Welcome to Litsy!

Oh. Ah well.

#notmyfavourite !

Just announced the winner of this year‘s Booker Prize

I‘m quite happy about this since I enjoyed it while I read it

I just started this, my fourth book from the #Booker shortlist. I like the writing style, but damn that first chapter was uncomfortable! 🫤

I was hooked by the opening chapter where an older woman is seducing a young boy. This is almost like a reverse Bartleby the Scrivner as the main character passively agrees to almost anything.

The feeling when:

You take your eye off the library hold list for one minute and everything comes rushing in.

Full on Murphy's Law.

Nope.

#Booker2025

'It's okay,' she says. "There's no point talking about these things without honesty. About anything.'
He points out that quite a few of the pictures seem almost pornographic.
'That's true, she says.
She seems to think for a minute, and then she says, 'Most of the things here are either devotional objects, or more or less pornographic, or social trophies, or some combination of those things.

The owner of the winery takes the people who work in the warehouse and the office to see them doing it - he says he wants them to be aware of what actually happens on the land. The day they go up there the workers are burning the pruned stems in piles on the grass at the sides. The white smoke rises into the air. The sun shines through the rising smoke. There's the scent of the smoke and the quiet crackle of the burning stems.

#Booker2025

Well, now I'm bummed out.

Istvan's story is one that holds the reader at a distance, while also giving us a visceral impression of his world.

I've never really read prose like it. It's so basic and pared back, but still manages to say everything that it needs to say. Imagine the absolute opposite of Charles Dickens' prose, but with some synergy with his story arcs!

This book felt intentionally directionless, which may frustrate some readers.

Things were bad and then they worse, then wayyyyy better, then wayyyyy worse. I loved it. Szalay‘s super sparse writing makes this an easy read despite the heaviness of some of the subject matter #manbooker25