The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

I will post the shortlist here once we know it. This thread is for discussion of what has been chosen, please continue to use the speculation thread until the announcement.

The 2024 shortlist has just been announced. These are the six books:

Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking by Han Smith (JM Originals)
All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles (Galley Beggar)
Choice by Neel Mukherjee (Hamish Hamilton)
Tell by Jonathan Buckley (Fitzcarraldo)
Parade by Rachel Cusk (Faber & Faber)
Spent Light by Lara Pawson (CB Editions)

It’s a good time to be both a galley beggar buddy and a Fitzcarraldo subscriber

I have read Choice and All My Precious Madness should arrive soon

I have read Parade also but otherwise same as Hugh.

I've read Tell and All My Precious Madness is on it's way

Was Tell any good. It has one review here I think - which is one star.

Really disappointed that books like I Will Crash, Night Alphabet, Pity not on the list but will see what is there.

So 4 books from the Listopia

One I forgot was the new Galley Beggar as I didn’t know much about it as to whether it was innovative.

And of course the one GY read in ARC and forgot to mention!!!!

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Was Tell any good. It has one review here I think - which is one star."

I'm surprised to see a Fitzcarraldo book, which has been out for awhile, only have one review on Goodreads.

I thought the same re Tell but that’s a rogue book entry someone has added for the Fitz cover. If you look under the author there are lots of reviews of the actual book (but main cover is not the Fitz one).

It’s an established Goldsmith tradition - even mentioned by Paul on the predictions thread - that I forget to mention there a book I read that was obviously destined for the Goldsmith.

I think my record for that on past Goldsmith shortlists is even more successful than Rachel Cusk !!!

I created threads for all six books but the Cusk one hasn't appeared. Maybe because I included a mini-rant on Captchas. Today has been the worst yet for that - 10 Captchas for the last 7 threads.

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Was Tell any good. It has one review here I think - which is one star."

I didn't like it very much to be honest

Created another Cusk thread and that has disappeared too. This is beyond stupid - moderators should be trusted to moderate!

Interesting observation

If the Goodreads listopia had been correct - then two of the books here would be on the Booker longlist.

I won't create any more until tomorrow. If both threads eventually appear, I apologise.

Spent Light is brilliant. But, admittedly, it's right up my academic research alley.

I’ve read Spent Light (yes very strong), Parade (definitely deserves a place) and Tell (not as good but still 4 stars for me).

I did predict a shortlist on X - all three made that list. Well actually three lists (18 books) but still.

I'll be interested in thoughts on Andrea Long Chu's review of Parade on vulture but that can wait for a separate thread.

Guardian take which includes, slightly oddly, comments from one of the judges, Sara Baume, on two, but only two, of the books.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

I have finally managed to create a Parade discussion thread. Not sure whether either of the others will ever appear.

Sorry, that was another failed attempt. It definitely appeared in the folder for a few seconds, but by the time I'd written the first version of this comment it had been removed again. I have literally no idea what I did wrong this time.

David wrote: "I'll be interested in thoughts on Andrea Long Chu's review of Parade on vulture but that can wait for a separate thread."

I wasn't sure how seriously to take it, although it's gotten a lot of traction - a number online now busily cancelling Cusk, which basically means they never read her and now won't, but wouldn't have anyway. I did find Long Chu's comments about penis envy quite amusing though. But then again she's known for her extravagant takedowns.

The article's paywalled here so not sure how many people are likely to have read it, but it's accessible via 12ft io

I started to read it. I think I’d rather reread Parade though.

New Statesman take with more quotes from judges

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/...

I am just reading the article.

Jonathan - a great reviewer and ex active member of this group - always had a thing against Cusk and used to soar with Paul over her.

One of his criticisms - which always strikes me when I read her work - is that most of her most profound seeming sentences can basically have all the nouns swapped in any order and be as profound (or in his view vacuous).

