In the Media, May 2016, Part Three

In the media is a fortnightly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous fortnight and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as as traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

Books in translation have been having a moment following Han Kang and translator Deborah Smith winning the Man Booker International Prize for The Vegetarian. They wrote, ‘It is fascinating to ponder the possibili­ties of language‘ for The Guardian; Charles Montgomery wrote, ‘The Triumph of Han Kang and the Rise of Women’s Writing in Korea‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books; Sophie Hughes wrote, ‘On the Joyful Tears of a Translator‘ on Literary Hub. Judith Vonberg writes, ‘Translated fiction is not a genre. Why do bookshops tell us it is?‘ in The New Statesman and Anjali Enjeti asks, ‘Do Americans Hate Foreign Fiction‘ on Literary Hub

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Rose Tremain, ‘Forty Years as a Writer‘ on Waterstones’ Blog
• Francesca Simon, ‘I’m a mixture of both Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter‘ in The Telegraph
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘To Break the Story, You Must Break the Status Quo‘ on Literary Hub
• Rose Courteau, ‘Team Ladislaw: What Henry James (and Everyone Else) Gets Wrong About Middlemarch‘ on The Millions
• Claire Christian, ‘Self-publish and be sneered at?‘ in The Bookseller
• Hannah Engler, ‘Nora Ephron and Literary Moms‘ on Bookriot
• Sarah LeFanu, ‘on Women’s Writing: A Small Bit of Recent History‘ on Something Rhymed
• Sarah Boxer, ‘Reading Proust on My Cellphone‘ on The Atlantic
• Casey Rocheteau, ‘Literary Juneteenth (or Why I Left The Offing)‘ on The Offing
• Julie Feng, ‘The Weight of the World, The Weight of Words‘ on Winter Tangerine
• Amy Watkin, ‘Harper Lee Would Like a Word With You‘ on McSweeney’s
• Rufi Thorpe, ‘Actually, All Writers Steal‘ on Literary Hub
• Julia Rochester, ‘My fiction is preoccupied with belonging and exile‘ in The Guardian
• Nuzaifa, ‘Muslims Represented in YA Fiction‘ on Word Contessa
• Zara Raab, ‘These Molten Flowers: on Lola Ridge, radical poet and activist‘ on Critical Flame
• Soniah Kamal, ‘When My Authentic Is Your Exotic‘ on Literary Hub
• Glosswitch, ‘Re-reading Wide Sargasso Sea‘ on Glosswatch
• Paula Erizanu, ‘Sarah Crossan wins the Irish children’s book of the year‘ in The Guardian
• Elif Shafak, ‘Writing Fiction is an Act of Faith‘ on Waterstones’ Blog
• Bridget Read, ‘Jenny Diski, Down the Final Rabbit Hole‘ on Literary Hub
• Melissa Holbrook Pierson, ‘That’s Inspiration!: Rereading Annie Dillard‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Enrique Vila-Matas, ‘The Unstoppable Myth of Alejandra Pizarnik‘ on Literary Hub
• Judith Shulevitz, ‘The Brontës’ Secret‘ on The Atlantic
• Alex Clark, ‘‘No drugs on the bus’: Carol Ann Duffy takes a road trip‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Enright, ‘In search of the real Maeve Brennan‘ in The Guardian
• Milena Busquets, ‘Writing my way out of the loneliness of grief‘ on The Pool
• Laura Miller, ‘Introducing My Ántonia‘ on Slate
• Nina Stibbe, ‘Helena Bonham Carter was cast in a TV series about my life – and all I could do was blag a Harry Potter ticket from her,’ in The Telegraph
• Candace Opper, ‘The Suicide Memoir: True Crime, Mystery and Grief‘ on Literary Hub
• Rebecca Smart, ‘Pride not prejudice’ in The Bookseller
• Nicole Brinkley, ‘“Women built this castle”: An in-depth look at sexism in YA.‘ on YA Interrobang
• Samantha Shannon, ‘An abridged Da Vinci Code implies teens need simple books – they don’t‘ in The Guardian
• Lucy Caldwell, ‘On Why Short Stories Matter‘ on Faber & Faber Blog
• Lynn Steger Strong, ‘Topography of a Novel: Hold Still‘ on Blunderbuss
• Robin Wasserman, ‘What Does It Mean When We Call Women Girls‘ on Literary Hub
• Rebecca Wait, ‘Following the Leader‘ on Waterstones’ Blog
• Marianne Tatipo, ‘Young, BAME, and chasing the ‘alternative route into publishing’ dream‘ in The Bookseller
• Chris Power, ‘A brief survey of the short story: Lucia Berlin‘ in The Guardian
• Janice P. Nimura, ‘History Never Ends, It Just Gets Retold‘ on Literary Hub
• Helena Fitzgerald, ‘How Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love Saved Me‘ on Literary Hub
• Laura Smith, ‘House Hunting with Martha Gellhorn‘ on Hazlitt
• Mikita Brottman, ‘Jane Austen’s Ivory Cage‘ in The American Scholar
• Faye Bird, ‘Why I Wanted to Write About Selective Mutism‘ on Scottish Booktrust
• Chris Kraus, ‘I Love Dick happened in real life, but it’s not a memoir‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Jess Carroll, ‘Watch Me Bathe‘ on Hazlitt
• Amy Jones, ‘Stuck in the middle — between body positivity and clean eating‘ on Medium
• Carly Rose, ‘My Journey Into the Woods: What Stephen Sondheim Taught Me About Conceiving a Child‘ on Electric Literature
• Joanna Sing, ‘What I Have Learnt from Being (Occasionally) White-Passing‘ on Gal-Dem
• Nicole Cliffe, ‘How God Messed Up My Happy Atheist Life‘ on Christianity Today
• Eva Hagberg Fisher, ‘Vital Signs‘ on Guernica
• Maggie O’Farrell, ‘‘I have three seconds before she draws blood’: life with extreme eczema‘ in The Guardian
• Helena Fitzgerald, ‘The Fierce Triumph of Loneliness‘ on Catapult
• Vanessa Hua, ‘The Sandwich Generation‘ in the San Francisco Chronicle
• Anna March, ‘The Burn‘ on Midnight Breakfast
• Katrina Kenison, ‘Solitude: A Reprieve from the Noise of Doing‘ on On Being
• Sinéad Gleeson, ‘Blue Hills and Chalk Bones‘ on Granta
• Nina Stibbe’s letter to her younger self: ‘Try not to have a weave perm’ in The Guardian
• Rufi Thorpe, ‘Do the Deer‘ on Medium
• Rumaan Alam, ‘What Happened When I Tried to Have It All‘ on The Cut

