Goldsmiths Shortlist 2018
by Sunita
The Goldsmiths Prize shortlist was announced yesterday. This may be my favorite literary fiction award. It is dedicated to finding fiction that is innovative and plays with the boundaries of the form. Some nominees have been quite experimental, others less so, but they’re all interesting. I definitely haven’t liked every book I read from the lists, but I’ve also found some gems.
This year’s list:
- Kudos by Rachel Cusk
- Murmur by Will Eaves
- In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne
- The Cemetery in Barnes by Gabriel Josipovici
- Crudo by Olivia Laing
- The Long Take by Robin Robertson
I’ve read the Cusk, Robertson, and part of the Gunaratne. I’ve been wanting to get the Eaves but it isn’t published in the US yet so there’s the inevitable finding-it-elsewhere issue (and no ebook version). I wasn’t much interested in the Laing, but I’ll read it now. And I’d never heard of the Josipovici although he’s 77 and greatly admired.
The Robertson and Gunaratne are on the Booker shortlist, and Kushner is nominated for the third straight year. The Laing was tipped by a number of people since it got quite a bit of buzz when it was published.
I’ll read the full list and report back. I need to write up a proper review of the Cusk. And I still have my three remaining Booker longlist books to write about, some of which I still have to finish.
I’m working on the National Book Awards list but haven’t started any of the Giller longlist yet. That shortlist comes out on October 1 and I may just punt and read those (plus whatever doesn’t make it that I already decided I wanted to read).
I would love a three-day escape where I did nothing but read books. Instead I’m reading hundreds of pages for work each week and I have two papers to revise in the next month. But that’s another whole post’s worth of complaining so I won’t do it here. 🙂
ReaderWriterVille 
The Gunarante really appeals to me. I’ve heard it compared to Faulkner…
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I’ve read about 1/4 of it and so far I like it a lot. Some of the readers in the Mookes and Gripes group at Goodreads think it’s not cutting-edge enough for the Goldsmiths, and I can see their point. But he handles the different voices really well (different backgrounds and ages), and while the dialect can get a bit wearying at times it is totally appropriate for the topic and characters. It’s very atmospheric and I like the polyphonic voices.
Now that I think about it, I think it *does* fit the Goldsmiths. It’s not experimental in the currently fashionable ways but it isn’t a straight narrative or plot or set of characterizations, even though the characters are easily recognizable (if that makes sense).
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