1969 Booker Prize Shortlist - The Public Image – Muriel Spark

I was lucky enough to stumble across my copy of this in a second hand bookshop, a first edition hardback in very good condition and for the bargain price of $30.

This one is going to be a hard one to review without giving too much away.

Certainly one for those who want a quick read, I managed to get through it in three days and with a bit more dedication could probably knocked it over in one or two sittings. Not a complex book, but one that could still be considered pertinent today, with the main character (Annabel) being an actress who has recently hit the big time and has had a public image created by a press secretary. 42 years later this could well be the story of any Hollywood starlet (in this novel Annabel’s a British star yet to make it in the USA but you get what I mean?)

Early on in the novel we learn that Annabel’s husband believes she is “stupid”, he resents her success, he’s a better actor, he resents the fact that she is the breadwinner, he prefers the company of his friends to his wife – but as the book progresses we find that Annabel’s public image of being a “lady-tiger” with a perfect marriage and a prim and proper external view is what is keeping her employed as a leading lady. What will win out in this clash of external image and internal strife?

Without spoiling the plot I’ll just say that Annabel’s put into a situation where she needs to protect her public image in order to protect her career – will she succeed?

Another highly readable and enjoyable book from the 1969 list – I only own the three and I enjoyed the lot which is better than some years of the Booker!!! Given I have yet to read the winner from that year I very much look forward to tracking down copies of the remaining three novels.

All up, I enjoyed “Impossible Object” the most of the three, however did find it the most challenging.

From the 1970 list I only own “John Brown’s Body” by A.L. Barker – which I’ve just started to read so my next instalment will be a few days (or a week or so) away.

1969 Booker Prize Short List - the nice and the good - Iris Murdoch

Let’s bash out a quick one for this – as I’m two reviews behind and if I continue to procrastinate I’ll end up forgetting why I enjoyed this one.

I don’t know if the title in lower case, in the edition I bought (a recent reissue by Vintage Classics), symbolises anything or if it was just a quaint way of designing a cover. It could well mean the insignificance of being “nice” or “good” – but that could be drawing a long bow.

Whereas Mosley’s “Impossible Object” has a chapter (or story) called “Suicide” this novel opens with a suicide in the Government Offices where a number of the main characters work. The investigation (or “inquiry”) is a sub-plot which plays throughout the novel and connects a number of characters throughout.

Early on I thought I was going to struggle with the innumerable characters introduced (and even thought why couldn’t there be a family tree or some other diagram in the front so I could continually reference it). Amazingly enough it didn’t take me long to work out all their foibles, their connections etc. and quickly understood each nice and good character.

Long passages describing the seasons, the birch trees, the flowers, the rambling walks almost make this Hardy’esque (is that a word?) and I’m sure many a literature teacher has asked a student to describe the symbolism of the seasons, the thick ivy covering the gravestones, the description of pebbles on the beach…you know what I mean.

A book about relationships, the internal struggle for the perfect relationship, the tricks we play on ourselves when seeking partners, the tricks we play on others. Complex, yet enjoyable. Neatly packaged, but leaves you wondering.

Another highly readable and enjoyable book, which scores points from me as yet again, I could (a) finish it, (b) would recommend it and (c) enjoyed it.

1969 Booker Prize Shortlist - Impossible Object - Nicholas Mosley

The inaugural Booker Prize was presented in 1969 as a retrospective award for novels released in the previous year.

At the time The Beatles and The Rolling Stones dominated world music, the Vietnam War was coming under increasing public scrutiny, Richard Nixon had just been elected to the Whitehouse, Martin Luther King was assassinated and the musical “Oliver!” won the Best Picture Academy award.

So what about the literature of the times? I currently own only three of the six shortlisted Booker Prizes from the first year and each are very powerful laments on the loss of love, the search for love and identity and the false identities we create, whether through writing, film or careers.

Impossible Object – Nicholas Mosley

As a novel out of print in Australia I had a minor celebration when I managed to pick up this edition (printed in 1992 in the USA) in a second hand book shop for the bargain price of $6.

Do not be put off by the strange choice of review on the back cover. In this edition they quote the closing lines and ramble about “the impossibility of realizing the good life unless one recognizes the impossibility of attaining it”.

Although a challenging novel, I found it compelling. Eight different stories by different narrators, some or all of whom could be writers, and throughout you become confused about the inter relationships, are these people the same characters? They can’t be because the linear structure’s all wrong! May be I’m confused not the writer! You are not sure if you are reading the narrator’s stories or their inner thoughts?!? Are the stories interconnected to another story or stand alone? What on earth do the dream like sequences between sections actually mean? Should I have grounding in Nietzsche before I go any further? I reckon you could probably write a thesis about the meaning of the sections that link chapters, stone horses, gods in exile – don’t know if anyone would be up for reading it though! This novel definitely challenges the stereotypical English narrative structure; however it manages to pull it off. If you like happy endings, or all “i’s” dotted and all “t’s” crossed then this is probably not your cup of tea.

I thoroughly enjoyed “Impossible Object” but I’m also sure a number of readers would concur with my wife, when she read the back cover, the first page and said “what crap are you reading now?”

Scoring wise - I finished it, that's a plus. I've recommended it to other readers, another plus. I enjoyed it AND I thought about it many times well and truly after it was finished - yet another plus. Did I understand it all????? No - but do I need to?

"The Nice and The Good" and "The Public Image" are the two others I own and have read from this year - comments on those two to follow in the coming day or two.