The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

These are the shortlisted books. Cover and author links to follow shortly.

Somebody Loves You by mona arshi (And Other Stories)
Seven Steeples by Sara Baume (Tramp Press)
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer (Picador)
Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi (Faber & Faber)
There Are More Things by Yara Rodrigues Fowler (Fleet)
Diego Garcia by Natasha Soobramanien & Luke Williams (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

My first attempt to lobby a prize judge and it worked.

5 and a half are by female writers I believe.

The three I have read are all very strong. Looking forward to the rest.

I really liked the Arshi and loved Baume's novel so pleased to see them there. I'm not likely to cave and try the Mortimer. And I know it's deliberate but found the forced banality in the extracts I've read of the Fowler a bit annoying. Also haven't really connected with Oyeyemi's work in the past. So will see what others think about it first.

I was planning to read Diego Garcia though, although thought I'd combine it with Philipe Sands's non-fiction account The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain's Colonial Legacy so glad to see it there too.

One nice thing about the list is that each work is innovative in different ways.

I know not everyone liked either book but interesting that in the forum’s rankings

Maps was 2nd out of the Booker longlist
Somebody Loves You was 1st or 2nd of RoC Longlist

And neither made the longlist.

So seems like Goldsmith was much more in line with this group (in the aggregate of course)

Guardian write up with judges’ comments

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

Turned out the RoC Prize trash talking from the Goldsmiths Chair of the Jury was because he'd seen me in the audience! He admitted it afterwards.

I think this is a strong list. It is perhaps a slightly unadventerous one though - Diego Garcia aside I'd say these are all relatively well known books where the book or author has a prize list track record.

It does lack a 'wow I hadn't heard of that' choice - although that is true most years.

Wow, a prize list where I've already read half the books and LIKED THEM! I often struggle with the Goldsmith's nominees and was determined to skip it this year, but with only 3 to read ......

I’ve read Somebody Loves You and Maps and have Seven Steeples in my book cart next to me. I’ll see what you all make of the others before I think about reading for the prize, although it is a prize I enjoy.

Paul wrote: "I think this is a strong list. It is perhaps a slightly unadventerous one though - Diego Garcia aside I'd say these are all relatively well known books where the book or author has a prize list tra..."

I totally agree with you, no amazing discoveries here.

Agree - no discoveries but nevertheless a strong list. We were spoiled last year with an extraordinary shortlist (five great books and one discovery).

Interesting that 2 of the shortlist were on the Desmond Elliott Longlist - shows what a good job Derek and his fellow judges did in picking really innovative debuts (we will politely ignore the “interesting” shortlist and just remember longlist and winner).

And only one on the RoC.

Although Seven Steeples is eligible this year. And Fitz-threeNobles-carraldo don’t qualify any more.

Rather short notice unless I had missed this before but shortlist readings next Wednesday

https://t.co/KtlcAx4iwM

Anyone going. I hope to be there given there are no train strikes planned.

I plan to be there.

I wish they had a livestream option.

Given they struggle with a live mic option so anyone there in person can actually hear, that seems a bit beyond them.

There is though a broadcast of Knausgaard’s Goldsmiths lecture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4VC9...

Starts at about 29m in to the video.

He begins it my citing Rilke’s quote about music - which he also applies to books - that they can pick you up, and put you down in a different place. And says the last book he read that did that to him was last year when he read Small Things Like These.

He seems to talk about that novel for nearly the first 10 minutes and then return to it again towards the end.

Which makes sense. It is close to perfecting the novel form. Interesting given that he is most famous for what must be a c3000+ page novel. (Incidentally my review of which appears to have been deleted - that happens sometimes to long reviews).

I’ll listen to this tomorrow, but I have to ask if anyone at the Goldsmith knew that Knausgaard was tall? The poor man has to hunch over to reach the microphones!

Paul, you read My Struggle?! I think we see the root of your loathing of long novels!

Well he did meet one compulsory requirement for long books - publish them in different volumes.

Indeed he'd actually wanted to make it 12 separate volumes.

WndyJW wrote: "I’ll listen to this tomorrow, but I have to ask if anyone at the Goldsmith knew that Knausgaard was tall? The poor man has to hunch over to reach the microphones!

Paul, you read My Struggle?! I th..."

And blame Southbank for the mic height not Goldsmiths. Which is also the reason it could be filmed as Southbank can cope with that.

