Booker 2018: Ranking the Shortlist

I’ve never been so enticed by a booker selection as I was with the 2018 shortlist, and so, I read them all (with the exception of Mars Room) and therefore, I now dare to talk about my favourites among them and who I think deserved to win. Honestly, any of these books would make a…

Beauty and The Beholder: A Review of ‘The Bluest Eye’ by Toni Morrison

On the very first page, we are told that Pecola Breedlove, an 11 year old girl with only the desire of seeing the world through blue eyes, is impregnated by her own father, and that Pecola will live and her child will die. “There is really nothing more to say,” writes Morrison, “except why. But…

Nature, Nurture and a Nightmare: A Review of Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Using elements of the weather woven in with the myth of Medea, Jesmyn Ward tells a gripping story of a troubled family’s attempts of preparation and then at survival in the days previous to and just after Hurricane Katrina. The novel opens with the family dog, China giving birth to her puppies in a detailed,…

Poetic, Painful, Profound: A Review of Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

The novel opens with a 13 year old Jojo claiming his understanding of death as he stands watching his loving Pop (grandfather) butcher a wild hog. It’s his birthday and he is eager to show himself a man. His throwing up after he helps his Pop clean up shows he’s not quite there yet. Sing,…