The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

This One Sky Day by Leone Ross

Aka Popisho this side of the Atlantic.

Which is both a better name and not the one the author seems to have chosen. But let's not go there again!

I was slightly hesitant tipping this one - it's probably the least Goldsmithsy of the 5 I've read - but delighted to see it

And Leone Ross was the first author I saw in person post pandemic as well - came to the Wimbledon book festival.

The presence of this and Sterling Karat Gold suggests that these are judges who would regard (as do I) "bonkers" as a very positive thing to say of a novel.

Judge Fred D’Aguiar praised it as a bold, wild, uproarious, gawdy, bodacious, lyrical, effusive, carnivalesque, heraldic, liminal, expansive, fabulous, sensuous, sexy, hundred-story-jump and political fist-pump.

(which, indeed, seems to be a list of the thesaurus entries under 'bonkers'!)

Yes agreed. It’s also great to see some massively overdue racial diversity on the list for once.

Indeed. Although the book does deserve it on its own merits - and the judges do seem to have embraced its essence (I typed the bonkers entry before I saw the judge's comment)

Oh yes both books on their own merit but the Goldsmith has been borderline exclusively white/Celtic in the past.

Yes - and that year there were 5 men was a particular low point (albeit the judges blamed the entries)

Leone Ross did not like Popisho or did not like This One Sky Day?

I like Popisho, it seems a better fit for the few chapters I read.

I think she didn’t like Popisho as a title.

I don’t know that she didn’t like it. But she has been taking about the book of years on her blog and she always called it This One Sky Day then.

I really loved this book, and I am not usually one for magical realism. I just fell into its lush language and the story, in all its sprawling messiness, was a sheer delight. I want to reread it (not something I say often) and indulge all over again.

As with Assembly what Cindy said (which is normally what Gumble Yard says!)

Although for the avoidance of doubt that does not extend to Sterling Karat Gold where you are both wrong :-)

LOL! I'm happy to have this rare convergence of views Paul!

Thank you, David, I will henceforth refer to the book as This One Sky Day.

I was surprised and disappointed that it didn’t draw me in because I do enjoy magical realism, of course, as is often the case with me, it could have been timing.

We have a rare divergence Cindy. I thought the book was enjoyable but definitely flawed in a literary sense and don’t think it belongs on the Goldsmith really. It would be a good Women’s Prize longlist book.

To expand a little from my review

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I did find it an exuberant, enjoyable novel which starts as magic realism, aims for social commentary, heads for fantasy territory while flirting with absurdity but which at the end is a rather simple story of postponed and long thwarted love.

But ........

The book is intended to be in the magic-realism genre. Now of course the literary-fiction master of that genre also set his novels in a Caribbean coastal setting – Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But what makes his work particularly striking is that the magic elements are incongruous to the reader – not because of their magic but because of the otherwise mundane (in the sense of earthly) setting of the rest of the novel.

Here the author I think has failed to pull off (or perhaps to appreciate) the tension that is necessary between magic and realism.

To use a book-appropriate analogy – she I think lacks the magic-realism corrs. Unlike Xavier her own cooking touch is too heavy on adding the magic seasoning so obscuring the underlying flavours of the sociopolitical realism dish.

And as a fantasy novel I do not think it quite works either – one of the reasons that the fantasy genre is so obsessed with series of novels, beyond just genre-expectations, is that they rely on careful world building and then exploration of that world. And again I did not feel that the author here spent enough time ever exploring the world she had built rather than just adding yet another element to the world.

But I would emphasise again that this was nevertheless a very distinctive and fantastically-imagined novel, one that is as vibrant as its beautifully coloured page edgings and which at the end is an exploration of addiction and celebration of the greatest addiction of all - love.

I am halfway through this and I have to say I am really wondering whether I want to continue reading. It’s not working for me.

Update: I've now officially abandoned it. If someone can persuade me to pick it up again, I'm open to that, but as things stand I'm done at 48%. I have 1273 books on GR and only 8 on my DNF shelf, so this isn't a thing I do easily.

If you didn’t appreciate (the genius of) the first half then the second isn’t going to change your mind.

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "We have a rare divergence Cindy. I thought the book was enjoyable but definitely flawed in a literary sense and don’t think it belongs on the Goldsmith really. It would be a good Women’s Prize long..."

It was bound to happen sooner or later GY. And I agree with you that I'd expected this one to be on the Women's Prize longlist and was quite disappointed when it wasn't.

It is eligible next year. Hopefully alongside Checkout 19, Seesaw, Assembly, Second Place and Chouette on the shortlist.

Ah, thanks for that Paul. I had not realized it wasn't eligible this year. Quite a robust set of options already!

I think that's the case. It's what we've concluded on the Listopia (see Women's Prize thread) in any case.

Yes I think it was published in April (cutoff is 31 March)

I liked this book. I found it quite entertaining. I even laughed a couple of times. My review --https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I am just over halfway through and struggling to see the point of this one, or what qualifies it as a Goldsmiths book that wouldn't apply to almost any fantasy novel. I will persevere because I like to finish what I have started.

I seem to be an outlier on this - or perhaps much of this forum seems to be an outlier?

I thought it was brilliant and was hoping and expecting to see it on the prize list.

There is an exuberance and an imagination here that is lacking from much of fiction as well as so many powerful political points. The baton has been well and truly passed on from last year’s similarly brilliant, and also Goldsmiths featured, Mermaid of Black Conch and seeing Monique Roffey and Leone Ross on the stage together on Wimbledon Common in June, one of the first post pandemic in-person events, was my literary highlight of 2021.

Maybe we're both outliers, Paul (and maybe it would take something like that for the two of us to agree on a book, and a long one at that). I thought it was brilliant and funny and profound and a lush romp.

