Since I just reviewed Western Lane, that finishes my reading of the shortlist for the 2023 Booker Prize. This means it’s time for my feature, where I decide whether the judges got it right.
Although I was indifferent to a few of the books on this list, there were two that I liked so much it will be difficult to choose between them, and this year, most of the others were very good. As I often do, I’ll lead up to the best ones. All of the books chosen this time were very well written.
The book that resonated with me the least was Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein. It was mostly a character study of a very particular woman, one who is completely obedient to her brother. I said I felt like I was being psychologically tortured when I read it.
Although darkly funny at times, I found If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery also a bit whiny. It’s about a Jamaican-American young man trying to figure out his own identity and community in Southern Florida, but he keeps making really bad decisions.
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo is about the grief of a family over the loss of their mother, which 11-year-old Gopi copes with by her success in playing squash. I found it touching and said it had floundering but sympathetic characters. So, here we are getting into more interesting territory.
I found the subject matter of This Other Eden by Paul Harding very interesting. The historical novel is based on a true event, when the State of Maine decided to evict several mixed-race families that had been living on an island since 1793. It’s no coincidence that this turn-of-the-20th-century event took place just after a Eugenics conference. Although I occasionally found Harding’s extended poetical metaphors annoying (and sometimes liked them), I found this novel to be touching. This is the first book in the shortlist that I read, way back in 2023, so unfortunately, I don’t remember it very well.
The last two novels each ended up on my Best of the Year lists in successive years that I read them. One is The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. It is a complex novel about the problems faced by a family. As it looks at the situations from each family member’s perspective in turn, family secrets are revealed. It’s hard to see from my description of this book just why I found it so good, but I was gripped from the start. I say that it is unexpectedly suspenseful in the last 50 pages and that the ending blew my mind (if only I could remember what it was).
I read Prophet Song by Paul Lynch a year earlier than The Bee Sting but remember it a little better. It’s the rare dystopian novel that I found absolutely gripping, about Ireland becoming a totalitarian state, which absolutely chimes in with current events. Prophet Song was the winner for this year. I’m thinking that for me, the choice between it and The Bee Sting is hard, as I describe both as gripping. I also say that Prophet Song has long, poetic sentences that create a sense of urgency. I guess it’s almost a tie for me between this book and The Bee Sting, but I’ll say that the judges got it right.
What? Me Read? 
I’ve not read any of these; but I did start Western Lane a couple of years ago but set it aside at the time to revisit later. I’m particularly interested in This Other Eden by Paul Harding. I’m going to add that one to my TBR for sure! I also like a good dystopian novel so I think I’ll add Prophet Song to my list too. :)
Those are both really good.
I have read all of these except for ‘The Study of Obedience’. I enjoyed Western Lane the most, but I think The Bee Sting and Prophet Song are much better books, they are both so clever. The end of The Bee Sting ripped me up, but I also struggled with how unlikeable the characters were! So my choice for the winner was the same, Prophet Song, but I remember being left so bereft by it, I am not sure I will read it again. Great summary, you brought back this Booker year for me!
Oh, thanks! I was somewhat sympathetic with the father in The Bee Sting, but I can’t remember the ending, and I think that may have affected my feelings one way or the other.
WARNING – SPOILER ALERT
the ending.. the sister finally gives a damn about her brother and saves him from the podophile in town and they catch the bus home, and it is a downpour, and they try and call their dad, but he is out in the woods about to shoot the man who I think was blackmailing him after they had an affair (gay, so he didn’t want it to get out) and because the kids don’t get an answer, they start to cut through the forest, as their dad lines up to shoot… the end. <gulp>
Right. But really. I don’t usually tell the ending on purpose.
Happy for you to delete my comment, the only purpose of writing it was to remind you..
I don’t usually delete comments.
Like you, I don’t ordinarily go for dystopian but The Bee Sting was exceptional – I think because you don’t initially realise that it is an imagined future – terrifying that what is described feels close to possible right now.
Prophet Song was dystopian. Was The Bee Sting? I don’t remember it being dystopian.
I’ve read none of these – I’m so out of touch with modern fiction! Not sure any of them appeal to me irresistibly, but on the basis of your descriptions, The Bee Sting is the one I find most intriguing.
Yes, I think you would like it. But Prophet Song is excellent, and I don’t usually like dystopian fiction.
I’ve only read two, and of those two, I would have given it to Prophet Song.
Quite by accident I discovered some disconcerting background to This Other Eden. In a nutshell, it’s not based on a true story; in more detail you can read what I found out in my review https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/05/this-other-eden-2023-by-paul-harding/
I am in the minority in that I hated Prophet Song! I had my hopes on The Bee Sting and This Other Eden that year.
What did you think of them?