read every Booker Prize winning novel

1990: Possession: A Romance
1993: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1998: Amsterdam
2004: The Line of Beauty

The Bone People is a difficult book about identity, love, and belonging. Hume tells the story of three tough-as-nails characters: Kerewin, an isolated artist who can no longer paint; Joe, a Maori workman struggling to raise his adopted son alone; and Simon, the mute little boy Joe found washed up on the seashore.

The style is difficult because the point of view switches around among the three main characters without warning; Hulme uses Joycean made-up words as well as Maori words; and it is hard to tell when the adults are speaking their own words or thinking out loud what they think the mute little Simon is trying to communicate.

The story is difficult because of the child abuse at the center of the plot. The ambivalence with which Hulme treats the topic makes the story incredibly interesting, but absolutely distressing.

The characters are difficult because none of them are likable. Simon is sympathetic, for sure. But even he has his moments of maliciousness, although these are less convincing than Hulme may have intended.

Joe, on the other hand, does not deserve the sympathy Hulme seems to want the reader to give him. Yes, he gets his comeuppance in the end, but it does not seem sufficient punishment. His role is key to the story because he is the hinge between Simon and Kerewin, but the ultimate resolution seems a little unrealistic, given the prior conflict.

Kerwin is particularly prickly and seething with anger. She is quick to lash out verbally, and if angry enough or drunk enough, physically. She has cut herself off from her family and her community, preferring to live in an isolated tower by the ocean. She has even isolated herself from her own sex, considering herself to be a third gender – a “neuter.” But Kerwin’s story makes the book worth reading. She is one of the most complex and intriguing characters in contemporary literature.

2007 – Anne Enright, The Gathering

2006 – Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss

2005 – John Banville, The Sea

2004 – Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty

2003 – DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little

2002 – Yann Martel, Life of Pi

2001 – Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang

2000 – Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

1999 – J M Coetzee, Disgrace

1998 – Ian McEwan, Amsterdam

1997 – Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

1996 – Graham Swift, Last Orders

1995 – Pat Barker, The Ghost Road

1994 – James Kelman, How Late It Was, How Late

1993 – Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

1992 – Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

1992 – Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger

1991 – Ben Okri, The Famished Road

1990 – A S Byatt, Possession

1989 – Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

1988 – Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda

1987 – Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger

1986 – Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils

1985 – Keri Hulme, The Bone People

1984 – Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac

1983 – J M Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K

1982 – Thomas Keneally, Schindler’s Ark

1981 – Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children

1980 – William Golding, Rites of Passage

1979 – Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore

1978 – Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea

1977 – Paul Scott, Staying On

1976 – David Storey, Saville

1975 – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust

1974 – Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist

1974 – Stanley Middleton, Holiday

1973 – J G Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur

1972 – John Berger, G

1971 – V S Naipaul, In a Free State

1970 – Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member

1969 – P H Newby, Something to Answer For

So I have made more progress on my road to reading all booker prize winners and short lists… my last enrty had me up to 18 novels… I now stand at 31 complete… my additions are as follow…
“The Black Prince” Iris Murdoch
“The Conservationists” Nadine Gordimer
“Heat and Dust” Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
“The Road to Lichfield” Penelope Lively
“Schindler’s List” Thomas Keneally
“Waterland” Graham Swift
“Jigsaw” Sybille Bedford
“Time’s Arrow” Martin Amis
“The Ghost Road” Pat Barker
“Quarantine” Jime Crace
“Notes on a Scandal” Zoe Heller
“The Line of Beauty” Alan Hollinghurst
“The Gathering” Anne Enright
“The Reluctant Fundamentalist” Mohsin Hamid

I have mixed feelings about this book. The story was complex and engaging, but it seemed to end in mid-stream.

Ok… so I started The Booker endeavor the last week of August… I have been going for about 3 months… I am not just doing the winners though… I am including all short lists… In other words a great many novels…lol… I am currently reading my 19th… “The Nice and the Good” by Iris Murdock… I am actually pleasantly surprised so far… I struggled through the first Iris Murdoch novel I read… “The Sea, the Sea”... Anyway, here is my list that I have read to date from most favorite to least…
1) “A Fine Balance” Rohinton Mistry short list
2) “Midnight’s Children” Salman Rushdie winner
3) “Life of Pi” Yann Martel winner
4) “The Bone People” Keri Hulme winner
5) ” Family Matters” Rohinton Mistry short list
6) “Moon Tiger” Penolope Lively winner
7) “The Inheritance of Loss” Kiran Desai winner
8) “The Satanic Verses” Salman Rushdie short list
9) “The Nice and the Good” Iris Murdoch short list
10) “Such a Long Journey” Rohinton Mistry short list
11) “Atonement” Ian McEwan short list
12) ” In a Free State” V.S Naipaul winner both Booker and Nobel
13) “Remembering Babylon” David Malouf short list
14) “The God of Small Things” Arundhati Roy winner
15) “Clear Light of Day” Anita Desai short list
16) “Disgrace” J.M Coatzee winner both Booker and Nobel
17) “The Sea, the Sea” Iris Murdoch winner
18) “Briefing for a Descent Into Hell” Doris Lessing short list
There you have it… for now… I will keep it up to date… I am currently reading “The Ghost Road” Pat Barker… winner.

Moved to AllConsuming…

Following the death of his wife, the widowed narrator of The Sea spends a lengthy recuperative and reflective stay at the same beach town where he vacationed as a child. The story goes back and forth between his present grief and his coming-of-age memories.

Banville has a graceful way of turning a phrase and more than a few clever lines (“If there was such a thing a ‘long shrift,’ I was in need of some” and “He was half way to a half wit” for example). The present-day story of the wife’s death is particularly touching. The childhood story is charming, although the end did not work as well, in retrospect, as it seemed to. All in all, an entertaining read.

I’ve just ordered “The Conservationist” from an online bookstore, can’t wait to get it.

I am keeping my list of Booker Prize winning books purchased and/or read on www.libarything.com. My profile there is:
http://www.librarything.com/profile/alluvia

I absolutely loved “Never Let Me Go”, which I don’t think won the prize itself but is by the Booker Prize winning author Ishiguro.

Both on their way, should arrive in time for my cruise!!! I may have some downtime on the cruise, although I did schedule quite a bit of Mayan ruins hiking … :)