Jeet Thayil - Narcopolis

The Man Booker Prize 2012

I could not finish this book. It started well but then began to ramble and I lost interest. I am clearly missing something but I lost the will to live.

Michael Frayn - Skios

The Man Booker Prize 2012
After Harold Fry this initially felt rather light. It masquerades as a farce and indeed is very funny, I found myself, laughing out loud, giggling and talking to the pages.
An amoral charmer called Oliver Fox on a sexual whim passes himself off as a famous scientific manager about to make a prestigious speech at an international conference. This is without a thought of the poor scientist who ends up alone and confused elsewhere on the beautiful Greek Island of Skios. (note to self always pack mobile phone charger AND adaptor in hand luggage!)
As the various mismatched individuals approach the inevitable denouement, we await with anticipation for the downfall, the unmasking. Yes it happens, but what we realise is that this book is also a masquerade. This is a case of the Emperor's New Clothes, a comedaic exploration of modern manners, morality, and infantilism. We despair for just one show of common sense and where does it come from? A shady Russian businessman's wife Mrs Skorbatova, who definitely is not up for any phoks!

This would make a great reading group read.It is seldom that in reading groups there is enough light relief and this will fill a well needed gap, but will the book belie it's cover...

Rachel Joyce - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Man Booker Longlist
This is a stunning book. One of those that you want to put down and think about. One you want to never end.
This is the story of an ordinary hero, an unlikely hero, a 65 year old vaguely unhappy man, who one day does an extraordinary thing. He decides on a whim to deliver his letter to a dying colleague by hand. However he decides to walk there from KIngsbridge, Devon to Berwick in Scotland.
It is an extraordinary journey, beautifully written and observed as Harold interacts with his environment,  his body, and the assortment of people he meets.
Left at home his wife Maureen has also a learning process to go through.
This book is beautifully written, funny, wry, sad and uplifting, it would make a superb reading group book, it explores the whole gamut of the human psyche and I think it just could be a winner|!

Hilary Mantel - Bring up the Bodies

Having confirmed my shallowness with my review of WOLF HALL see below, but wanting to review as many of the Man Booker 2012 longlist as I can, I decided to begin with this once again large tome.
Well, I absolutely loved it! Am I now less shallow? This book deals with the downfall of Anne Boleyn, so perhaps I found the subject matter was more enlivening as I certainly could not put the book down.
I got used to the 'he said's and to be fair where it was ambiguous it was emphasised that it was Cromwell speaking.
I also 'got' the subtlety of us, the reader, extracting what might or might not be motivating Cromwell. Revenge on the whole, I thought. It was also interesting to contemplate the descriptions that were left out and times when he was absent from the drama.
A great novel, but can she win two years in a row?