The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Cuddy by Benjamin Myers

I adored Book I of Cuddy - the most experimental and poetic of the lot.

Books II, III and IV unfortunately fell flat for me:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I loved the last modern day section - it made the novel for me.

This really should have been on the Booker shortlist - the Goldsmith is a consolation but he has already won bigger (Walter Scott) or similar level (Gordon Burn) prizes and the Booker would I think have been a real breakthrough.

I loved the whole novel and that different books have a different feel. It’s his best book and should have been nominated for the Booker. Maybe if he’d had a motherless child narrate the story he would have a had a shot at this year’s Booker.

Michael’s mother dying is the central idea of the last section so the Booker judges don’t even have that excuse.

I forgot about that! I guess no one told the Booker judges.

Myers next book announced

Bloomsbury has acquired Rare Singles, a "full-throated hymn to the sorrows and triumphs of soul music" from author Benjamin Myers.

Editorial director Allegra Le Fanu bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Jessica Woollard at David Higham Associates. Publication for Rare Singles is scheduled for August 2024 and will be backed by a "major" international marketing and publicity campaign.

The book is described as "a love letter to Northern Soul" and the synopsis says: "Dinah has an especial hero: Bucky Bronco, who recorded a string of soul gems in the late Sixties and then vanished off the face of the earth. When she manages to contact Bucky she can’t believe her luck.

Although the press release upset Bluemoose as it implied that books like Gallows Pole were originally also published by Bloomsbury with no mention of Bluemoose: https://x.com/ofmooseandmen/status/17...

I see Ronan Hession has a new book coming out too, Ghost Mountain

I loved this book with the first and last sections being my personal favourites

Cuddy is one of the books that drifts up in my mind, unbidden, fairly often. I could reread it already and I usually don’t reread a book so soon after the first read.