2010 Orange Prize Discussion Thread

This is a thread for Club Read members and others to post reviews and discuss the books that have been nominated for this year's Orange Prize for Fiction and the Orange Prize for New Writers.

The longlist for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction:

Rosie Alison: The Very Thought of You (Britain)
Eleanor Catton: The Rehearsal (New Zealand)
Clare Clark: Savage Lands (Britain)
Amanda Craig: Hearts and Minds (Britain)
Roopa Farooki: The Way Things Look to Me (Britain)
Rebecca Gowers: The Twisted Heart (Britain)
M.J. Hyland: This Is How (Britain)
Sadie Jones: Small Wars (Britain)
Barbara Kingsolver: The Lacuna (United States)
Laila Lalami: Secret Son (Morocco)
Andrea Levy: The Long Song (Britain)
Attica Locke: Black Water Rising (United States)
Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall (Britain)
Maria McCann: The Wilding (Britain)
Nadifa Mohamed: Black Mamba Boy (Britain)
Lorrie Moore: A Gate at the Stairs (United States)
Monique Roffey: The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Spain-Britain)
Amy Sackville: The Still Point (Britain)
Kathryn Stockett: The Help (United States)
Sarah Waters: The Little Stranger (Britain)

The shortlist for the Orange Prize for New Writers will be announced shortly.

I've read two of the books from the longlist: Wolf Hall and The Long Song (my review for each book is on its LT page).

I already own Hearts and Minds, which I'll probably read in the next couple of weeks, and A Gate at the Stairs and The Little Stranger.

I've ordered The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, Black Mamba Boy and The Rehearsal from The Book Depository, and I'll probably buy Secret Son, This Is How and Black Water Rising in the near future.

I've only just read The Wilding. Having read McCann's debut novel, As Meat Loves Salt, I was hoping for another complex, ambitious historical fiction. The Wilding was an entertaining read but not up to the level of that first book, so disappointing in that regard (but a great one-sitting-nothing-else-gets-down-until-you-finish read). I won't post a review here, but there are several on the book's page, including mine and charbutton's.

Great idea for a topic. So far I've read four of the books on the OP longlist. I'll list them in the order of my preference: 1) The Lacuna, 2) Wolf Hall, 3)The Help, 4)...and lagging far behind the others...A Gate at the Stairs. I have reviews posted on each of the books' home page.

Great idea Darryl..

Thanks for starting this thread.

I've read Wolf Hall. And, it is one of my favorites reads thus far in 2010.

Let's see, I just finished and reviewed Wolf Hall, I'm glad I read it, but really disliked the choppy style. I thoroughly enjoyed both The Lacuna and A Gate at the Stairs and was very disappointed with The Little Stranger, so much so that I actually gave the book away to the second hand store. I didn't even want to give it to a friend.

What a good idea for a thread.

I've read The Little Stranger which wasn't my favourite Sarah Waters but it was ok. I thought The Help was a very good read but not a literary masterpiece.

I've bought The Lacuna, The Long Song and Wolf Hall and have Hearts and Minds and The Way Things Look to Me out of the library, and have read previous books by Barbara Kingsolver, Andrea Levy and Amanda Craig. Savage Lands is on my mental wishlist since I read a Bookbag review.

I would like to see it go to something different from the Booker, and perhaps something different from the shortlist books as well. I would be disappointed to see it go to The Help. I think it would be nice to see it go to a relatively unknown writer and not to the book that has already had prizes or that everyone's reading, but who knows?

I stole this from another person's site, myshelves: "One of my favorite authors said in an interview that there is a tendency both to believe and teach in schools and colleges that “enjoyment” is an illiterate reaction; that if you are a serious reader, you should take the construction to pieces; find and analyse sources, dissect it into symbols, and debase it into allegory. He added: “It seems to me comparable to a man who having eaten anything, from a salad to a complete and well-planned dinner, uses an emetic, and sends the results for chemical analysis.”