Feminism:

• Katie J.M. Baker, ‘Ethics and the Eye of the Beholder‘ on Buzzfeed
• Alana Massey, ‘The Clique Imaginary‘ in The New Inquiry
• Lena Dunham, ‘Sorry, Not Sorry: My Apology Addiction‘ on Linkedin
• Emma Garman, ‘A Liberated Woman: The Story of Margaret King‘ on Longreads
• Joanna Walsh, ‘“She wore a USB cord instead of a necklace”: whatever happened to Cyberfeminism?‘ in The New Statesman
• Rebecca Reid, ‘GirLand, Habbo Hotel and me: how I learned to masturbate online‘ in The New Statesman
• Lola Okolosie, ‘“Misogynoir is a very real problem and feminism can no longer ignore it”‘ in Stylist
• Laura Maw, ‘Rhythms of Fear‘ on Hazlitt
• Afak Afgun, ‘Women carry a heavier coffin‘ on Sister-Hood
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Stop telling women they’re doing feminism wrong‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘In Defense of Motherhood as Art‘ on Vela
• Sian Norris, ‘The value of women’s silence‘ on Sian and Crooked Rib
• Lasha, ‘bell hooks vs. Beyoncé: What this feminist scholarly critique gets wrong about “Lemonade” and liberation‘ on Salon
• Sari Botton, ‘Unchain My Heart: On the Emotional Effectiveness – and Lingering Sexism – of Jewish Divorce‘ on Longreads
• Lindy West, ‘Why women need to be bigger: on why we all should be loud and proud‘ in Stylist

Society and Politics:

