22, 2013
I didn't care for this book, which is disappointing because I really thought it would be better.
Usually I'm not terribly bothered by books in which nothing much happens but I did actually find this one boring and, in the first half, overly repetitive in terms of the content: Martha and Mr Booker go and have sex; then they have sex again somewhere else; then they sneak off and have sex ... it's dull.
By the second half, things improve for a bit but ultimately the book never manages to free itself from its own stagnation. It is emotionally thin and not in the deliberate self-aware way of other books I've read (and love).
I gave this one more of an effort because I own it, but it got read more because I was in bed with post-Migraine exhaustion. That said, it's well written and not actively terrible, so I'm going to give it 2 stars.
Usually I'm not terribly bothered by books in which nothing much happens but I did actually find this one boring and, in the first half, overly repetitive in terms of the content: Martha and Mr Booker go and have sex; then they have sex again somewhere else; then they sneak off and have sex ... it's dull.
By the second half, things improve for a bit but ultimately the book never manages to free itself from its own stagnation. It is emotionally thin and not in the deliberate self-aware way of other books I've read (and love).
I gave this one more of an effort because I own it, but it got read more because I was in bed with post-Migraine exhaustion. That said, it's well written and not actively terrible, so I'm going to give it 2 stars.
December 20, 2012
Really don't like posting negative reviews so I'll keep it brief. These were the most two dimensional, poorly written characters I've read in a while. I skipped the last third of the book. I cannot to relate to Martha or her family in the slightest. I thought Mr and Mrs Booker were in their 50s by the way they were described and the way they spoke. Tedious British stereotypes with no redeeming features whatsoever. Was that the point I wonder?
December 8, 2011
I think that this novel was okay, but not great. I felt like I was kept at arms length from the characters: they didn't seem very real or deep. The writing was very dry too and not overly descriptive or imaginative. It's a light read, so good for if you want to kill a few hours without straining your brain.
January 29, 2014
Trite. Commonplace. A clichéd premise. A questionable topic. There were moments of good writing, but they were just that: moments. If you want a sexy, easy read about an underaged girl dating a married man, this book is for you. If you want actual literature, look somewhere else.
July 13, 2016
Boys and girls are very different creatures. There is so much about this book that I love, but above all I love the pace of it. It so remind me of the endless, endless days of teenager years and the vague dreaming of that time. And it is written in such an Aussie voice. Lovely.
January 29, 2020
This is a great coming of age novel. I love the quiet observations in Corey Taylor’s books. Really enjoyable.
April 2, 2013
Such a powerful story. This is everyone's life story as far as I'm concerned. Just change a few faces and the location and there you have it. Your life in under 250 pages.
"Like I said before, my father had never liked my mother's friends. He said they were all phonies. He blamed the women for turning my mother against him."
"'You want me to kill him?' he said.
'Yes please,' I said.
The plane lifted and soared up over the top of the building making the walls shake.
'Serious?' he said, once the plane had passed.
'Dead fucking serious,' I said, staring at him hard.
And for a moment I thought that he might be thinking about it because he stared back at me without laughing and there was something complicit in the look, as if he knew exactly what it was like to wish someone dead, particularly someone as close to you as a parent or a wife."
"Like I said before, my father had never liked my mother's friends. He said they were all phonies. He blamed the women for turning my mother against him."
"'You want me to kill him?' he said.
'Yes please,' I said.
The plane lifted and soared up over the top of the building making the walls shake.
'Serious?' he said, once the plane had passed.
'Dead fucking serious,' I said, staring at him hard.
And for a moment I thought that he might be thinking about it because he stared back at me without laughing and there was something complicit in the look, as if he knew exactly what it was like to wish someone dead, particularly someone as close to you as a parent or a wife."
May 12, 2011
Yes, it is a coming-of-age story and an old idea, but it works. Me and Mr Booker reads very much like a young adult novel pace-wise, but the content is a bit risque for a YA audience. There is a kind of knowingness to Me and Mr Booker which, for me, places it in the realm of adult fiction. When I first started reading it reminded me so much of An Education (which I loved), but there is such a unique voice at work here, such a sly, wry, affectionate look into the turmoil of adolesence and burgeoning adulthood. Me and Mr Booker achieves such a perfect mix of cheekiness and poignancy that above all feels completely natural and authentic – I loved the tone of the book.
Full review at:
http://bookgrotto.blogspot.com/2011/0...
Full review at:
http://bookgrotto.blogspot.com/2011/0...
January 29, 2013
When Martha falls in love with Mr. Booker, her mother's much older, married friend, she begins a torrid love affair spanning the end of her teenage years. Cory Taylor crafts a mesmerizing tale of lust, told through the eyes of a young, lovestruck girl. The reader will instantly recognize the nativity of the protagonist, and the parallels between Martha's relationship with Mr. Booker and that of her divorced parents. Filled with sexual tension, silly fantasies and hopeless dreams, Taylor's novel is a speeding car that doesn't let go until it crashes, leaving pieces of Martha's heart on the ground. This is for fans of coming-of-age stories and proves a solid effort from an exciting literary voice.
April 28, 2013
The consistent voice of the narrator is the only thing that saves this novel.....which is basically about a married man seducing a teenaged daughter of a friend, seemingly with the acceptance of his wife, the daughter's family, and everyone else in the small community. None of the characters have any character and all of them drink way too much.
December 30, 2014
This is not my usual genre, nevertheless I can say that I enjoyed the story.
I found that the storytelling is fresh and uncomplicated. The author sometimes advances us things, without going into much detail, which provides with clues, without giving away important pieces of the story.
Good read if you are not looking for a romance.
I found that the storytelling is fresh and uncomplicated. The author sometimes advances us things, without going into much detail, which provides with clues, without giving away important pieces of the story.
Good read if you are not looking for a romance.
February 26, 2017
For gods sake, you can't have your main character call the man she's fucking Mr Booker through the whole novel and expect people to take it seriously. So heavy handed.
Main character had some redeeming features but the rest were so utterly pathetic I couldn't take them seriously.
Started with promise but became redundant and repetitive.
Don't waste your time.
Main character had some redeeming features but the rest were so utterly pathetic I couldn't take them seriously.
Started with promise but became redundant and repetitive.
Don't waste your time.
December 15, 2012
This book was ok. It was a quick and easy read. I found myself strongly disliking almost all of the characters, strangely enough even though i didn't like the characters it didn't make me hate the book, if that makes sense.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews