Bookerthon – 2024

Do you ever feel crestfallen? Do you wonder what is the point? [Orbital]

The above quote bears relevance to all the books on the Booker Prize shortlist for 2024. Existence, creation, humanity, the past and the future seem to be the hot topics this year. Perhaps so much has occurred in recent years that writers and people in general can’t help but reflect on why we are here, how we are here and what the future hold for us.

I used to think there was a ‘before’ and ‘after’ most things that happen to a person; that a fence of time and space could separate even quite catastrophic experience from the ordinary whole of life. But now I know that with a great devastation of some kind, there is no before or after. Even when the commotion of crisis has settled, it’s still there, like that dam water, insisting, seeping, across the past and the future. [Stone Yard Devotional]

Suzy and Rachel pondered these very questions while relaxing on the serene Otago Peninsula, with a sealion named Sophie at the gate and gorgeous views to enhance our sense of place.

We agreed this is a shortlist of other-worldly, mesmerising narratives, whether from people in space, neanderthals, ghosts, spies, slaves, repressed women or atheists in a convent, we are given so many angles from which to examine borderless humanity. The planet and its current state of brittleness is often referred to and this connection with our environment aids the main characters as they question existence and creation. What can we learn from the past? What have we done? Where will we end up as a result of our decision making? What awaits us in the afterlife? After the sun implodes? After we acknowledge our mistakes? What if those mistakes hadn’t happen and we could reimagine the past?

A psychoanalyst looks for clues of repression, of what a patient has hidden from others and more, importantly, hidden from himself. The deepest repression of all is the story of those who came first, before we did, long before the written-down. We must unpack what these earlier lives might mean for us, and for our future. [Creation Lake]

It’s a collection that touches on many philosophical ideologies: the spiritual, scientific, supernatural and existential, but without ever delving so deep to end up in the realm of unattainability. It feels like a shortlist about the need to belong, at a time when people feel lost; it’s a super aware collection of stories that made us contemplative about identity, about how one can mould, distort or discard their outward appearance on a whim.

Love confirms who a person is, and that they are worth loving. Politics do not confirm who a person is. [Creation Lake]

The traditional linear narrative construct is challenged in 2024. Alongside the more traditional novel presentations we are also rewarded with poetic fragments, ethereal space odysseys, responses to classic literature, expressions of repression and erotica, biblical interruptions and cave dwelling scriptures. This shortlist forces you to forgo what you know of the traditional novelistic structure, to trust the author in their narrative experimentation and surrender to a new version of storytelling.

He did not believe that the mystery at the heart of things was amorphous or vague or a discrepancy, but a place in us for something absolutely precise. He did not believe in filling that space with religion or science, but in leaving it intact; like silence, or speechlessness, or duration. [Held]

● My initial favourite was James by Percival Everett. What a genius for creating a companion piece to an original work of literature. He does not condemn or criticise but reclaims a lost voice. It’s an important piece of work that was a propelling read from start to finish.

But then I read Creation Lake and was swept away by the beguiling Sadie Smith. Her brazenness to take over the story, and her unique, refreshing take on a female lead had me star struck. Despite her villainous intentions, I loved her personal journey. I wanted her to be the best spy and infiltrator she could be. Her and Kushner’s profound observations of life past and present impressed me deeply and pushed the book to the top of favourites list.

Though to be honest, I would be happy if either this, James, Stone Yard Devotional, Orbital or Held won. I loved and appreciated them all. The Safekeep was the exception for me. I felt it had deficiencies and My Friends by Hisham Matar would have been more deserving of its place on the shortlist. – Rachel

There are moments, moments like this, when an abstract longing overcomes me, one made all the more violent by its lack of fixed purpose. The trick time plays is to lull us into the belief that everything lasts forever, and, although nothing does, we continue inside that dream. And, as in a dream, the shape of my days bear no relation to what I had, somehow and without knowing it, allowed myself to expect. [My Friends]

● It’s been an interesting mix of books this year, from the adrenaline-filled intensity of James to the quiet pacing of Stone Yard Devotional. I was quite challenged by the unconventionally written Orbital and Held, but was also wowed by the undeniable genius of these writers.  

Overall my pick for the win is James. Percival Everett has written a book that is unputdownable, unforgettable, and deeply moving.  – Suzy

There is no God, child. There’s religion but there’s no God of theirs. Their religion tells that we will get our reward in the end. However, it apparently doesn’t say anything about their punishment. But when we’re around them, we believe in God. Oh, Lawdy Lawd, we’s be believin’. Religion is just a controlling tool they employ and adhere to when convenient. [James]

Suzy’s rankings
James
Creation Lake
Stone Yard Devotional
The Safekeep
Held
Orbital

Rachel’s rankings:
Creation Lake
James
Stone Yard Devotional
Orbital
Held
The Safekeep