• Charlotte Riley, ‘Working class girls don’t threaten our universities, they enrich them‘ in The New Statesman
• Jessica Contrera, ‘13, right now‘ in The Washington Post
• Daisy Hernández, ‘Kiss of Death‘ in Guernica
• Lindy West, ‘My husband isn’t fat, and that enrages people‘ on The Pool
• Holly Root-Gutteridge, ‘The songs of the wolves‘ on Aeon
• Mary Wang, ‘Seeing Through the Fog, Part Two‘ on Guernica
• Tracy O’Neill, ‘The Long Line to Tonight‘ on Catapult
• Ella Wilks-Harper, ‘There’s a Fine Line Between Tokenism and Diversity‘ on Gal-Dem
• Tracie White, ‘The Puzzle Solver‘ on Stanford Medicine
• Katherine Laidlaw, ‘Hold the Fort‘ on The Walrus
• Sonia Faliero, ‘The Long Rescue‘ in Harper’s
• Mallika Rao, ‘From Nina to Lemonade, Why We’re Still So Bad at Talking About Colorism‘ on Slate
• Deborah Halber, ‘192 Days as John Doe’ on Mosaic
• Bridget Minamore, ‘Racism and misogyny explains why there are so few black women in politics‘ on The Pool
• Christine Baumgarthuber, ‘Dinner with Caligula‘ on The New Inquiry
• Anna Furman, ‘Meeting Edward Said‘ on Guernica

Film, Television, Music, Art, Fashion and Sport:

• Louise Ridley, ‘Celebrity Injunctions Show ‘Moral Abuse’ Of Courts As They Are ‘Almost Entirely Taken Out By Unfaithful Men’ Say Lawyers‘ on The Huffington Post
• Arielle Bernstein, ‘Beyond the “girl power” anthem: Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey and pop’s radical embrace of female vulnerability‘ on Salon
• Elizabeth Daley, ‘Above and Beyoncé‘ on Guernica
• Joanna Sing, ‘Can We Excuse Azealia Banks on Account of Her Bipolar Disorder?‘ on Gal-Dem

The interviews/profiles:

• Miranda Beverly Whittemore on Literary Hub
• Emma Cline on The Bookseller
• Emma Straub in The New York Times
• Mary Gaitskill on Guernica
• Mona Awad on Hazlitt
• Lindy West on Buzzfeed
• Stephanie Danler on Electric Literature, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair and Guernica
• Kit de Waal in The Bookseller
• Rufi Thorpe on Electric Literature
• Fionnuala Kearney on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Rebecca Schiff on Electric Literature
• Svetlana Alexievich on The Millions
• Sarah Perry on Foyles
• MariNaomi on The Millions
• Margo Jefferson in The Observer
• Kelly Link on The Masters Review
• Anakana Schofield on The Gloss
• Teow Lim Goh on The Fem
• Elena Ferrante in The New Yorker
• Rivka Galchen on Electric Literature

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner

In the Media, April 2016, Part Two

In the media is a fortnightly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous fortnight and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as as traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

It’s the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth. Contributors including Sarah Waters, Margaret Drabble and Jeanette Winterson reflect on Jane Eyre in The Guardian; Samantha Ellis wrote about ‘The Greatest Heroines of All Time‘ on the BBC, and Sam Jordison asked, ‘Reading Jane Eyre: can we truly understand Charlotte Brontë or her heroine today?‘ in The Guardian. The Brontë Blog is doing an excellent job of curating everything and well worth having a look at.

The Guardian commissioned some research into the 70 million comments which have been left on its website since 2006. The results revealed that while the highest commenters are white men, the most abuse was left on articles by eight women writers and two male writers of colour. The only people who seemed surprised were white men. It’s great to have statistical evidence in support of this but listening to female writers and male writers of colour and acting on it might be a good idea too. Jessica Valenti, the most targeted writer wrote, ‘Insults and rape threats. Writers shouldn’t have to deal with this‘.

Andrew Piper and Richard Jean So decided to carry out some analysis regarding the words used in book reviews of books by male and female writers, ‘Women Write About Family, Men Write About War‘ in the New Republic details their findings.