With that in mind, I have to say I love The Help. It was a straightforward story, no allegories, no obscure symbolism, but so meaningful that I wouldn't mind if it won every prize possible. The writing in Wolf Hall was both more complex and, to me, less successful. However, it seems much more like the type of book to win prizes.

Great idea for a thread Darryl.

I haven't read any of the books on the longlist but I am planning to buy Wolf Hall now the paperback's out in the UK and I'd also like to read The Long Song, Lacuna and Black Mamba Boy.

I'm sure reading other people's reviews of the other books on the longlist will soon mean that this list expands!

>8 Citizenjoyce: The Orange Prize has never been about "art" it has always been about "excellence, originality and accessibility" (that last being a key word, imo).

Hi gang: I conducted an Orange Prize Survey this week and posted the results today. They are very interesting! Don't forget that we'll be doing Orange July in case you have some of the books burning a hole in Mount TBR.

I am personally rooting for The Help to win, but it may be Hilary Mantel's year!

The only nominee that I've read is The Little Stranger, which was just OK--certainly not Orange Prize-worthy, in my opinion.

I've had Wolf Hall for quite awhile but am holding off reading it until the semestar is over, so that I can really focus on and enjoy it. A number of others are on my wish list. I wanted to read The Gate at the Stairs because I love Lorrie Moore's short stories, but it has moved down my list due to so many blah reviews, both professional and here on LT. While The Help has gotten raves, from what I've read about it, I just don't think it would be my cup of tea.

Interesting survey, Jill. Glad to see that the short list won't be released for a month (April 20) and the winner will not be announced until June 9. That gives me time to at least start Wolf Hall and maybe one other shortlisted book.

Thanks for the link to your survey, Jill. When I checked my ratings, I found that Half Of A Yellow Sun was my No. 1 OP winner as well. It was the only one I gave a 5-star rating.

I have to change the order in my list (Msg. 4). Apparently, I can't trust my memory. Of the current longlist, these are the books I've read:

1) The Lacuna -- 4.5 stars
2) The Help (read in July, 2009) -- 4.5 stars
3) Wolf Hall (read in Dec., 2009) -- 4 stars
4) A Gate at the Stairs -- 3.5 stars

I'm going to read some more on the list before I project a winner.

I've only read The Little Stranger thus far, but have several other nominees on my TBR list languishing. The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, A Gate at the Stairs, The Lacuna and Black Mamba Boy all sound like they need to go on the list as well. I look forward to everyone updating what they have read and their thoughts.

Have any of you read other books by Hillary Mantel? Is Wolf Hall representative of her writing style? It seems there are a few new books by authors that are different from their previous offerings. The Lacuna is quite different from Kingsolver's earlier books, I think, but very successful. The Little Stranger is different from Waters' other supernaturally tinged books, but lacks her usual twisted ending. I wonder if I hadn't read her other books if I would have liked this one more.

Andrea Levy: The Long Song (Britain)
Kathryn Stockett: The Help (United States)
I have read the above and think The Help was clearly the better of the two. I read The Help earlier this year and loved it. Just this weekend past I gave it to my sister for her birthday.

Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall (Britain)
Sarah Waters: The Little Stranger (Britain)
Barbara Kingsolver: The Lacuna (United States)
The above three I own and I should get round to reading them. They are all big reads though (particularly The Lacuna) which is another reason why I liked The Help, it was an average length - not too long.

There is a NZ finalist! And I have never heard of it. How bad is that?!

Great idea for a thread, Darryl. The only one I've read so far is Wolf Hall, which I thought was fantastic.

#16 Citizenjoyce, I have A Place of Greater Safety by Mantel waiting patiently on my bookshelf. It's set in the French Revolution.

#17 Kiwiflowa, I haven't read The Rehearsal yet but if you look in one of the early Belletrista issues (www.belletrista.com) there is a really good interview with Eleanor Catton by Rachel (FlossieT). I am pretty slack about reading NZ fiction but was happy to see us represented on the list this year!

>16 Citizenjoyce: rebeccanyc just read most of Mantel's work, she would be a great person to check with. I'll leave her a note and see if she'll pop in here to post.

>18 cushlareads: The Catton interview is in Issue one of Belletrista.

