The Sellout by Paul Beatty

The Sellout has recently won the Man Booker Prize 2016, so I wanted to read it to see what I thought. I must admit, while I was reading the first chapter I was thinking, 'What is going on here, I'm not going to like this'. But you must stick with it, because you will end up enjoying it.

It's hard to sum up in a sentence what the book is about. I tried to explain to a colleague and they just looked at me slightly puzzled as I garbled a disjointed account of the story. They also looked slightly alarmed when I used the words 'funny' and 'racism' in the same sentence. But it's true!

The opening chapter is set in the Supreme Court in America. The case is 'Me v. the United States of America'. The Me in question is Mr Me - originally Mee but over the generations the final letter was dropped. That case title itself is ironic as Mr Me (who is black, and whose first name is never known) is accused of owning a slave, and almost the whole black population of America is mad at him for turning the civil rights clock back so many years.

Now if you are sensitive to racial language or indeed any language at all, you may want to avoid this book, but do bear in mind that the whole book is a satire, full of wit and sarcasm. Mr Me believes in segregation, and to find out why, we are taken through his life starting with him being home-schooled by his father, who would put Me through test scenarios (including electric shock treatments) to test fear, prejudice, servility and obedience. We learn about the small town he grew up in , how it was taken off the map and why he tries to get it back on there. We find out how he gets to 'own' a 'slave', about his girlfriend Marpessa, about the Dum Dum Donut Shop where they hold racism and black inequality talks, and about why an old friend of his father's tries to kill him.

It's a marvellous book like no other - it pushes boundaries and raises eyebrows. It's brilliant.

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

This book is currently on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2016. In our shop we seem to be selling more of this and also 'His Bloody Project' by Graeme Macrae Burnet, than any of the other books on the shortlist. But the feelings of the public don't always match those of the Booker judges!

So what did I think about Eileen. Well there's a quote on the front cover from The Times describing it as 'A taught psychological thriller, rippled with comedy as black as a raven's wing'. That would definitely make me buy it immediately, but I would've been disappointed in the end. I think that makes it sound more of a thriller than it actually is. It's quite a short book, and about two thirds of it describes Eileen's character, home life and work life. It's only the last third where the story builds, once she meets her co-conspirator Rebecca. But even then, I was expecting something more.

The whole story - the characters and the setting - is quite depressing. The main story is set in 1964 when Eileen is 24, but it is narrated by Eileen 50 years on. It is set in a small town in Masachusetts, it is 5 days before Christmas, it's cold and it's constantly snowing. Eileen has not had a happy upbringing, and she continues to be unhappy. She was never loved by her parents, she was maltreated and poked fun of by them. Once when she was little and she hadn't tidied her room, her mother pushed her down the basement stairs and locked her in there in the dark as punishment. Her mother has since died of cancer, and her father turned to drink. He continues to be verbally abusive towards her, even though she is his main carer. They live in filth, the house doesn't get cleaned, and Eileen herself has no personal hygiene. She barely eats, (she lives on peanuts, bread and milk) but takes laxatives daily as she feels she is big and bloated. She is fed up with her existence but doesn't want to die. A common occurrence in the book is the mention of the icicles hanging precariously over her porch, and how they could easily fall and pierce through her or her father at any time. She dreams of running away to New York.

Eileen works as a secretary in a correctional facility for teenage boys. She doesn't like anybody at work, and they don't seem to like her - in fact, most of the staff don't seem to notice her existence. She fantasises about Randy, one of the guards, and most evenings she drives to his house and sits outside in the car and imagines what he'd be doing inside. Her sad and lonely existence changes with the sudden appearance of Rebecca at the facility. Rebecca seems to understand Eileen, she talks to her and appears to want to be her friend, but Eileen finds herself drawn into something a lot more sinister.

The character descriptions are excellent, the author does a great job of creating a sombre setting for Eileen (well, she couldn't make it any more depressing really!), but the finale wasn't as big I was expecting. I find that how you feel at the end of a book sums up your feeling about the whole book - so, disappointed really.

Serious Sweet by A.L. Kennedy

This is one of the titles on The Man Booker Prize 2016 longlist (shortlist announced 15th October, winner announced 24th October). I try to read at least one of the titles each year. Last year I read A Little Life - I thought it was going to win, it was shockingly (literally) brilliant. Alas (for me), the winner was A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. Unfortunately for me, the one book I chose to read from the longlist I did not enjoy at all. There were too many things that annoyed me which spoiled it for me. It didn't help that I really didn't like one of the main characters, Jon. But let me tell you a brief outline of the story.

It's set in London over a 24-hour period. It is Friday 10th April. Jon Sigurdsson is 59, divorced, works for the government as some sort of spindoctor for one of the ministers (I think), and he is a very anxious, worrisome person. He was not shown love by his mother when he was young - he was sent off to boarding school, then Cambridge - then he was made a fool of by his wife, Valerie (she was an adulteress). This lack of love has affected him throughout his life, he doesn't feel worthy of anyone's love, thinks he'll mess it up, so he's afraid of entering into another relationship. He discovers a way of showing love to a person without having to actually meet them. He advertises his services as a letter writer to women who need to feel loved and wanted. He collects responses from a PO Box address in Mayfair. He has a very low opinion of himself, and work colleagues seem to hold the same view of him also. He is losing faith with the meaning of his work - so much so that he pays regular visits to the Natural History Museum and leaves secret notes with state secrets to a journalist.

Meg Williams is 45 years old, lives on Telegraph Hill, works at an animal shelter in the admin office. She is a recovering alcoholic, is paranoid, and she suffers bouts of depression - so much so, she was disappointed if she were to wake up in the morning. She attends support groups. She is foul-tempered and foul-mouthed. But we get a sense that she is trying to get her life back together. She goes to the cinema, regularly watches the sunrise on the Hill, and has answered an ad for receiving letters. She decides to reply to one of the letters, saying in the letter "I have what you write in my head all the time. It's sweet. It's serious and sweet."

So the story is set up with Jon and Meg, each only just coping with living their own lives, and suddenly finding themselves thrown together. Will their relationship survive? 

A lot more goes on in the 24 hours than just their relationship - in fact their actual being together is a very short part of the book. Which is a shame really, as that was the part I was enjoying the most. Seeing how these two troubled minds acted when together. The rest of the story is about their state of minds, their parents, Jon's daughter, and a great deal of Jon's work, which I found rather boring. Also, when Jon talks about his feelings, he stammers, mumbles, stumbles, and never finishes his sentences. I was getting furious with that! When he was talking about his job, he spoke eloquently without a stumble. I guess this was showing how vulnerable he was when it came to close relationships and his feelings. He just can't cope. I was pleased at one point when even Meg, who's had a dreadful and tumultuous past herself, tells him in her own sweet way to get a grip!

It doesn't surprise me that this title is on the longlist. It is the sort of literary fiction that book prizes just adore. But not me. Too rambling, with an annoying character with a boring job. It'll probably win.