The Booker Prize Longlist, 2022

Hello Gentle Reader,
 
The Booker Prize Longlist has been announced, which brings to mind (or at least the faintest hope) that perhaps we are nearing the threshold of summers end—or more precisely: the end of the oppressive heat. This year’s Booker Prize is noted for two measures, one the age range between the listed writers is a variety of both youth and seniority, but also once again the American’s are noted for dominating the nominations, which brings to question the prizes’ ability to assess quality over quantity. Yet considering the change has already been in effect for an extended period of time and is as settled as a cat on the windowsill, which inevitably means I doubt the American’s will be excluded any time soon; rather the invasion is here to stay. Yet this year’s longlist does have some peculiar talking points and unique writers.
 
First the following are the 13 longlisted writers and their works:
 

Claire Keegan – Ireland – “Small Things Like These,”

Alan Garner – UK – “Treacle Walker,”

Elizabeth Stout – USA – “Oh William!”

Percival Everett – USA – “The Trees,”

Karen Joy Fowler – USA – “Booth,”

Shehan Karunatilaka – Sri Lanka – “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida,”

Audrey Magee – Ireland – “The Colony,”

Leila Mottley – USA – “Nightcrawling,”

Selby Wynn Schwartz – USA – “After Sappho,”

Graeme Macrae Burnet – Scotland/UK – “Case Study,”

Maddie Mortimer – UK – “Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies,”

NoViolet Bulawayo – Zimbabwe – “Glory,”

Hernan Diaz – USA – “Trust,”

 
Alan Garner is one of the more unique writers on the list, at the age of 87, Garner is the oldest nominee on this year’s longlist with his novel “Treacle Walker,” which is being described as a beautiful novel detailing the remarkable beauty of the world via a child’s perspective, who in turn forms a unique and bewildering relationship with a man drifter by the name of Treacle Walker. “Treacle Walker,” has been described as one of the most refreshing parables of the modern times. Alan Garner’s writing has been recognized (even pigeonholed) within the confines of children’s literature, in a fashion similar to Philip Pullman, where the confines of children’s literature and adult fiction are easily blurred. In more certain terms, Alan Garner’s work is universal in scope, able to be enjoyed by both adults and children in equal fashion. Garner’s work is also known for its fantastical elements, as is described as fantasy in nature, which often means his work is sidestepped or skirted when it comes to discussions of serious literature. But the Booker Prize has shown before that fantasy does not mean cheap, when in 2004 Susanna Clarke’s novel “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,” was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Where Susanna Clarke had a literary eye and talent for historical detail and revisionist wonderment, Alan Garner writes with the United Kingdom’s folkloric roots and landscape within his novels, where the archetypes of myth and folklore are components of daily life and psychological reasoning, with archaeological wonderment. Personally, Alan Garner nomination and induction has been described as long overdue, and the recognition well deserved.
 
In turn, Claire Keegan’s novel “Small Things Like These,” is only 128 pages, and is by far the shortest novel on this year’s longlist. But as a short story writer by trade (and mastery) Claire Keegan proves her greatest literary talent asset is her jeweler’s eye for fine craftsmanship. “Small Things Like These,” has also been described as a ‘Christmas Novel,’ in fashion to enchant and bring for the visions of the Dickensian “A Christmas Carol,” which within its gothic ghost story, exemplifies the moral education of a miserable old miser to find the principles of goodness and charity and reform his cheapened and crooked ways. Claire Keegan’s novel is equally dark dealing with the Magdalene laundries in Ireland, and the oppressive dark authoritarian rule of the Catholic Church throughout Ireland. Keegan proves concision is not an insult, “Small Things Like These,” is as refreshing as a beautiful morning of fresh snowfall, pristine with crystalline prose. Keegan is a master of cadence and tone, her novels reverberate well below what is written on the page, providing enough nuance, context, and insinuation that her work haunts long after the last page has been turned. Claire Keegan also has a talent of dissecting tension after the disaster, providing evidence that the tension is not left to leading up to the catastrophe, but can continue to reverberate after the event. Claire Keegan is a masterful writer, and a genuine master of the short story, a true practitioner of the ‘Irish Short Story,’ which would make William Trevor proud.
 
Other books of note include the gruesome horrific histography found in Percival Everett’s “Trees,” which recounts the United States historical legacy of lynching. The feminist chorus of womanhood and trailblazing revolutionary. In “Glory,” NoViolet Bulawayo recounts an anthropomorphic political satire depicting the fall of Robert Mugabe. In “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida,” Shehan Karunatilaka has also drafted a searing adventurous political satire set during the mayhem and murder of Sri Lanka’s civil war. Leila Mottley in turn is the youngest writer to be nominated and longlisted for the Booker Prize at the age of 20 with her novel “Nightcrawling,” which is a harrowing realist story about the cruel realities of those overlooked, disenfranchised, and impoverished within the modern world. Detailing the story of siblings Kiara and Marcus, the novel shifts between dreams of rap stardom and the daily struggles of dead-end jobs and taking care of those equally abandoned within the greater world. The novel has been described as an energetically intense and unflinchingly raw.
 
The Booker Prize Longlist for 2022 is certainly a diverse portfolio. I suspect we will certainly see Alan Garner, Claire Keegan, and NoViolet Bulawayo on the shortlist (though there is a wide margin for error); but personally, the two stand out novels on this year’s longlist truly are: Alan Garner’s “Treacle Walker,” and Clare Keegan’s “Small Things Like These.”
 
 
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
 
M. Mary