The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

This is the main thread for our group revisit of the 2006 Shortlist.

These were the shortlisted books:
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Winner)
Mother's Milk by Edward St Aubyn
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
The Secret River by Kate Grenville
Carry Me Down by M. J. Hyland
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar

The following 13 books were also longlisted:
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
So Many Ways to Begin by Jon McGregor
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
Gathering the Water by Robert Edric
Kalooki Nights by Howard Jacobson
Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
Get a Life by Nadine Gordimer
Seven Lies by James Lasdun
The Perfect Man by Naeem Murr
The Ruby in her Navel by Barry Unsworth
The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson


I have also created individual threads for each of the shortlisted books, and another to discuss anything else on the longlist.

Just in case anyone else in the UK is looking for a cheap way to buy all of the Melrose novels - the complete set was only released in the USA so the cheapest option is to buy the single edition of the first four (The Patrick Melrose Novels) and a separate copy of At Last - for me that was £5.64 in total from AbeBooks.

I've only read the winner. Did so in 2011. Did not write a review and rated it 2 stars. I had some Audible credits so got 3 of the remaining 5 in audio and 1 for Kindle at $2.99. Based on Hugh's comment, I checked out Edward St. Aubrey on Abebooks and was able to get all the Melrose novels in one volume for $4.01. So when I'm through Nonfiction November, reading the children's/YA books I've gathered as potential gifts, and Lark's novel, I will turn attention to the 2006 Booker SL.

Ranking the shortlist is tricky, as for me nothing really stands out so far either positively or negatively. I have just reread Carry Me Down and if anything I liked it more second time round, and don't think it really deserves bottom place, but nor do Matar and Desai (and I am also planning to reread Desai).

We will see where St Aubyn fits in, but I need to read the first three parts before tackling Mother's Milk. Started the first yesterday and read 50 pages, the writing is good but I have very little interest in our aristocracy and its pretensions, so it could be a long slog.

The writing is great and the characters almost uniformly awful

I've now read 3 of the 5 on the short list I had not read previously. i read the winner a few years ago and did not particularly care for it. The three I've read in the last week were all enjoyable but no more than 3.5 to 4 stars (The Night Watch, The Secret River, and Carry Me Down). I've not written my reviews yet. Like Hugh, I am not inclined to read Mother's Milk before the preceding books in the series. I have them all but not ready to dive in. I have in the Company of Men in audio, so I'll listen while competing (and finishing close to last) in my weekend "smart bike" virtual races.

I am moving slow through this but loving the books so far. I am suffering a bit of reading fatigue so I will only have finished The Secret River, The Inheiritance of Loss, and In the Company of Men by the end of the year. I especially liked The Secret River and thanks to Hugh from his comments, I started with that and felt it was a fantastic novel both in the treatment of subject and for readability for a traditional novel.

I started The Patrick Melrose novels. I am going to have to read them all since I hadn't read any. The first book has some of the shocking elements that you could not get away with now.

I finished The Night Watch and I enjoyed it. It landed about in the middle of my rankings. I didn't re-read, so it's a pretty random ranking, but I feel good about finishing the shortlist.

I have finished all but Night Watch and will not get to that till February since I have three long books going at the moment. I decided to finish the fifth Melrose book and was glad I did since it was my second favorite of the series. After five of those I feel I have had my fill of sarcasm for a good while. Carry Me Down did not work for me. It felt contrived and dated. I consider Shuggie Bain much superior.