The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel

Delighted to see this one here - one of my favourite novels last year. Loved this bit...

The easiest route to build a following is to penetrate culture and the fastest way to do this is to tell them the story they want to hear—the one about our assimilation to whiteness or the abhorrence, or failure of this assimilation so white people with the keys to the castle can gasp and shake their heads and say, I never knew it was this bad, it‘s [insert year] for God‘s sake, and then will lower the drawbridge to let us in? We know succumbing to this will secure us the status we seek. It is how we can have a ‘name’, we can sit on the panels and talk about ‘diversity’, come up with earnest solutions inside historic buildings in front of a rapt echo-chambered public which will never amount to anything except feeling good about ourselves for how terrible we feel at the state of the world, it becomes the workshops we run, the books we write when we yell, we know what Britain really is and you don‘t, buy my book to find out the Truth. A fanbase is how we will get the advances, how we secure the invitations to prestigious awards, headline one of the smaller tents at the bigger literary festivals or one day maybe we will even get to cosplay at being a gatekeeper by becoming one of the judges of a well-regarded prize. We think explaining ourselves or justifying our existence isn’t too heavy a price to pay to gain entry through those gilded gates where liberal artsy white people will tokenise us as a symbol of their ideological progress—they can think they are so exotic for being into your work, aren‘t they so edgy, so underground or else most likely they will tip-toe around us, deferential but still exclusionary, it’s not such a high price for admittance to the cultural establishment, we reason.

It’s a great edition. On merit it should walk the RoC but increasingly feel it does not need to anymore and another book deserves the prize

#teamdoloriad

Oyler meets Rooney meets Lockwood but wrapped in a searing examination of white privilege and how it interacts with the worlds of art (including literature) in a social media age.

I never read Rooney except to know that she is a bestselling author. Patel's novel is the Goldsmiths type lit. which usually doesn't appeal to a general reader.

It has a very similar character dynamic to Conversation With Friends I felt.

Lockwood and Rooney would both do well to read this before they write anything else! Some similarities of plot / style to each but in a completely different league to those two.

I’m disappointed to see this is not published / available in Canada until September. I think I’ll make a rare overseas purchase for this one.

Nearly half way.... wanted to love this. But I can't stand the main character. As I was reading I was feeling huge Lockwood vibes. Just read the previous comments on here and was interested to see others also notice the similarities to Lockwood's style.

I get the whole exploration of white privilege/social media/art etc. However, my irritation with the main charater ensured the social commentary fell flat.

I know so many others have loved this. About to read the last half now. Grateful it is a quick read.

Jen wrote: "I’m disappointed to see this is not published / available in Canada until September. I think I’ll make a rare overseas purchase for this one."

Jen it's also not out until September in the US. I ordered it in paperback from Blackwell's for under $10, including shipping.

Just posted my thoughts on this novel:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I found the experience of reading this novel very meta - torturous and addictive. Also, a narrative voice quite unlike anything I've read before.

Jo wrote: "Nearly half way.... wanted to love this. But I can't stand the main character. As I was reading I was feeling huge Lockwood vibes. Just read the previous comments on here and was interested to see ..."

My feelings about it are very similar to Jo's. I feel something of a love/hate relationship with the novel and with the main character. Some powerful writing, some searing commentary, some very relatable situations. But overall I didn't feel engaged and drawn in the way I did with Lockwood, and I found no one to root for.

I had a similar view on the characters but still really liked the book.

But_i_thought, what did you mean by meta? It sounds like what Patel is saying is important, but not new. Is this book a critique of bleeding heart liberals and the price people of color have to pay to get published or get their art noticed?

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "I had a similar view on the characters but still really liked the book."

It may grow on me as it lingers in my mind GY. I just finished it about an hour ago. But right now it feels unsatisfying to me.

WndyJW wrote: "But_i_thought, what did you mean by meta? It sounds like what Patel is saying is important, but not new. Is this book a critique of bleeding heart liberals and the price people of color have to pay..."

To me, the book was meta in the sense that the reading experience mirrored the narrator's experience of being entangled in something that is tortuous but addictive. The characters are highly unlikeable, their dynamics are toxic, but it was a compulsive read nevertheless.

On your second question, parts of the text critique the idea of performative self-othering. Here is an extract:

“We speak from the position of the victim. For an algorithm not built by us, for a platform not designed for us to attract a cultural system which excludes us, do we commit further harm by performing our Otherness – by Othering ourselves for likes, for reshares and approval, to gain a following, to build a fanbase?”