The Baileys’ Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist was announced this week. Hanya Yanagihara has ‘A Little Life – A Photo Story‘ on the Picador Blog; Anne Enright, Elizabeth McKenzie, Hanya Yanagihara and Lisa McInerney are interviewed on the Baileys’ Prize blog, along with longlistees Shirley Barrett, Vesna Goldsworthy, Becky Chambers, Julia Rochester and Kate Atkinson. Some of us (myself included) were shocked that Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins failed to make the shortlist, Eleanor Franzen considers why on Litro.

And in Australia, the Miles Franklin literary award longlist was announced with books by women taking five of the nine slots.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Gillian Flynn, ‘The book that inspired Gone Girl‘ in The Guardian
• Hilary Mantel, ‘My Writing Day‘ in The Guardian
• Curtis Sittenfeld, ‘Most romances are badly written‘ in The Telegraph
• Alison Flood, ‘Miss Peregrine author returns with illustrated collection of fairytales‘ in The Guardian
• Jonathon Sturgeon, ‘On a Strong 2016 Man Booker International Shortlist, Ferrante Still Looks Like a Sure Thing‘ on Flavorwire
• Harriet Brown, ‘Leave Peter Rabbit Alone‘ in The Guardian
• Robert Gottlieb, ‘Brilliant, Troubled Dorothy Parker‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Samantha Powell, ‘Fifteen Years Later, Bridget Jones Is Still Teaching Me to Embrace Imperfection‘ on The Cut
• Lynn Steger-Strong, ‘Reader-Based‘ on Catapult
• Tanya Gold, ‘Working as a diarist meant not caring about the people you hurt‘ in The New Statesman
• Alana Massey, ‘Climbing Mount Sontag‘ in Hazlitt
• Alexandra Alter, ‘Curtis Sittenfeld Is No Jane Austen, But She’s O.K. with That‘ in The New York Times
• Louisa Thomas, ‘The Conflicted Early Feminism of Louisa Catherine Adams‘  on Literary Hub
• Hilton Als, ‘Immediate Family: Maggie Nelson’s Life in Words‘ in The New Yorker
• Michelle Dean, ‘The Wreck: Adrienne Rich’s feminist awakening, glimpsed through her never-before-published letters.‘ in New Republic
• Kim Brooks, ‘A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Mom‘ in The Cut
• Anya Groner, ‘Space Tourism in Modern Storytelling‘ on Electric Literature
• Natasha Carthew, ‘I didn’t see working class identity in books when I was growing up, and I don’t see enough now‘ in The Guardian
• Rumaan Alam, ‘Why Wasn’t Great American Novelist Jane Smiley on the Cover of a Magazine?‘ in Literary Hub
• Elena Sheppard, ‘Why I’ve been reading and re-reading “Bridget Jones’s Diary” for 20 years‘ on Hello Giggles
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘How to buy the perfect book for someone else‘ on The Pool
• Esme Weijun Wang, ‘Why My Novel Uses Untranslated Chinese‘ on Literary Hub
• Diane McWhorter, ‘Harper Lee, the National Antidote‘ on Slate
• Bridget Read, ‘On Maggie Nelson’s The Red Parts, Ten Years Later’ on Literary Hub
• Anne K. Yoder, ‘Fiction Must Be Fed: On Margaret Cavendish, Frida Kahlo, and Marie Curie‘ on The Millions
• Lindsay Merbaum, ‘Not a Real Writer: How Self-Doubt Holds Me Back‘ on Electric Literature
• Laura Miller, ‘I’ll Be There for You: The difficult, dangerous task of writing about a friend‘ on Slate
• Melissa Chadburn, ‘The Girl in the Cabinet (I Read What You Wrote and I Hate You)‘ on Electric Literature
• Hannah Gersen, ‘Gluten-Free Proust‘ on The Millions
• Fatima Bhutto, ‘My Grandfather’s Library, Relic of a Freer Pakistan‘ on Literary Hub
• Ann Patchett, ‘The Bookstore Fights Back‘ on Literary Hub
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Women Writers You Should Know: Constance Fenimore Woolson‘ in The Toast
• Ainehi Edoro, ‘How not to talk about African fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Jesse Crispin, ‘The Self-Hating Book Critic‘ on Copper Nickel
• Clare Warner, ‘‘Her nose was straight with a soft tip at the end’ — Writing Race at School‘ on Media Diversified
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘I realised I’d been sold a lie about women’ in The Guardian
• John William Walker Zeiser, ‘The Unsettling Gaze of Han Kang: Examining Han Kang’s The Vegetarian and Human Acts‘ on Electric Literature
• Lynnette Lounsbury, ‘I loved the beat generation. Then I realised it has no place for women‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Kat Lister, ‘Saying “No” doesn’t have to be negative‘ on The Pool
• Marina Lucic, ‘Lessons on Hate‘ in Litro
• Lauren Libbert, ‘Losing my mother, then losing the music that could soothe after she’d gone‘ on The Pool
• Maggie Thach Morshed, ‘Shooting in the Dark‘ on Catapult
• Meagan O’Connell, ‘How Did I Wind Up a Housewife in Paradise?‘ on The Cut
• Lydia Kiesling, ‘Throwing Away the Most Beautiful Dress I Ever Owned‘ on The Cut
• Lorena Piñeiro, ‘Penance‘ in Midnight Breakfast
• Faith Adiele, ‘All of the Above‘ on The Rumpus
• Mega Majumdar, ‘Laughter as Criticism‘ in Guernica
• Lily Gutierrez, ‘Peaches and Melisande‘ on Motherland
• Lynsey Hanley, ‘How I became middle-class‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Gavino, ‘A Band Named HotdogA Band Named HotdogA Band Named Hotdog‘ on Catapult
• Clare Archibald, ‘Congealed‘ on The Real Story
• Kate Bolick, ‘Afterlives: My Mother’s Breast Cancer, and My Own‘ in The New Yorker
• Kathryn Harrison, ‘On the Impossibility of Seeing Yourself‘ on Literary Hub
• Penny Anderson, ‘What it feels like to do your make-up when you’re blind‘ on The Pool
• Soraya Chemaly, ‘Listening to Old Women‘ in The Toast
• Melissa Broder, ‘How I Discovered the Power of a Hot-Pink Fake Penis‘ in The Cut
• Anissa Helou, ‘Before the War: The Lost Delicacies of Aleppo‘ on Literary Hub
• Heather Havrilesky, ‘My Wedding Was a Disaster, and Yours Will Be, Too‘ on The Cut

