Booker Prize Winner 2023

The winner of the 2023 Booker Prize for fiction was announced today, with Irish author Paul Lynch receiving the £50,000 prize for the novel, Prophet Song. 

Set in Dublin, Eilish Stack is a mother of four. One night, two officers from Ireland's secret police show up seeking her husband. As the government lurches towards tyranny, Eilish does whatever she can to keep her family together. The Judges write 'Paul Lynch's harrowing and dystopian Prophet Song vividly renders a mother's determination to protect her family as Ireland's liberal democracy slides inexorably and terrifyingly into totalitarianism.' 

Paul Lynch was born in Limerick and now calls Dublin home. He was a film critic and cinema writer for the Sunday Tribune and Sunday Times. His previous novels are Red Sky in Morning (2013), The Black Snow (2014), Grace (2017) and Beyond the Sea (2019) 

Chair of the Judging panel, Esi Edugyan, said of Prophet Song:

‘From that first knock at the door, Prophet Song forces us out of our complacency as we follow the terrifying plight of a woman seeking to protect her family in an Ireland descending into totalitarianism. We felt unsettled from the start, submerged in – and haunted by – the sustained claustrophobia of Lynch’s powerfully constructed world. He flinches from nothing, depicting the reality of state violence and displacement and offering no easy consolations.

‘Here the sentence is stretched to its limits – Lynch pulls off feats of language that are stunning to witness. He has the heart of a poet, using repetition and recurring motifs to create a visceral reading experience. This is a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave. With great vividness, Prophet Song captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment. Readers will find it soul-shattering and true, and will not soon forget its warnings.’

With three guys name Paul in the shortlist, it was a safe bet that one would win. I am pleased it is Paul Lynch for Prophet Song. While I have not yet read this novel, I love dystopian fiction, and this book stood out on the list as one that I would likely enjoy.

Pure Spirit

The Strike series by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) features my favourite detective duo of Cormoran Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott. Over the seven novels of the series, I have enjoyed observing these characters develop while they solve complex crimes. When I knew the latest novel was forthcoming, I preordered the book and audiobook of The Running Grave (2023), and commenced reading  as soon as it arrived. 

The previous book, The Ink Black Heart (2022) got bogged down with too many characters and long-winded sections of online chat threads. When I heard the next book would also run to close to a thousand pages, I was worried that Rowling would again go overboard with subplots and superfluous exposition. Fortunately, The Running Grave is a return to form. 

The main case in this novel involves a cult. Sir Colin Edensor contacts the detectives with a request to help free his son Will from the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC), which Sir Edensor believes has brainwashed him and cut off all communication. Will is staying at the Church's farm compound in Norfolk. The UHC is run by the charismatic Papa J and his wife Manu, who have created a mythology of various prophets and supernatural events. To infiltrate the UHC, Robin goes undercover as Rowena, a wealthy young woman. She is whisked off on a retreat to the farm, where she experiences the indoctrination and control of the UHC as she tries to find and get close to Will. 

While at the UHC, Robin faces serious danger. Recruits are forced into hard labour on minimal food rations. They are continually surveilled and suffer corporal punishment for infringements. The cult is also based on controlling sexual relationships, requiring people to engage in 'spirit-bonding' (coerced unprotected sex). Robin's quick wits are routinely tested and the only contact she has with the outside world is the messages she sneaks out once a week by hiding them in a fake rock in the forest. Rowling does an excellent job of portraying the physical and mental pressure that Robin is under, and the sense of ever-present danger.

Robin and Strike are seperate for most of this novel. He is worried sick about her in the cult, but tries to keep his mind busy with the other cases the team has on their list. Aside from the case, there are personal matters to deal with. Robin isn't sure how she feels about her police officer boyfriend Ryan (who we met in The Ink Black Heart), as she attempts to quash her feelings for Strike. Strike is facing multiple personal matters - Uncle Ted's dementia; ex-girlfriend Charlotte's instability; his demanding one-night-stand, Bijou; and building relationships with various half-siblings. But his biggest personal issue is he knows he is in love with Robin, but doesn't know what to do about it.

The Running Grave is my favourite book in this series so far. The audiobook is performed by Robert Glenister, a gifted actor who is able to portray the diverse characters giving them each a distinctive voice. Rowling masterfully weaves together various strands of plot and subplot, and, like all good crime series, The Running Grave ends with a tantalising cliffhanger which leaves the reader in anticipation of what comes next. Knowing that Rowling intends to have ten novels in this series, I cannot wait for the next one! 