Why can Southbank cope with making a guest speaker uncomfortable?

So if a 375 page novel was published as two volumes each 188 pages you’d be okay with that?

If they were published a year apart and could be read separately, while that wouldn’t be great, I would accept it as an exploitable loophole in the Ban Long Books Bill.

Looks like we are down two authors - Oyeyemi and Arshi. Other 5 all here.

Each year someone - sometimes me! - asks if the authors set out to innovate or to challenge the traditional form of the novel, and the authors usually push back on that.

This time the Chair of the panel / Prize organiser took the opposite stance in the question - ie saying he suspected they didn’t do this. And the authors largely disagreed and said they did set out to challenge the form of the novel, particularly politically, eg Rodrigues Fowler said she deliberately sets out to write against the traditional English novel.

I do think this is a good year in that regard in that these are 6 genuinely innovative novels. But odd that it didn’t seem the Chair was looking for that, indeed he seemed to question whether the Prize was.

This (second para) is where he was coming from which is indeed as he said on the prizes website but it’s clear pretty well all the authors more wrote in the spirit of the first paragraph ie deliberately writing against a mould

“The Goldsmiths Prize was established in 2013 to celebrate the qualities of creative daring associated with the University and to reward fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form. The annual prize of £10,000 is awarded to a book that is deemed genuinely novel and which embodies the spirit of invention that characterises the genre at its best.

Launched in the tercentenary year of the births of Laurence Sterne and Denis Diderot, the Goldsmiths Prize champions fiction that shares something of the exuberant inventiveness and restlessness with conventions manifest in Tristram Shandy and Jacques the Fatalist. The modern equivalents of Sterne and Diderot are often labelled ‘experimental,’ with the implication that their fiction is an eccentric deviation from the novel’s natural concerns, structures and idioms. A long view of the novel’s history, however, suggests that it is the most flexible and varied of genres, and the Goldsmiths Prize seeks to encourage and reward writers who make best use of its many resources and possibilities.

Winner announced tomorrow c730

I haven't been invited this year to the announcement - GY have you given one of the authors is a superfan of yours?

Tips/guesses?

I might go with Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Have updated by all-time shortlisted book rankings - none of this year's batch make my top 15 (out of the 60 books featured to date) but lots just outside it.

I'd guess Maps or Diego Garcia, although I have a hunch it might be the Baume.

Now watch, it will be one of the other three.

Probably one of those 6 anyway.

Although I do hope a jury one day does what Graham joked might happen with the Booker and give it to a book not on the shortlist.

Maybe I can persuade the RoC to break that ground?

Paul wrote: "Probably one of those 6 anyway."

Not helpful that I guessed all six?

No invite. But Maddie M did like my joke about Jeremy Hung being a Booker judge to which you refer.

I think it will be Diego Garcia even if it did not work for me as it’s the most innovative I think and not been picked up by other prizes.

Jeremy “Hung”? I had heard those rumours as well.

Mind you people normally get another letter wrong.

It’s tomorrow already?! I haven’t read Diego Garcia or Peace’s yet. Damn. I lost track of time.

I can see either Peaces or Diego Garcia winning - Hopefully it will be Peaces

Still no clear favourite in the dynamic rankings.

This seems harder to predict than last year.

It was the Women’s Prize longlist this year that made me go to pieces.

I'm struggling with Peaces. I love some of the writing, its just, what is going on, the absurdity of it all.

Is the winner announcement streamed?

I think Peaces works best when you don’t expect a coherent narrative or sensible resolution. In a way I think it’s toying with those types of narratives.

However, in it's own way it makes sense - the more you read, the more things fall into place - everything has it's own role so no matter how bizarre there is a reason for it.

I finished Peaces this morning and I've been obsessing about it, with certain scenes replaying in my mind. I said before it reminded of me Nicola Barker , but other touchstones could be Rushdie's Two years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Days, some Against the day era Pynchon , a little DFW and for some reason I was reminded of Olga Tokarczuk's Flights, maybe in it's ambitiousness

I think the crux of the book are the five letters which provide, not closure, but some understanding to what's going on.

Robert wrote: "However, in it's own way it makes sense - the more you read, the more things fall into place - everything has it's own role so no matter how bizarre there is a reason for it.

I finished Peaces th..."

I'm really glad it worked for you although the comparisons make me even less likely to read it!

Diego Garcia as predicted