Feminism:

• Revati Upadhya, ‘I’m A Woman Who Doesn’t Have Or Want Kids, And I’m Happy‘ on Buzzfeed
• Fariah Roísín, ‘In My Image‘ on Maisonneuve
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Who would think any good could come from an MP calling a woman ‘totty’?‘ in The Guardian
• Marisa Bate, ‘The everyday bravery of being a woman‘ on The Pool
• Sara Pascoe, ‘Boob jobs are viewed as a decorative tweak, but these women are self-harming’ in The Guardian
• Jill Lepore, ‘The Sovereignty of Women‘ in The New Yorker
• Rachel Aviv, ‘The Cost of Caring‘ in The New Yorker
• Shohana Khan, ‘If Muslim women’s clothing makes them consenting slaves, who are their slave masters?‘ on Media Diversified
• Siobhan Fenton, ‘Today in the UK, a woman was sentenced for the crime of an abortion – yet we act outraged at Donald Trump‘ in The Independent
• Stephanie Boland, ‘Think Donald Trump’s comments are shocking? They’re the law for some UK women‘ in The New Statesman
• Jesse Singal, ‘Is Attachment Parenting a Plot to Force Women Back Into the Home?‘ in The Cut
• Melissa Gira Grant, ‘Heather‘ on Buzzed
• Bridget Minamore, ‘Being a dark-skinned woman and the prejudices we face ‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Erika Hayasaki, ‘In a Perpetual Present‘ on Wired
• Catherine Buni & Soraya Chemaly, ‘The Secret Rules of the Internet‘ on The Verge
• Laura Elizabeth Woollet, ‘In Search of the Darkest Cult in American History‘ on Literary Hub
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘How Teju Cole Helped Me Make Peace with the Nigerian Scam Artist‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Kolbert, ‘Unnatural Selection‘ in The New Yorker
• Lynn Casteel Harper, ‘On Vanishing‘ in Catapult
• Elizabeth Senja Spackman, ‘Proximal Grief‘ in Guernica
• Pamela Rolloff, ‘The Reckoning‘ in Texas Monthly
• Rachel Vorona Cote, ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of the Ugly Cry‘ in New Republic
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Making money is not a vice, but refusing to contribute tax is‘ in The Guardian
• Paris Lees, ‘Dear Ian McEwan, your ideas about penises are outdated‘ in The Telegraph

