ManBookering discussion

Discussing All That Man Is by David Szalay.

I started with this because I loved the title, tough going at the beginning and I'm not a fan of short stories but now over 200 pages in and this book is GENIUS, absolutely loving it and hoping to find some discussion here as other get around to reading it.

it's my favourite time in my reading year!

I started this, I think I like where this is going but the author could have used a more diverse group of POV character.

I enjoyed the narrowness of the selection of characters. made it very intense

Just finished this. Here is my 3.5* review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Neil, I completely agree with you in that last part, these stories are mostly told by white, straight, English men and we could have done with much more diversity.

All That Man Is by David Szalay
The book is more a collection of short stories than a novel arranged chronologically so as to offer a picture of the inner lives of a collection of nine men, from seventeen to seventy-three, as they experience ageing. The thread that brings all of the stories together is their need to believe that life has purpose. . . more than just the search fo r love and money. Each story has approximately forty pages and is independent of the others. Normally not fond of short stories but this one worked for me. Characters well drawn and believable, intelligent use of language (used the dictionary a lot) and enjoyed all the intercontinental travel. I did spend more time on this than any others partly because it was longer but also to be able to really enjoy I created a character list. I liked it very much.

Anya wrote: "Anya I actually didn't think I would like this book very much, but I really enjoyed it. It's my favourite of 9 books on the Longlist I've read so far.
I actually do see each story as a 'chapter' of..."

Anya, I think I pretty much agree with your ranking of the stories, except that I didn't get on with #2. That's why I had a shaky start with the book - stories 1 and 2 were my least favourite, but after that it really grew on me and, like you, I thought the final two stories were the best two.

(I normally produce my own ranking of the long list books, but I wasn't expecting to be ranking the chapters within the books!)

I read the first 3 parts so far and I don't think I will be overflowing with love in the end. I am especially troubled by the way women are described and treated as characters in this book. (But well also for now the answer to "All that man is" seems to be sex and sadness...).

Charlotte - that's exactly how I felt for the first couple of stories. It really does get much better, believe me!

Neil wrote: "Charlotte - that's exactly how I felt for the first couple of stories. It really does get much better, believe me!"

So good to hear - helps to motivate myself to pick this book up again. (But in anyway I am a completist, I even pushed through Serious Sweet and I still do not know why I did that to myself.)

Yes, Serious Sweet required some serious will power to get to the end.

I'm not sure if anyone has read or heard the following, but I wanted to share a brief interview with the judges (Amanda Foreman (Chair) and Abdulrazak Gurnah) on why books on the longlist made the longlist.

David Szalay (Canada-UK) - All That Man Is (Jonathan Cape)
“Szalay has written a kaleidoscopic novel about the state of masculinity and the state of contemporary Europe. It’s wry, witty and deeply accomplished.”
Foreman: I think what the judges thought was remarkable was how this is a book for right now and post-Brexit Europe, and it speaks to that condition of coming together and also fragmentation and really tries to imagine what it means to be a part of a larger European existence. It’s a very moving book, and it has a multiplicity of strands and stories that are all linked together very, very cleverly and subtly.

To add to this, the BBC podcast had this discussion about a month before the book was long-listed:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03rw8kq

I still haven't started with this one. That is, I have read a couple of paged (maybe 10) and at the moment I just can't bring myself to read on. Maybe next week...

I don't get this one until its release on 10/4/16, so I'll be reading it towards the end. It does sound to me to be one of the most interesting of the group though. I also can't read Serious Sweet until 10/18/16, as it is released just before the announcement.

There has to be a rule that only books available to the general public get to be nominated for that year's prize.

On the whole I did not mind this book. I thought some stories were great and some good and some ok. Here's my list:

1.The Rich Russian
2. Mr. Useless goes to Cyprus
3. The 73 year old Italian
4. The Bodyguard
5. The Professor
6. The Journalist
7. The Guy who lives in Croatia
8.The kids touring Europe
9. The guy who owns apartments

Not shortlist material imo

Although I enjoyed more than half of these stories, I don't really think it qualifies as a 'novel', even stretching the boundaries of the definition of such. Therefore, whoever submitted it to the Bookers has massive cojones! There ARE some recurring themes and motifs (Park Lane, Iron Man 3, kebabs, rain, etc.), but not enough to unify the disparate threads of the nine lives the stories examine. That said, the writing is fluid, the stories mostly swift moving and interesting, but the palette seems woefully limited in scope for something that presents itself as 'All That Man Is'.