#16 I sincerely hope it's very different. I bought Wolf Hall because it is set in one of my favourite historical periods and because I've seen so many good comments about it. I have to admit I've found the other Mantel books I have read (Beyond Black and Vacant Possession) absolute dross but I remain optimistic about this one which is getting ever nearer the top of Mount TBR.

#16: I've also read The Giant, O'Brien in addition to Wolf Hall. It was different in structure, and was very good. I also have A Place of Greater Safety, Fludd, and maybe one or two other books by Mantel.

I agree with avaland; rebeccanyc is the best person I can think of.

#16, 19, 21 I've been out of town and am just starting to catch up with threads, but thanks to Lois/avaland's posting on my profile I came right here to talk about Hilary Mantel.

One of the things I love about Mantel is that her books show great breadth of style and form as well as topics. She takes risks, and they don't always work.

The only book of hers that I have read that is "like" Wolf Hall is A Place of Greater Safety which is also a complex, historically based novel (about three key figures in the French Revolution). In some ways I liked it better than Wolf Hall, although people who found Wolf Hall frustrating to follow will find this more so.

After these books, I liked her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost best. It provides brilliant, completely unsentimental insight into her difficult childhood and young adulthood, a fascinating look at how much poverty and deprivation still existed in England in the 1950s(not that it doesn't still, but conveniences we might have taken for granted didn't exist), and a clear look at the power of class, religion, and health problems to direct and limit people's lives.

I also really enjoyed The Giant, O'Brien, which focuses on an Irish giant who is brought to London in the late 19th century to be displayed to the public as a way to bring in money. As with all Mantel's work, it is very humane as it looks at poverty, class, and exploitation within the framework of a compelling story.

I also liked Beyond Black, a very dark satire about the commercialism of contemporary life, people who believe in spirits and other psychic phenomena, and the stigma of fatness. It wasn't one of my favorites but it was compelling.

I enjoyed Fludd, in which Mantel uses wickedly pointed humor to take the reader to a bleak, semi-industrial town in northern England, the dispirited priest of its Catholic church, and the fear-inducing head nun of its convent -- and then the bishop sends Fludd, a young curate . . . or does he? Fludd, in any case, proceeds to very quietly change the lives of several people whose lives need changing.

And I enjoyed her book of short stories, Learning to Talk, deceptively simple tales of growing up.

I didn't like Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, about a young wife who accompanies her husband to Saudi Arabia.

Hope this is helpful. I still have a few other Mantels I haven't read yet.

I haven't read any of the other books on this year's list.

As for The Help, I agree with Cariola in #12, that while it has gotten raves (and been recommended to me by several people in real life0, the idea of it doesn't appeal to me at all; in fact, it makes me cringe a little. I may have to look at it in a bookstore to see how I react to the book itself.

>22 rebeccanyc: Funny thing, I used to eye Beyond Black the year it showed up on the OP longlist, but never picked it up. But your description intrigues me (or perhaps revives the earlier intrigue).

Thanks so much for your post, rebeccanyc. I may try her memoir and see how that goes.

As some of you probably know, I coordinate semi-annual personal reading challenges in honor of the Orange Prize (called Orange January and Orange July). During these months, readers pledge to read at least one book that has won or been nominated for the Orange Prize. That's the only rule. You don't have to write a review!

I typically announce Orange January/July (OJJ) on various threads, including Girlybooks and the 75 Book Reading Challenge. Though I am not a member of Club Read, I would be happy to post a thread here as the time draws closer.

In the meantime, if you are interested, I have created a Facebook fan page about OJJ. If you are on Facebook, please join us at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Orange-JanuaryJuly/107983879236088

Thanks! Jill =)

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver won the Orange Award for Fiction yesterday. Irene Sabatini's debut novel The Boy Next Door was selected as the winner of the Orange Award for New Writers.