Yes when you and I (as opposed to my clone) agree and I like a long book it has to be truly exceptional 😂

I am with you both probably not ranking it as high as Paul, but had this been a Booker selection, I would have shortlisted the book.

I am not sure the forum is such an outlier - among my Goodreads friends this has just over 20 reviews which includes three DNF, 1 “I would have given up but like to finish books” and 2 other pretty negative 2 star reviews. That’s unusually negative reaction and only 1 of those is from this group.

But it would have been a welcome Booker addition I think.

I think it’s not helped here in being on a shortlist with one book which examines many of the same themes but with elegant brevity (one paragraph of Assembly is more powerful in examining racism, colonialism etc than 100 pages here - this book needed a far more drastic edit than it already had) and with one author (Isabel) who looks at a different subset of this book’s themes in a far more genuinely distinctive (this book is really fairly derivative fantasy/magic realism) version of bonkers.

But then most books struggle (in different ways - elegance and originality) against Assembly and Waidner and this one adds something different and distinctive to the shortlist for a prize that (bizarrely given its aims) has too often lacked breadth and diversity.

Yes very well put.

Except the editing - a rare book that would have been even. better longer.

There is a fascinating contrast on the shortlist

This book was around 450,000 words before she even started trying to pull it into a book as she had basically been writing it freeform for around 10+ years - what we see here is already the cut-down version.

Assembly when submitted to agents (possibly to publishers) was 15,000 words - Natasha Brown's aim when writing is to aim for around 100 words a day (sometimes less). Her agent and her editors (UK and US worked in partnership) all encouraged her to expand the book to the one we now have.

30 x difference in length for draft novels is quite impressive

Yes actually I do rather prefer the Natasha Brown approach. If that cost her a place on the Booker (and seemingly the Costa from rumours I have heard … from you!) that really will be poor.

There were clearly a lot more characters in This One Sky Day originally, although Popisho was always intended to be this length.

I just finished this book and it was an experience. From the first few sentences it felt more like watching a beautiful animation film than reading a book along the lines of ‘Moana’ or ‘Coco’, if you haven’t seen these movies (and I highly recommend) you can Google them and look at images it will give a hint.

Also on top of everything else that was mentioned in this thread, I absolutely loved the way Leone Ross describes the female body. Did anyone else enjoyed it too? The thick thighs, the arms, the backs, the bellies, small drops of sweat, the different colours of skin. Women’s flesh came to life in this book (and not in a vulgar way) women are sensual, tasty, real and have mass here (men didn’t get the same treatment unfortunately, I would’ve loved to see men through her lens). Food gets the same treatment as women.
What a brilliant book.

Great comments Ruth especially on the physical aspect.

Did you mean Day of The Dead though as I think that’s a Zombie horror movie or perhaps Coco (which would fit better with Moana?)

Did you mean Day of The Dead though as I think that’s a Zombie horror movie or perhaps Coco (which would fit better with Moana?)"

GY you are absolutely right. Lol its Coco! I was writing it from a coffee shop with very bad internet and couldn't remember the name, Goggled 'animation day of the dead' and the correct images slowwwllyy came up in results, so just in it went. I will edit the original post :)

I Googled Day of the Dead and looked at images as you suggested and am now traumatised!

Ruth, I love your observations about the way Ross describes the women in the novel. To me, that just illustrates the gorgeous lushness of the whole, and why it was such a wonderfully immersive reading experience for me.

I did like the second half a little more, but it is still at the bottom of my rankings, if only because the list is such a strong one. Hope to find time to review it tomorrow.

I have hard time visualizing descriptions in books in detail, so your comments that you saw Coco like images is super helpful for me. I also loved Coco (and Moana) so now I am looking forward to restarting this and I wasn’t hopeful before reading your post, Ruth. Thank you!

There is a nice way to visualise the characters if you’d like to

As the author has posted previously pictures of how she visualises them:

https://www.leoneross.com/this-one-sk...

NB this is from the 1000+ page version so some of the characters aren’t in the cut down published one

Thanks, Paul! That’s really helpful.

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "I Googled Day of the Dead and looked at images as you suggested and am now traumatised!"

I understand, if you read my post where I mention how beautifully women's flesh is described in the book and then you Google the 'Day of the dead' with certain expectations... Yes, I can see how that can be traumatising..

Cindy wrote: "Ruth, I love your observations about the way Ross describes the women in the novel. To me, that just illustrates the gorgeous lushness of the whole, and why it was such a wonderfully immersive read..."

Cindy, I think the word 'lushness' is the exact word I would use to describe this novel.

WndyJW wrote: "I have hard time visualizing descriptions in books in detail, so your comments that you saw Coco like images is super helpful for me. I also loved Coco (and Moana) so now I am looking forward to re..."

Windy, I am very curious to hear how you feel after you restart (and hopefully enjoy enough to finish) this novel. I wonder if you might feel that it's an explosion of lush visuals or if it felt different to you.

I was amused this evening that in answer to the question “did you deliberately set out to be innovative” the authors said yes (some of them very emphatically) and Leonne Ross said she had not realised she was innovative until shortlisted.

I literally logged on just to see if you had already made that comment!

But then she added I think (I had it on in background) that being innovative isn’t something you consciously do, like being sexy you either have it or you don’t. And hence by implication this book is both sexy and innovative.

Nice to see Isabel acknowledging (if I heard right) it was good to see two black authors on the list. I know that has concerned them before.

Leone’s reading was sexy!

I love lush, magical realism, Ruth, so I think it was more a matter of timing and feeling rushed the first time I started the book.

I’m curious what about TOSD and Coco were similar to you? The colors, the setting, the sugar skull depictions of the dead?