It’s been a few years since I obsessed about reading the Giller titles (but that year I discovered Charlotte Gill’s Ladykiller and that was terrific).
Last year I brushed up against my troubled relationship with the list (Dear Giller Shortlist, Oh, how I used to wait for your five names…) but time has passed.
In between, there was my obsession with reading the Orange longlist (18 books read in a few weeks time) and my unexpected love of The Matter of Morris (which was shortlisted last year, although Johanna Skibsrud’s The Sentimentalists won).
That unexpected conjunction — a wide-reaching longlist obsession meets an accidental engagement with a specific shortlisted novel — has me thinking that it’s time to spend some time with the Giller list again.
(And the fact that a lot of authors whose works I’ve enjoyed in the past appear here doesn’t hurt: David Bezmozgis, Lynn Coady, Marina Endicott, Zsuzsi Gartner, Wayne Johnston, Suzette Mayr and Michael Ondaatje.)
But 17 books before the shortlist is announced on October 4th?
::looks nervously at the calendar::
That’s a lot of reading.
And other ongoing obsessions are impacting my September reading stacks as well (see my obsessing over the Toronto Book Award shortlist and the ReLit Awards shortlist, for instance).
To say little of the fact that the break in the summer’s humidity has me walking and exploring more than ever. (It’s hard, but not impossible, to combine these activities with reading.)
But this is my favourite time of year. And good reading is a big part of that.
Where would you start reading on this longlist?
THE 2011 GILLER PRIZE (More deets here on their site.)
The Free World, David Bezmozgis (HarperCollins)
The Meagre Tarmac, Clark Blaise (Biblioasis)
The Antagonist, Lynn Coady (House of Anansi)
The Beggar’s Garden, Michael Christie (HarperCollins)
The Sisters Brothers, Patrick DeWitt (House of Anansi)
Extensions, Myrna Dey (NeWest Press) *Reader’s Choice
Half-Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan (Thomas Allen)
The Little Shadows, Marina Endicott (Doubleday)
Better Living though Plastic Explosives, Zsuzsi Gartner (Hamish Hamilton)
Solitaria, Genni Gunn (Signature Editions)
Into the Heart of the Country, Pauline Holdstock (HarperCollins)
A World Elsewhere, Wayne Johnston (Knopf)
The Return, Dany Laferrière, Trans. David Homel (Douglas & McIntyre)
Monoceros, Suzette Mayr (Coach House)
The Cat’s Table, Michael Ondaatje (McClelland & Stewart)
A Good Man, Guy Vanderhaeghe (McClelland & Stewart)
Touch, Alexi Zentner (Knopf)
NOTE: Titles link to my responses to these books, and publishers’ names link to their page for that particular book.
And, another NOTE: If you’re interested in the Giller books, do check out KevinfromCanada’s Shadow Giller pages. Selections from the longlist appear not only on his site, but also at Reading Matters and The Mookse and the Gripes.
Followed by a QUESTION: Are you reading the Giller longlist, or parts of it? Do tell!
Very impressive! I find I can never force myself through a whole longlist – I invariably get distracted. I am thinking recently though about trying to read every book that’s ever won the Pulitzer, which I think I might just about be able to handle . . .
Heheh, well best to avoid the effort when you know it’ll culminate in disappointment. But I’m glad to hear you’re not at all disappointed with Marina Endicott’s novel. That one is creeping up my stack as well, and I’m quite intrigued.
I’m nearly done The Little Shadows & I’m really liking it. Next up is, I think, Extensions, if I can get my hands on it. Plus I do want to read Into the Heart of the Country, and really should finish The Sisters Brothers one of these days! I never make a big effort to read the lists because I know I just won’t do it 😉
Heheh, well best to avoid the effort when you know it’ll culminate in disappointment. But I’m glad to hear you’re not at all disappointed with Marina Endicott’s novel. That one is creeping up my stack as well, and I’m quite intrigued.
I have them all on hold at the library but that means I won’t get the long-list read before next week – nor will I have the short list read before November but at least it has given me some great books to look forward to.
It’s likely more enjoyable to spread them out over the following year anyhow. But I won’t have any shortage of good reading material even if I do manage to read all 17 before the prize is announced!
What a goal! I haven’t read any of the books on the Giller list so I look forward to reading your thoughts on them. 🙂
Thanks, Vasilly. I hadn’t read any of them in advance either, so I really was starting from scratch.
Quite ambitious! I’ll be following your progress and supporting you all the way. All the best.
Thanks, Kinna. With cupcakes? Or cheers? Or… ::grin::
I’ve got The Sisters Brothers and Half Blood Blues at the top of my list because they also made the Booker list. I have to say that cowboys are an instant turn-off, but I keep hearing such great things about the narrative voice that I’m curious to see what deWitt does with the western genre. I’ve also got Fauna on the “TBR soon” list.
I just bought TSB and HBH a couple of hours before your comment came through: I’m quite keen on those two as well. And I think Alissa York’s fiction is amazing: I have been hoarding a copy of Fauna since it was published, but I will indulge this month (and hope that she doesn’t keep me waiting too long for her next).
I’m a bit ashamed to say I’ve only even heard of a couple of those! I hope amongst whichever you end up reading, you discover some lovely gems.
Likely the same response that I’d have to the American National Book Award longlist, Erin: only so many books that we can take in! And, thanks: I hope to find some treasures too!
Reading the longlist – that is ambitious! I try to read the shortlist between when it is announced and when the winner is announced – 5 books in a month is much more realistic for me! Though last year, I never did get around to reading The Sentimentalist. It is sitting on my nightstand with still only the first 3 pages read.
Of this year’s long list, I have read The Beggar’s Garden (I highly recommend it); and The Cat’s Table is sitting at the top of my TBR list (though i couldn’t resist dipping into a Robertson Davies re-read before picking it up).
Good luck to you if you decide to read your way through the long list 🙂
Thanks, Kate! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the short-listed books. I know we had similar readings of David Bergen’s novel last year and I, too, have Ondaatje’s latest on the bedside table, near the top of the stack.