"If we specialise in telling others 'What the World Is Really Like: A Race Relation', it's not really such a burden to spin these pornographic trauma ballads for a little bit of status. We are saddened by the knowledge that nothing really collectively changes but reassured by the thought that 'it did for me on an individual level', as we backstroke across the vast placid sea of righteous superiority."

Brilliantly expressed (the meta part).

WndyJW wrote: "It sounds like what Patel is saying is important, but not new."

I felt the opposite. This is new and urgent, quite different from the messy millennial we often see. So many novels like this are about the protagonist achieving a sense of awareness, as if that's the goal and all their problems will be solved. Patel's protagonist is self-aware from the beginning, acutely so. And when she steps outside the narrative to speak directly, the commentary is searing.

I see that you’re right, David, in the last passage that But_i_thought shared. I’m trying not to buy books, but this sounds too good to miss.

Thank you, But_i_thought.

You should already have a copy, Wendy. Just don’t delete again..

Harsh but fair David :-)

Yes I had to buy a hard copy after I read it for that exact risk.

All good natured :)

As much as I love this one, I can understand why some people are left unsatisfied by it.

Hey! Who sets up an internet group that is vulnerable to a noob like me deleting everyone’s data?

For those unaware of why I am being so cruelly ridiculed, :) I signed on to be a pre-reader (pre-before the judges) for the RofC, couldn’t keep up so deleted much of it off my phone, or so I thought until I saw an email from Paul the next morning asking why I deleted all the ebooks and score sheets from everyone’s accounts! I then saw that there was very little left on my iPad and realized I had wiped out everyone’s data as well.
Fortunately Neil was able to restore it.

I did not know that story Wendy! Thanks for sharing it and for the laugh! I can easily imagine making the same mistake.

You can imagine how mortified I was! It was a lot of books and all the scores just before the scores would be tallied to determine which books went on to judges. My husband got on his laptop to see if he could retrieve files I deleted from my phone. I was sick. Paul was very kind though. And fortunately it was all able to be restored. Lesson learned I hope about who can do what with what data and files on projects like that.

WndyJW wrote: "I see that you’re right, David, in the last passage that But_i_thought shared. I’m trying not to buy books, but this sounds too good to miss.

Thank you, But_i_thought."

I'm glad to have convinced you! :)

You did. I already knew it was well-loved by people here I trust, but I thought if it’s like Assembly, it couldn’t possibly be as good, so maybe in the context of the longlist it’s a standout, but it seems to be a standout in any context, and as David reminded me, I don’t have to buy it.

It didn't remind me of Assembly at all, actually (apart from that both novels are short). I would not at all be surprised to see this shortlisted.

I’ll read it now.

Are we really still doing this, 25 years after Bridget Jones? Obsessing over some self-obsessed jerk and 'the other woman'? I just hope IRL women in their thirties are not as clueless as the protagonist of this book.

Plus eyeroll at her dishing out the most self-evident cliché's about social media, patriarchy and racism as if she had just discovered the quantum. Man...

1*

Britta wrote: "Are we really still doing this, 25 years after Bridget Jones? Obsessing over some self-obsessed jerk and 'the other woman'? I just hope IRL women in their thirties are not as clueless as the protag..."

Don't take the narrator too literally. I see it as very much tongue-in-cheek. Someone who is older and wiser making fun of her earlier follies.

Also, I read the book as metaphor for the many ways we give our power away when we become fans of something or someone - and how this asymmetry is fueled by fantasy, make-believe, and consumerist, capitalist ideals.

But_i_thought_ wrote: "Britta wrote: "Are we really still doing this, 25 years after Bridget Jones? Obsessing over some self-obsessed jerk and 'the other woman'? I just hope IRL women in their thirties are not as clueles..."

Happy for you that you loved it!

Britta wrote: "Are we really still doing this, 25 years after Bridget Jones? Obsessing over some self-obsessed jerk and 'the other woman'? I just hope IRL women in their thirties are not as clueless as the protag..."

oh Britta LOL

Sheena Patel was on Literary Friction last year when this was released: https://www.nts.live/shows/literaryfr...

Is the protagonist in her 30s? I read her as younger (mid 20s?)

She has worked for 10 years (after college), so, yes, thirties.

It explicitly says in the River Lea section she is thirty at that time.

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "It explicitly says in the River Lea section she is thirty at that time."

Thanks!

I'm with Britta on this one!

I don't think I ever felt further removed from a main character...

The obsession reminds me very much of Annie Ernaux's Simple Passion where we also have a brilliant woman behaving in the most irrational and submissive way for some jerk. Quite the uncomfortable reading experience in both cases (a bit worse for Ernaux as that one really happened...).

That being said, the chosen perspective makes for some real smart observations (the quote by Paul above is the one also that stood out for me) and the writing has something addictive as well...