Barbara Kingsolver wins the 15th Orange Prize for Fiction

Irene Sabatini wins the Orange Award for New Writers 2010

There is a special edition of the Guardian Books Podcast, which usually is released on Friday, in which the two usual hosts of the program discuss this year's Orange Prize Award winner, and compare it to her previous work, Wolf Hall (which both felt was the best book nominated for the award), the book industry and the role of literary awards in advancing the careers of authors and the sale of their books, and the other books on the Orange Prize shortlist and longlist. I found it to be an interesting and enlightening discussion, even though it was only 10 minutes in length.

Books podcast extra: The 2010 Orange prize winner

A number of us on the Orange January/July thread will be reading The Lacuna next month, for Orange July. I'll also read The Boy Next Door, which I bought earlier this year.

I ordered my copy of The Lacuna from The Book Depository; there is a paperback edition published by Faber and Faber, which is available for $10.34, with free shipping to the US, Canada, and most of Europe. The paperback edition won't be released in the US until August 24, and lists for $26.99; however, I just noticed that Amazon has dropped the book's price significantly, and is now selling it for $13.96.

Thanks for the podcast link. I'd have to agree with a number of their comments--especially questioning why The Children's Book has been overlooked and regarding the anti-Booker nod to The Lacuna as opposed to Wolf Hall.

Last year there was some discussion about a well known author who refused to let her books be nominated for Orange because she thought it was sexist? or something? Was that Byatt or someone else?

#28: You're right; it was Byatt:

A. S. Byatt denounces 'sexist' Orange prize

Ah, well that explains it. Funny the Guardian hosts didn't mention this. Their comment was that many of the prizes (not just the Orange) seem to have overlooked The Children's Book. (Sheesh, even LT's touchstones wants to reject it in favor of Orson Scott Card!)

Apparently Anita Brookner has also refused Orange nomination.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Children's Book. Of course we'll never know, but I think it would have made the shortlist and possibly won this year's award if Byatt hadn't taken such a harsh stand against it.

I think the A.S. Byatt situation is weird. I can understand Byatt having some issues with the Orange Prize. But, Byatt's point-of-view on the award doesn't effect the quality of her book. Why should her stance have any effect on who the Orange Prize committee selects? Since when do authors (or publishers) decide who can and cannot win an award?

Of course, this kind of thing undermines the winners. Some will wonder (including me) whether Kingsolver really won a big prize, or just got a concessionary prize because Byatt was excluded.

(I haven't listened to the podcast - no sound on my work machine...)

#32: According to the rules of the award, "it's up to the book's publisher to enter a novel for the Orange Prize for Fiction and/or the Orange Award for New Writers, and to do so by the deadline date set for that year. In addition, the judges are free to call in novels that haven't been submitted." So, the publishers are the ones who are mainly responsible for deciding which books the judging committee read. Byatt supposedly refused to allow her publishers to submit her book for the award, and given her stance about the award, it wouldn't be surprising to me that the judges refused to call in The Children's Book.

Do listen to the podcast; Armitstead and Crown discuss the possible controversy involved in this year's award.

Right, nobody wants to have a winner who disses the prize at the award ceremony!

>I believe Nadine Gordimer has a beef with the Orange Prize also.

#33/34 - yes, I know but...some self-compelling part of mind thinks the work should be separate from anything the author or publisher might do.

I've read a couple of good articles in the British press this morning about the Orange Prize and this year's winner. In the Independent the novelist Michèle Roberts, who was one this year's judges, talks about the importance of the award to women writers and the judging process:

Do we still need the Orange Prize?

And, the Guardian's Kira Cochrane interviews Barbara Kingsolver, who talks about the book and the criticism she received after comments she made after 9/11:

Barbara Kingsolver: from witch hunt to winner

Will the US press sit up and take notice of Kingsolver's win?

Thanks for the articles, kidzdoc,

I just finished Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and think she has to be nominated for an Orange Prize next year. Her style just sucks me in.

I read Property by Valerie Martin, which won the prize in 2003 for Orange July. The book was so well-written and difficult to read that I felt drained. It deals with the themes of slavery and longing for freedom from the point of view of a powerless wife who owns a slave. No one emerged untainted.

I keep hearing good things about Property. Guess I'm going to have to check it out.