With my review of English Magic, I have completed reading the shortlist of the 2022 James Tait Black Fiction Prize. That means it’s time for my feature, where I decide whether the judges got it right. This year is particularly difficult for me, because none of the books really clicked with me.
I’ll start with the winner, A Shock by Keith Ridgway. In my review, I quoted its pretentious back cover: “a rondel of interlocking stories . . . both deracinated and potent with place, druggy but shot through with a terrifying penetration of reality.” I reviewed this book two years ago, and frankly, I can’t remember a thing about it. It is a collection of short stories that I did not find engaging, centered around a pub.
English Magic by Uschi Gatward is another collection of short stories. I found it a mixed bag, although all of its details are minutely observed. Again, I didn’t connect with many of the stories, several of which were about political activism. Unlike A Shock, they didn’t seem to have any common themes or settings.
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge would seem to be more my style, about a black young woman in pre-Civil War Brooklyn whose mother wants her to become a doctor. However, Libertie behaves like a spoiled modern young woman, and one of my pet peeves is a historical novel that has its characters behave out of their time. Libertie makes one bad decision after another, wasting her opportunities.
That leaves Memorial by Bryan Washington, about the relationship between two gay young men, one a black American and one Japanese, and their relationships to their families. Although its humor went over my head and I don’t like explicit sex, I found it perceptive and sometimes touching.
I am winding up this project, and I think I only have three books to read for the 2021 shortlist. My library hasn’t had any of them.
What? Me Read? 
sounds like it hasn’t been a great run with the books at this project, and I agree with what you said about characters being written outside of their time in historical novels. Even women pushing for progress on our behalf, for example, would have been doing so within the internalised rules and norms of the time if that makes sense
Yes, exactly.
Don’t think any of these appeal! You’ll need to do a wind-up post or posts of the highlights of the project! (Specially designed for those of us too lazy to read all the books… 😉 )
Oh, boy, well that’s not a bad idea, but what would you suggest? Hitting the good ones? Summarizing the various ratings (which would be easier if I gave them star ratings on my review—I do in StoryGraph)? Hmm. Something to think about.
Why not both? I always enjoy a round-up of stats and ratings from a long challenge like this, and a list of your top ten recommendations or something like that would be great!
OK, I’ve been looking at my If I Gave the Award posts for that prize. I can’t remember all of the books very well, but I can use those to write some kind of summary.
OK, so here’s what I have done so far. I have categorized all I’ve read (I will add the last two once I’ve read them) into five categories based on how much I liked them. It’s a lot of books. Now, the question is, do we want a one-sentence summary of why I put them in that category? I am reviewing what I said about them now to make sure I have put them in the right place, because a few could have gone in one or the other direction. Or maybe a summary sentence for the good ones? I’m not sure what kind of stats I could provide, maybe country of origin, but I think they would be too diffuse for most countries and then great big blocs for England.
Well, speaking purely for myself, I’m always interested in the best and the worst, and not so much in the ones in the middle. So maybe a Top Ten and a Five Flops, or something? And with enough info on the good ones to let us know if it’s something we’d be interested in reading?
As for stats, I’m a spreadsheet geek as you know, so don’t do them if it would involve you in loads of work. But I was thinking things like, how many books overall, what percentage you loved, liked, didn’t like, hated; male/female authors; author nationality; no of countries the books took you to; how long the challenge took you to do; whether you’d do it all again! That kind of random stuff!
Hmm, lots to talk about. I think the way I’ve got them divided up now, the top ones will be obvious as well as the bottom. I have four books in the Loved category and about the same in the Intensely Disliked category. I’ll think about what kind of stats I can come up with, based on your ideas.
Looking forward to your post!
I have to finish the two books first, and one of them at least is a big honker!
Well, get on with it then! 😉
yes please, a round up would be great, sorry to give you more to do though
That’s okay. It’ll be after I finish the project.