Doug - I agree. It is definitely not a novel by normal definitions. Brave to submit it to Booker but also to market it as a novel. The alternative view is to consider it a "re-imagining" of the novel where plot is replaced by theme. I could see it going quite far in the competition as I assume that is what the judges have seen in it.

Well, I made my way through, but my opinion was not really changed by the later chapters. I do think that the writing itself is good and when I could bring myself to pick the book up I was engaged to a certain point. Also I do think the idea of having these different stories, which are only loosely connected (by content, characters or imagery), to build a kaleidoscope of experiences is not bad. But as others have mentioned before this is more like a two-colour-kaleidoscope, being really limited in the experiences shown even though they took place in so many different (European) countries. I do still believe that women were portrayed horribly. I understand that even though these are third person narratives most of these follow quite closely the perception of their main male protagonist and obviously for most parts the protagonists judged women solely on how they related to their own sexual desires. But it is not only a problem of persceptive. I was astonished how limited the roles of women in these stories were (even when in a work setting they were (potential/past) lovers...

In the end I just do not know what the point of the book is. Not only is the scope of stories very limited (especially measured against the book's title) but I also I thought many of the protagonist were quite clichéd. There was nothing new. Nothing which made me think.

There was an interesting "Encounter" with the author in The Paris Review : http://www.theparisreview.org/miscell...

Jaap wrote: "There was an interesting "Encounter" with the author in The Paris Review : http://www.theparisreview.org/miscell..."

Thanks - I found that very helpful. Although his arguments as to why it is a novel are completely unconvincing!

So this technically should not have been eligible, but given it's on the shortlist I actually felt it was one of the stronger books.

The title All That Man Is does beg the response that there is a lot more to men than this. But I think he meant something different - more than the characters realise that this is all their life is going to amount to. The lack of variety in them seems to be deliberate, and indeed a reason he claims it is a novel (essentially the same underlying type of man but in a different setting).

I do think his original title of Europa would have been better, and there is a strong political angle given how much the freedom of movement in Europe, of which all of the characters take advantage, is under threat post Brexit and the rise of nationalist parties elsewhere.

And the link with The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 at the end - a book that posits a crisis in European masculinity may even have caused The Great War - is a nice way to end.

i agree. Europa is a much better title.

I have nearly finished All That Man Is - just the last two stories to go - and (just like London and the South-East the other book I have read by David Szalay) I am loving it.

I have really enjoyed reading other reader's musings on this book in this thread - so much so I joined the group to add this comment. Thanks all.

The question of whether a series can ever amount to a novel is an interesting one....

The themes: time, ageing, purpose, life in an increasingly globalised Europe, mindfulness, and probably others I've yet to spot, all thematically link the stories. There is also something approaching a dramatic arc given that story one is about teenagers and the final story is about old age. In a sense the aggregate effect is of an adult life.

Is that sufficient for All That Man Is to qualify as a novel? The Booker judges must think so and, I think, overall I am happy for it to be included, not least because I think it's wonderful.

Finished. Click here to read my review.

Gosh - I had no expectations for this book, but found that I loved it!
Having just finished another ManBooker nominee, 'Eileen' I was feeling thoroughly depressed.
Although the individual stories in 'All That Man Is' are fairly downbeat the overall effect seemed strangely uplifting - the shared passage of time and human experience...

I think it would be a worthy contender for the title.

My review here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1758568...

More than half way through this and I'm really enjoying it - the first two stories I found less engaging but 3-5 have shown a lot more promise. Now I'm finding it is going to be really difficult to predict the winner

Great review Di - thanks

Glad you're enjoying it too Julianne. I thought the stories gradually pick up. You've still got some great ones to come.