My reviews of previous books in the series are available on this blog:

• The Cuckoo's Calling (2013) 
•  The Silkworm (2014) 
• Career of Evil (2016)
• Lethal White (2018)
• Troubled Blood (2020)
• The Ink Black Heart (2022)

 

Piece of Me

American singer-songwriter Britney Spears, the 'Princess of Pop', is one of the best-selling music artists of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Throughout her career she has been recognised with a Grammy Award, American Music Award and eight Billboard Music Awards. For three decades she has had number one singles and studio albums, creating memorable singles like 'Oops!... I Did It Again', 'Toxic', 'Womaniser' and 'Me Against the Music'. 

Alongside her career, Britney was often in the tabloids for her personal life - her high profile romances, her ill-advised marriages, her alcohol abuse, her mental health concerns and her battles to free herself from the conservatorship that controlled her life. In her memoir The Woman in Me (2023), Britney explores all of these matters giving her side of the story. I read this book while listening to the audiobook version read by actor Michelle Williams. The story was brought to life by Williams' incredible performance, an empathetic and moving voice. I would regularly stop reading to play Britney's music, watch videos or look up photos of events she referred to - like the 'pyjama top' she wore on a date with actor Colin Farrell or the double-denim look she and Justin Timberlake wore to the 2001 American Music Awards.

Britney Jean Spears was born in 1981 and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, a rural town near the Mississippi state line. As a child she loved to perform, singing and dancing, and participating in her church choir. She won many talent shows and was destined to be in show business. At age eight her mother took her to Atlanta to auction for The Mickey Mouse Club, but she was turned down because she was too young. After a brief stint in New York, at age ten Britney joined Disney's 1990s revival of The Mickey Mouse Club, performing alongside castmates Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling, Christina Aguilera, and Keri Russell. As seen in this clip from the show, she had a real presence, performing with Timberlake who would become her first boyfriend.

The show was cancelled in 1994 and Timberlake went off to join NSYNC. Spears was wooed for various girl groups but went out on her own to record her first album Baby One More Time (1999) which debuted at number one on the US charts and was the biggest-selling album by a teenager. In The Woman in Me Spears describes this period of her career and the making of the video, which changed her life. Suddenly she was in the spotlight, hounded by paparazzi. She also received a fair amount of criticism for her risqué attire and racy dancing. 

With Timberlake and Spears touring and achieving mega stardom, their relationship was in the spotlight. Spears writes about how she became pregnant and was persuaded by Timberlake to have an abortion as they were very young. He ended up breaking up with her via text message, and she was devastated at the media treatment of the pair. He portrayed her as a promiscuous heartbreaker, whereas the opposite was true. Shortly after the breakup her father forced her to do an interview with Diane Sawyer where she felt exploited and demeaned. 

Throughout the book Spears shows the sexism and misogyny in the music industry and the double standard applied to women. Those who should have protected her - her parents, siblings, husband - all sought to use her. Their lifestyles were fuelled by her success. 

Ultimately, Spears just wanted a simple life - a family and a home. She married Kevin Federline and had two boys in rapid succession - only to have custody of the children weaponised against her. She is forced into rehab as a tool to regain custody. 

Her father then embarks on a 13-year conservatorship in which all decisions about her life are taken out of her hands. Spears points out the contradictions of an adult woman so apparently unwell that she must be controlled by her parents, and yet well enough to tour relentlessly to keep the money rolling in. She is drugged against her will, told what to eat, surveilled and isolated from friends. Ultimately she is institutionalised. 

While in the facility a nurse tells her about the #FreeBritney movement led by her fans. This gave her the inner strength to go on, to get her own lawyer and challenge the conservatorship. When her father was removed, and the conservatorship ended, she was able to make decisions for herself, including the decision to remain estranged from her family. 

Spears is now free, to find herself and the life she wants. The book ends with her marriage to Sam Asghari, a man she has known since 2016 and who was a supporter of hers in the efforts to end the conservatorship. They married in 2022 and sadly miscarried the pregnancy she had been longing for. In August 2023 they announced their intention to divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. I had hoped that Britney would get the happy ending she deserves after such a shocking period of abuse and trauma.

The Woman in Me is a fascinating inside look on an industry that exploits young women, and the ways in which men and the media construct a narrative that is impossible to break. While it is not particularly well written, it is an important story that deserved to be told after so long being denied her own voice. You don't need to be a Britney Spears fan to appreciate this book, but it helps. I would also strongly recommend choosing the audiobook for this memoir. It is truly excellent.