Moving slowly through my stack of owned-but-unread books, I’ve chosen three more candidates for Sample Sunday. They all have titles beginning with the letter S.
Good Samaritans by Will Carver
Described as a “dark, domestic noir”, Good Samaritans is the story of an insomniac who phones strangers at random. As a result of crossed wires he ends up talking to a suicidal woman who thinks she is on the line to The Samaritans. It marks the beginning of a relationship. Somewhere in this tale is a murder because the novel is billed as the first in a series featuring Detective Sergeant Pace.
The Verdict: I’ve tried two other novels by Will Carver but failed with both of them. I thought Good Samaritans might be a better options because it was named as a book of the year by three UK national newspapers, was longlisted for the Not The Booker Prize (run by The Guardian newspaper) and shortlisted for the inaugural Amazon Publishing Awards’ Best Independent Voice. But reading some reviews on Goodreads I see that it contains graphic sex and violence. Neither hold any appeal for me so I’m letting this one go.
Secrecy by Rupert Thomson
I don’t remember buying this one but I suspect it was because of the setting which is seventeenth century Florence. It involves a young artist who is given a strange commission by a member of the powerful Medici family. The synopsis available on Goodreads is a bit garbled but seems to suggest the book is a murder mystery combined with a love story.
The Verdict: This box ticks two boxes for me: the Italian setting and the art-related character. But I’m not convinced, having read a few reviews, that I’ll enjoy the book as a whole. A few readers have commented that the characterisation is weak and clumsy handling of a good versus evil theme. Both of these I would find irritating. So off to the charity shop this can go.
The Sellout by Paul Beaty
This 2016 Booker Prize winner is a satire on the state of race relations in the United States. It focuses on a man who responds to the death of his father in a police shoot-out, with an attempt to bring back slavery and re-segregate the school in his hometown.
The Verdict: Paul Beatty was the first American writer to win the Booker Prize, following a change of rules. That change influenced my decision to make 2015 the final year in my Booker Prize project, suspecting that subsequent years would see less of an international flavour to the long/short lists. Even if The Sellout hadn’t won, I know it would have been hard to summon up much enthusiasm for reading it because books labelled humorous are often nothing of the kind.
This comment by Paul Fulcher on Goodreads (he reads every Booker listed book every year), doesn’t fill me with hope:
My least favourite Booker winner of all time was Vernon God Little. And my least favourite shortlisted book To Rise At A Decent Hour. Paul Beatty has managed to combine the crass satire of the first with the annoying “humour” and overly-culture-specific references of the second to produce a book that is memorable only in its sheer awfulness.
I’m going to give The Sellout a reprieve but if I haven’t read it by the end of the year, I’ll let it go to a new home.
Sample Sunday is when I take a look at all the unread books on my shelves and decide which to keep and which to let free. The goal isn’t to shrink the TBR as such, but rather it’s about making sure my shelves have only books I do want to read. So what do you think of the decisions I’ve reached? If you’ve read any of these books I’d love to hear from you.
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