Even if I haven’t updated this blog in over a year (oops), you know I’m not going to miss a chance to review the Women’s Prize shortlisted novels before the winner is announced tomorrow. This was a really strong year, with two novels that really blew me away, another two that I think would still be worthy winners, and two that were still solid even if they weren’t my favourites.
This is also the first year that the Women’s Prize has a nonfiction category. I’ve only read one of the shortlisted books (the excellent Doppelganger by my beloved Naomi Klein) so I won’t give my thoughts on that, but I love seeing them expand to include nonfiction works as well.
Soldier, Sailor by Claire Kilroy
My one-word review of this novel is oof. The narrator is a new mother talking to her son about how she loves him so much she would kill and/or die for him, about her loneliness, about taking on unequal weight in her marriage, about looking forward to their years together as he grows up. The dramas in the book are mostly minor — losing track of him in IKEA for a few minutes, a small fever — but the writing is so raw. Heart-wrenching and often funny as well I absolutely loved this one and if I was giving the prize it would be to this instant classic.
Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
A British-Palestinian woman goes back to her homeland after many years to visit her sister and gets roped in to a production of Hamlet. Fittingly, this one felt almost theatrical in a way; I could really picture everything so well, and the prose sometimes reverts to a script format during rehearsal scenes. I also loved the protagonist. She’s quite prickly at times, but very complex and interesting. The various elements of the plot — the protagonist’s relationship with her family and identity, her life back in the UK versus her time in Palestine, the theatre production and the ongoing conflict it is staged in the midst of — weave together in such a powerful and compelling way.
The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright
This novel is not based on any real person, and yet it felt as though someone was telling me about people they really know. Nell looks for connection with her late grandfather, a poet, who walked out on the family and whose actions contributed greatly to Nell’s strained relationship with her mother Carmel. With gorgeous, fittingly poetic writing, Enright paints incredibly realistic portraits of this family, warts and all, and creates a novel with so much depth that you forget at points that these are characters and not your distant acquaintances or neighbours.
River East River West by Aube Rey Lescure
If you like unlikeable characters then is this the novel for you, and I mean that in a good way. Set in two intersecting timelines, 15-year-old Alva in the mid-2000s is a Chinese teenager with an American mother who wants to live the American dream by attending an international school in her home city of Shanghai. Meanwhile, across the mid-20th century her stepfather Lu Feng is a middling businessman struggling with societal expectations while drawn to an American expat. Everyone is deeply despicable and yet extremely empathetic at times, and you’ll find yourself wanting to shake each character in frustration at some points and hug them in sympathy at otehrs. A strange one but I really loved it.
Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganesthananthan
Set during the Sri Lankan civil war, a time/place I know next to nothing about, this is a really ambitious and solid historical novel about a medical student who finds herself pulled in all directions by family and social loyalties in the midst of a devastating conflict, all while trying to work toward her goal of becoming a doctor in a male-dominated field. This novel often reads like a memoir and while I didn’t fully connect at points, I thought the writing was strong and I appreciated the setting and clear depth of research involved.
Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville
Grenville’s novel is a historical fictionalised account of her grandmother’s life in 19th century Australia. It’s an obviously personal subject and you can tell the love and care that went in to telling the story. I felt like this novel, which clocks in at just over 250 pages, is a bit too short and ends up skipping from event to event so quickly that I found it a little hard to connect with anyone but the protagonist. However, I’ve always heard good things about Grenville and I really enjoyed her writing style overall.
thebestpossibletime 