So I was amused to see:

“In formlessness she discovered power, and also a freedom from limitation,” a narrator says about their mother in Parade — a beautiful sentence until one realizes that any of the nouns could be rearranged without injuring the impression that one is reading an awful truth

Incidentally Jonathan’s seemed to be the only review on GR of All My Precious Madness - 4 stars but with a balanced view of the books weaknesses as well as strengths.

Readings on 23 October.

No luck at Nottingham Waterstones finding any of the three I wanted this morning.

Just found myself sitting next to the Chair of the judges - so been doing some lobbying!!

Cusk wins.

No Best of Rachel Goldsmith award in many years then.

Does feel like they had to give her the prize eventually (although you could sand the same for Beryl and the Booker) but it’s definitely a case of (using another Booker tradition) right author wrong book …. One of the trilogy (either first as the start point, or last on behalf of trilogy) should clearly have won the prize.

Good for the prizes profile given other awards have largely ignored Cusk’s latest (despite critical and reader acclaim) and with her being so well known.

Well, that's one I won't be reading any time soon if at all.

endrju wrote: "Well, that's one I won't be reading any time soon if at all."

It doesn't sound like something you'd enjoy, the White Pube described Second Place as a beach read for middle-aged, women gallery directors imagine they'd say the same about this.

Ageism at its finest by them. Although if I can be permitted reversed ageism I happened to have heard of them for the first time earlier today and on Googling them LOLd that one of them lists their primary interest as “oat milk americanos”.

Ironically of course this book has a middle aged woman gallery director as a key character - dealing with the aftermath of a suicide in Berlin.

“It might seem rather ridiculous, she said, and even irrelevant, to spend your time curating artistic events and organising talks and discussions about artists, when the slightest change in reality can render those activities obsolete or impossible. But then it struck me, she said, that what happened at the museum today reminded me of nothing so much as a work by G herself. The power of disturbance in G’s work, she said, seems linked to the actual disturbances of reality such as the one we witnessed, but I haven’t yet been able to formulate any thoughts about that link.”

I think it’s is a worthy winner. But at the same time not her best book.

The write up by the judges is interesting and well crafted. It refers to Cusk’s overall project as well as what this book adds.

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/...

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Ageism at its finest by them. Although if I can be permitted reversed ageism I happened to have heard of them for the first time earlier today and on Googling them LOLd that one of them lists their..."

Definitely disparaging but couldn't decide if it was actively ageist or not, as doesn't seem desperately out of step with Cusk's likely fans. Obvs only anecdotal but the three people I know in the real world who're avid Cusk readers fit the profile, one's a curator, one's an art administrator, one lectures in visual culture, all three are women, all three over forty.

Well I know two men who are mathematicians working in financial services who are both avid readers.

Though both over forty - and then some - indeed, oddly, both were born on the same day.

Alwynne wrote:It doesn't sound like something you'd enjoy, the White Pube described Second Place as a beach read for ..."

The White what? Apparently, I've read Second Place. Can't remember a word of it.

endrju wrote: "Alwynne wrote:It doesn't sound like something you'd enjoy, the White Pube described Second Place as a beach read for ..."

The White what? Apparently, I've read Second Place. Can't ..."

Here you go:

https://thewhitepube.co.uk/about/

Oh, that actually exists. I thought it was a typo.

Updated my entry on the all time rankings of the 72 books - looking at that there are at least 50 the prize has featured I think are really good, and less than 10 that were weak.

Palace Of ... is a new entry in my all time top 10 - Parade sneaks into top 20, but is 3rd/12th in the winners list (only once have they chosen the winner I would have chosen).

Deborah Levy’s Goldsmiths lecture has been published.

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/...

I liked this bit

Sometimes, when a new, bold novel, full of innovation, lands in the hands of a gatekeeper who declines to publish it, I believe this person hears the call through the receiver of a telephone from another age. Where’s the plot, the story, the narrative arc? Why hasn’t a formidable housekeeper with a dodgy eye entered the novel carrying a tureen of hearty soup and a crusty loaf? Yet, what is coming through the vintage receiver are the beautiful languages and forms of our own century. I’m thinking of the new cadence and startling points of view in Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride, Assembly by Natasha Brown.