Film, Television, Music, Art, Fashion and Sport:

• Kate Aurthur, ‘How “Nina” Became A Disaster Movie‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Lyall, ‘Swim. Bike. Cheat?‘ on Longreads
• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘Lost and found: why are we obsessed with stories of young women escaping their kidnappers?‘ in The New Statesman
• Marie Phillips, ‘Kimmy Schmidt, and the unmitigated joy she will bring to your life‘ on The Pool

The interviews/profiles:

• Lisa Owens in The Bookseller
• Robin Black & Natalie Serber on Bloom
• Maggie Nelson in The Guardian
• Michelle de Kretser in Vol. 1 Brooklyn
• Brit Bennett on Jezebel
• Danielle Dutton in Brooklyn Magazine
• Idra Novey on The Rumpus
• Helen Garner in the Sydney Morning Herald
• Yvette Edwards on the Waterstones’ Blog
• Lynsey Hanley in The Guardian
• Elif Batuman on Literary Hub
• Rachel Traister on The Pool
• Sara Sheridan on From First Page to Last
• Janet Todd in Shiny New Books
• Sharon Guskin in Shiny New Books
• Karen Kovacik on Guernica
• Caitlin and Caz Moran on The Pool
• Maylis de Kerangal in BOMB
• Sophia Bennett in The Guardian
• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney on Literary Hub
• Danielle McLaughlin on Short Fiction
• Jenny Downham on The Bookseller

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner

Baileys’ Prize for Fiction Longlist Three Book Round-Up

The House at the Edge of the World – Julia Rochester

The book begins with the death of the narrator’s father: when she was eighteen, he fell off a cliff. He was pissing into the chine at Brock Tor on his way home from the pub and fell headlong drunk into the spring tide with his flies open. The novel then moves to discuss the narrator’s grandfather, Matthew (who, inexplicably, everyone refers to by his first name), how he came to own the land their house is built on and what he spends his days doing: mostly painting an enormous map. The book meanders through the family’s story – the mother, who is vile and the narrator, Morwenna, and her twin brother, Corwen, who are also vile. Eventually they start to wonder whether their father’s death might not have been an accident and begin to investigate.

Every year the Bailey’s Prize longlist throws up a couple of absolute gems and one book I really don’t get on with at all. Unfortunately, this falls into the latter category. It seemed to me that the characters were all horrible without real reason. They had conversations with each other that I didn’t find believable, they were so barefacedly nasty and self-absorbed. So self-absorbed that no one much seemed to care that the father had died and it took half of the book for anyone to decide they might want to investigate further. It did pick up pace here but the reveal as to what happened and why didn’t seem plausible to me either. Disappointing.

Gorsky – Vesna Goldsworthy

The story of the year in which the narrator, Nikola Kimović, a Serbian living in London and working in an independent bookshop on a backstreet between Kensington and Chelsea, has his life changed by Roman Borisovich Gorsky. Gorsky commissions Nick, as he’s known, to furnish the house he’s building with the best private library in Europe […] a library tailor-made for a Russian gentleman-scholar with an interest in art, literature and travel, and a flair for European languages; a library that would look as though Gorsky had acquired the books himself and read them over many years. Nick’s job also brings him into contact with Natalia and Tom Summerscale. Natalia, it’s revealed, is a former sweetheart of Gorsky’s and his flame still burns bright for her.

