The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Halsey Street

Florida

Mourning

Heads of the Colored People

Severance

Tell the Machine Goodnight

Kirkus Prize finalists are up and I am only listing the fiction selections. The Kirkus Reviews Prize for those unaware is a fairly new U.S. prize that awards a substantial $50,000 to the winners in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and young people's literature. I think the fiction selections over the past 2 years have been par with associated prizes. This year I have read none of the selections so I cannot comment on them. Two are short story collections also on the National Book Awards longlist and I am familiar with them, but the other authors are unknown to me. The list seems to be following the trend of stressing diversity and emphasizing younger, new authors over older established ones.

Thanks Sam. Interesting selection. Mourning is an intriguing selection.

Severance by Ling Ma was the choice for the Kirkus Prize.

Kirkus Prize also released their finalists today. Since fiction is the interest here I will only list those books but the nonfiction and young adult can been viewed in the link. The translation is Territory of Light. I liked it more than Neil and he has a review up while I am still in the weeds, but glad it is represented for a prize. I am also looking forward to Cantoras. Everybody is familiar with the others I think.

Cantoras

The Other Americans

Lost Children Archive

Territory of Light

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

The Nickel Boys

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/2...

I enjoyed the second half of Territory of Light! My main struggle was that it started life as 12 monthly instalments and I wasn't sure it worked when all 12 were put side by side in rapid succession rather than with a month between each. I felt it could have been edited a bit for consumption as a single entity.

Neil wrote: "I enjoyed the second half of Territory of Light! My main struggle was that it started life as 12 monthly instalments and I wasn't sure it worked when all 12 were put side by side in rapid successio..."

I was going to post on your review my comments but I am late. I did not mind the serialization since I felt the individual chapters were not only linked by progression through the separation but also through the central image of each chapter; light, water, nature, celebration ... etc. But my biggest impression came from how well Tsushima described the separation experience from back in the 70's. She seemed so very open about emotional and social impact, stigma, and was quite open the behavior of the mother that could have drawn criticism,

I think you have a good point. It is quite some time since I read the book and the details are a bit hazy, but the atmosphere of the book lingers, so I may have done it an injustice with my review.

Neil wrote: "I think you have a good point. It is quite some time since I read the book and the details are a bit hazy, but the atmosphere of the book lingers, so I may have done it an injustice with my review."

I thought your review was a good one and informative. One thing I did that helped my appreciation was that I stopped reading after each chapter to meditate on the material and did not read more than two chapters in a day. I found reflecting on the imagery really boosted my enjoyment. The image of the daughter splashing in the water on the roof was wonderful and then referenced later when she is splashing through mud puddles with Mom. Those were the images that made the book work for me. I have heard good things about her other books as well. I don't know if you knew anything about the translation, but I thought the book read beautifully without the awkwardness that sometimes accompanies books from a different culture. I was curious how liberal the translator might have been with the work.

Neil wrote: "I think you have a good point. It is quite some time since I read the book and the details are a bit hazy, but the atmosphere of the book lingers, so I may have done it an injustice with my review."

I agree about the atmosphere lingering. I think that and the quiet tone really held the novel together. I have struggled a bit with other books that had been originally published in serial form (Inheritance from Mother by Minae Mizumura comes to mind), but I thought this one was very strong. I'm glad it made the list.

Well, I've read all of these except for Cantoras. I wasn't a huge fan of The Other Americans, but I can see why it would make a list like this - these are all novels that speak on big issues in today's world. I thought Territory of Light was a beautiful translation - I never noticed the translation, which is how I judge.

Interestingly - for the NBA list crossover, When Death Takes Something is also on the Kirkus longlist for nonfiction.

Ella wrote: "Interestingly - for the NBA list crossover, When Death Takes Something is also on the Kirkus longlist for nonfiction."

Yes the NBA mixes fiction and nonfiction on their list though they consider the literary merit. I noticed The Yellow House: A Memoir did not make the Kirkus nonfiction list. Have you read that yet Ella?

I highly recommend The Other Americans and On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. The Nickel Boys and Lost Children Archive were both good. I’ll move Cantoras and Territory of Light up to the top of the pile- I’ve been looking forward to both.

I cannot read The Nickel Boys. That kind of brutality is too much for me. I would like to read something else by Colton Whitehead one day though because I didn’t think The Underground Railroad deserved the accolades it received.

Sam wrote: "Yes the NBA mixes fiction and nonfiction on their list though they consider the literary merit. I noticed The Yellow House: A Memoir did not make the Kirkus nonfiction list. Have you read that yet Ella?"

