A great find

Doesn’t really advertise itself does it! This is The Willow Tree , a Pub in Barnby in the Willows, Newark. A few miles off the A1, it was the perfect place to break our journey down to Kent, with an excellent Sunday lunch.
 
 
(optional reading)
Man Booker Prize
Tomorrow we are going, with our daughters, to the South Bank Centre for Readings given by the shortlisted authors. The prize will be awarded on Tuesday. For anyone interested, as well as for my own record, I offer my thoughts on the books. Three I would recommend; two I wouldn’t; about one I don’t know what to say.

Deborah Levy: Hot Milk
Graeme Macrae Burnet: His Bloody Project
Madeleine Thien: Do Not Say We Have Nothing
 
Ottessa Moshfegh: Eileen
David Szalay: All That Man Is
 
Paul Beatty: Sellout
 
I think ‘Hot Milk’ is the most accomplished book of the set. It is skilfully written, readable, funny and deals with a number of issues, such as hypochondria, identity, responsibility. I would recommend this to anyone.
 
‘His Bloody Project’ is a stunning book. It is not the crime thriller it has been labelled, but a very readable and intriguing exploration into a murder in a crofting community in the Scottish Highlands of the1860s. So many issues and so many sides to the event, the reader is left to make up their own mind about it all. Read this if you get a chance.
 
I enjoyed ‘Do Not Say We Have Nothing’, but it is a long book and quite heavy-going. Two Chinese families, linked by music, and crushed by the communist revolution, the impact of which is felt through three generations. An epic that tells an important story and is beautifully written. Its complexity will put many people off, but it is definitely worth reading, if you are up for a challenge.
 
‘Eileen’ is readable and I quite enjoyed it (both daughters liked it a lot!). I don’t think it is a convincing story, but maybe that’s just me. 
 
‘All That Man Is’ is a series of short stories about men at different stages in life. I read two, found them very bleak and was not inclined to read any more. Reviewers say that the stories do not hang together to make a whole and it is not a novel, but I cannot offer an opinion on this.
 
And then there is ‘Sellout’! I have tried to read this three times and have had to give up each time. I will not be trying again. Gordon has got to page 15, which is more than I did, and hasn’t a clue what is going on. It is obviously an important book, a satire on US racial politics. In the Observer today Robert McCrum describes it as ‘timely, hilarious and brilliant’. So it must be just me then!!
 
No one has any idea what the outcome will be. Interesting that the favourite with the bookies is now Thien, where it has always been Levy. But then the favourite rarely wins anyway. If I had to choose, I would go for the Levy, but I don’t mind which of the first three wins, they are all worthy of the prize. However, I just have a feeling they might go with Beatty, which would mean two years of my having read most of the shortlisted books, but being unable or unwilling to read the winner.