Gorsky, if you haven’t realised yet, is a re-working of The Great Gatsby, transported to a 21^st Century London peopled with Russian oligarchs ripping out the interiors of Kensington town houses in order to put swimming pools and home cinemas in the basement. It’s a brave writer who takes on an iconic novel and, while Goldsworthy’s attempt is often a lot of fun, it falls short of the novel it takes as its inspiration. Where Fitzgerald’s novel is subtle, Goldsworthy’s is brash and vulgar. While this is clearly her point about the nature of the new money in London, I couldn’t help wishing for Fitzgerald’s more restrained portrayal.

Thanks to Chatto and Windus for the review copy.

The Improbability of Love – Hannah Rothschild

Annie McDee buys a painting in a junk shop as a birthday present for a man she’s been dating. When he fails to show up for dinner, she attempts to return the painting but discovers the shop’s burnt down with the proprietor in it. Her mother, Evie, who Annie has to collect from Paddington Police Station following one of her regular arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct, suggests it might be something special and that Annie should look into it. Whilst Annie does so, between working for the Winkleman’s (an art dealing family) as a chef and attending singles’ nights at art galleries, the reader is introduced to a huge cast of characters from the art world. Old money, new money, no money, wheeling, dealing, ducking and diving ensues. And then there’s the painting itself which Rothschild gives voice to, allowing it to relate its history – that of its conception and of its many notorious owners: One has rarely been owned by a person of no class or standing. I am not a snob; my master was hardly well-born, but a title suggests reassuring things like wealth, breeding and security. I have yet to meet a queen named Annie.

The Improbability of Love is a satirical look at the art world: who owns art, how they present themselves, if beauty can actually be bought. However, for me, satire has to be very sharply written for it to achieve its aims and this is where the novel falls short. Some of it’s good fun but the dialogue is often clunky; there’s a lot of exposition – the chapters told from the painting’s point-of-view are heavy on this; an overreliance on adverbs rather than describing how a character is feeling, and there’s a lot of repetition of key plot and character points. Entertaining but not the work of art it could’ve been.

Thanks to Bloomsbury for the review copy.

The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist 2016

8th March 2016: The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction announces its 2016 longlist, comprised of 20 books that celebrate the best of fiction written by women

Here they are, the 20 books longlisted for this year’s Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. In alphabetical order (of author’s surname):

A God In Ruins – Kate Atkinson

Rush Oh! – Shirley Barrett

Ruby – Cynthia Bond

The Secret Chord – Geraldine Brooks

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – Becky Chambers

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding – Jackie Copleton

Whispers Through a Megaphone – Rachel Elliott

The Green Road – Anne Enright

The Book of Memory – Petina Gappah

Gorsky – Vesna Goldsworthy

The Anatomist’s Dream – Clio Gray

At Hawthorn Time – Melissa Harrison

Pleasantville – Attica Locke

The Glorious Heresies – Lisa McInerney

The Portable Veblen – Elizabeth McKenzie

Girl at War – Sara Nović

The House at the Edge of the World – Julia Rochester

The Improbability of Love – Hannah Rothschild

My Name Is Lucy Barton – Elizabeth Strout

A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara

My initial reaction is that the three books I thought were certs are all on there – A God in Ruins, My Name Is Lucy Barton and A Little Life. Very pleased to see all three.

I predicted six of the titles, which is my highest success rate ever! Very pleased to see Girl at War on the list as well as The Portable Veblen. I’ve enjoyed all those I’ve already read, which includes The Green Road which I haven’t posted my review for yet.

As for the rest of the list, I’m delighted to see Pleasantville – I loved Black Water Rising and have had the latest on my TBR pile for ages. I’ve also heard good things from people I trust about The Book of Memory, At Hawthorn Time and The Glorious Heresies.

As always with The Bailey’s Prize there are some books I hadn’t heard of before I saw the list. My absolute favourite part of this is reading those titles, there’s always one in there that surprises me with its brilliance. On looking through the blurbs, I can’t believe I hadn’t come across Ruby, it’s had so many fantastic reviews, and The Anatomist’s Dream is perfect for my PhD thesis so I’m very pleased it’s come to my attention.

I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the reading and debating the books with the rest of the shadow panel. I’m hoping you’ll join in the discussion on our blogs and Twitter too. Can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks of the chosen titles.