Nope, but I 'm on the reserve list @ the library so someday I hope my number will come up.

Wendy, you should try early Colson Whitehead -- he's only felt ready to tackle these more difficult topics recently, but his earlier work covers everything from first-autobiographical-novel Sag Harbor to a great nonfiction book on playing poker The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death and a wonderful ode to New York City The Colossus of New York He even wrote a zombie thriller Zone One.

I've been watching the Dozier school story intently, so the book wasn't as upsetting as the real thing is to me. I thought it was a bit eerie that right before The Nickel Boys was published, they found more bodies (and I think they are still excavating b/c of the most recent find.) Anyway, it was an interesting way to understand the real story better.

(I have said this too many times now,) I have heard several interviews with Colton Whitehead, one in which he said it was painful to write The Nickel Boys, and he seems a nice person so I want to like his books and Sag Harbor sounds like the book to do that.
I should say that I didn’t think The Underground Railroad was a bad book, I was just disappointed that Whitehead didn’t do more with the idea of a sort of liminal underground rail that moved the story through the seminal events of black history in the US. Not a literal underground railway, I guess a small dose of magical realism to use a railway that was underground that moved through time, but if I’m remembering correctly Alice only got on that train once or twice in the whole book.
Maybe Mr. Whitehead can get a mulligan on The Underground Railroad and write the book I was looking for, that’s not to presumptuous of me is it?

This is veering way off topic, but I just finished Ta-Nehisi Coates first novel & it has a magical underground railroad (also very much based on the real thing) and it's also not nearly as graphic as Whitehead's version. It's a good first novel attempt. I reviewed it rather carelessly here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Nickel Boys was the fiction winner.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/2...

2020 Fiction finalists
Black Sunday
Fiebre Tropical
Luster
Deacon King Kong
Shuggie Bain
The Lying Life of Adults

Here is the link for all the finalists. I will read Isabel Wilerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
from nonfiction and Elizabeth Acevedo's Clap When You Land from the young adult list.

https://lithub.com/here-are-the-final...

Of these I have read Deacon King Kong and am almost done with Shuggie Bain. I will read The Lying Life of Adults and Fiebre Tropical as well.

I've read Deacon King Kong and Shuggie Bain, also. Not planneing on any of the others in fiction at this point in time. I do have Isabel Wilkerson's Caste on my list for non-fiction November. Her The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration was excellent.

Just wanted to mention I got sucked into Fiebre Tropical. I downloaded it on Hoopla to sample the writing since it is written in a mix of English, Spanish, and Spanglish, but fifty pages in I am enjoying the narrator's sassy, witty, and funny description of the immigration experience.

Winner: Raven Leilani, Luster
I have not read the book and have no plans to do so in the future. If anyone has read it, feel free to share your thoughts.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/2...

I read it a while ago, and didn’t remember what it was about. So I went back to the description, and it came back to me. I gave it two stars- first, because the writing was just...cold. Second, because of the writing and the age of the characters, I was unable to relate to them. I’m sure that other members of the group will like it, but it just wasn’t for me.

Kirkus Prize longlists are out and like the Booker, is veering from what I would consider is the best literary fiction. I found the nonfiction to be less to my taste. The link has the full longlists..

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-an...

FICTION
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
Harlem Shuffle
My Monticello
Harrow
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories
Bolla

The only book I have read was the Enriquez, but am looking forward to a couple from the list.

Like you Sam, I've only read The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, but the other five all sound interesting. Interesting array of authors.

All three of my GR friends who have read Bolla, have given it 5 stars

Bolla and Love Songs are must reads for me. I had Harlem Shuffle already ordered and it arrives tomorrow. Joy Williams is Joy Williams and I will get to her novel later in the year. My Monticello has me curious, since I didn't care for the sound of it. I'll see how the prose is when it is released. I am disappointed in the list a bit but that will be mellowed I hope when NBA releases their longlists later in the week.

Bolla sounds very good.

I bought The Love Songs or WEB Du Bois. It’s a massive 800+ page tome so it had better be really, really good.

If I hear that The Love Songs is absolutely essential reading I’ll try it, but my TBR is ridiculous and I just ordered Bolla.

I’m tempted to read The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois based on the title alone.

It looks really good, Debra, and sounds like it’s culturally on point. But omg it looks like a dictionary on my shelf.

From sampling Love Songs, I felt it's length would be countered by reader immersion. It doesn't seem so long when one considers Roots ran 900 pages.

That's an interesting longlist. Harlem Shuffle is one of my personal most anticipated books of the year. As of now, I've only read the Enriquez, which was not my thing at all, but I'm keen to read the others.

I’m not sure how I missed Bolla when it came out. It looks excellent.

I'm also tempted by Bolla. Not sure if I should read it next or tackle the rest of the Booker shortlist.

In the UK Bolla isn’t out until February.

Some Rise By Sin and Bolla both arrived yesterday. Some Rise by Sin looks like a fun book, but Bolla pulled my right in, the writing is excellent and this looks to be an exceptional book. Exactly what I needed to break through my reader’s block.

I am reading Love Songs and Harrow now while waiting for an audio copy of Bolla. I am listening as well as reading to Love Songs so it will take a while longer to finish. I finished Harlem Shuffle, but I am just not that thrilled about Whitehead's writing, and with this being a genre novel, one notices the lack of immediacy that is important to the genre.

I read Bolla last week and thought it was excellent. Thinking back on it, however, I'm a bit surprised that I liked it so much. It's rather dark and disturbing in places, and while both characters are "flawed" in their own way, I found the behavior of one of the characters particularly abhorrent.

I want to like Colson Whitehead because he has charming way of laughing while talking and seems like a nice man.
I bought my poker playing nephew Whitehead’s The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death for Christmas last year and he really enjoyed it.

The thing about Whitehead is that it's impossible to put him in a specific genre. Each of his books has had a different flavor and a different writing style. I don't know of that many authors who are capable of such shifts. So if you love one of his novels, you might dislike another (or all the others) and of course the opposite is true as well. I am waiting for my signed copy of Harlem Shuffle to arrive but I have read all of his books and have liked-to-been blown away by them all.

WndyJW wrote: "I want to like Colson Whitehead because he has charming way of laughing while talking and seems like a nice man.
I bought my poker playing nephew Whitehead’s [book:The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Je..."

To be fair, I think more members would appreciate Whitehead's style in Harlem Shuffle than would criticize it. The writing is fine. I just don't care for that style in the genre he chose. Too many Blaxploitation films when I was young. Give me Chester Himes.

I’ve only read The Underground Railroad which wasn’t bad, I just felt he didn’t fully develop the idea of a literal underground railroad and I can’t read books like The Nickel Boys. I would read another novel, but like Sam like genre of Harlem Shuffle doesn’t appeal to me, although I heard him say that there was room for humor in this book that there wasn’t in Underground Railroad or The Nickel Boys.

Wendy, do you mean you can't read books like The Nickel Boys because the subject matter is too tough? I really liked his send-up of advertising, Apex Hides the Hurt, and he gets a lot of praise for The Intuitionist. Sag Harbor is also pretty accessible.

I am almost finished with this list, and will put up my ranking tomorrow. One of the more interesting books is the postmodern Harrow. I am mixed on this and while I liked aspects, I did not enjoy reading the book. Any thoughts about it?

I’m sorry Cindy, I didn’t see your Sept 23 post until just now. Yes, I don’t like to read accounts of abuse like I know those boys suffered. I can read about war, violence, or read passages where we know something awful has happened, but I can’t read a whole book about children being abused. I don’t mean to say everyone else is callous or indifferent to suffering! Just that a happy ending doesn’t make the suffering I had to read to get there worth it.

I read Kindred and The Bridge on the Drina, both had scenes of torture that have haunted me and I wish I had not read the books.

I will keep my eyes open for the titles you listed though. I do want to read more Whitehead to get a better sense of his writing,

IMO, this year's list was interesting reading if not consistent in highest quality. Here is my ranking.
1,Bolla Stavoci is relentless here. I was less patient with his last but in Bolla, he tackles sensitive subjects without seeming sensational or tasteless and challenges reader prejudices.. David Hackston nails the translation. This one won't be to everyone's taste because of sensitive subject matter but it is my favorite LGTBQ novel so far.
2. Harlem Shuffle This novel did not do it for me but the writing is superior and Whitehead fans should be pleased.
3.The Love Songs of W.E.B. DU Bois The novel had flaws but was well worth reading for sociocultural aspects and characters,
4. Harrow I thought this postmodern novel was a bit muddled and I am worn down by dystopian presentations, but it had plenty for fans of wordplay and philosophical ideas.
5. My Monticello I thought "Control Negro," was a five star story, bu the title novella didn't match the quality.
6 The Dangers of Smoking in Bed. Able writing but nothing stands out for me in this collection.

That looks like an interesting mix. Great summary! Bolla is definitely on my list. Harrow had been too but it sounds like it might be a pass.

I am starting Harrow shortly and very curious about it.