Who would I love to win the Women’s Prize this year? I find that question difficult to answer. In previous years I often had one novel that stood out for me. This year that favourite is lacking. Some novels I would prefer not to win, others would get my sincere support.
To start with the ones I did not relate to: Soldier Sailor and Restless Dolly Maunder. I appreciate Kilroy has given us a novel from a female perspective, in this way adding a hitherto aspect to literary novels. Unfortunately I felt oppressed not impressed by her main persons problems. Grenville is an experienced writer, one who knows how to set up a novel. Maybe this was the reason I was slightly disappointed by a novel I felt lacking in depth and sharpness.
River East, River West and Brotherless Night are novels that tell a moving tale from a young persons perspective. I was impressed by both debutants and felt that they succeeded well in presenting us with the lives of two young women changing through circumstances beyond themselves. I would not mind V. V. Ganeshananthan or Aube Rey Lescure winning.
Anne Enright wrote a novel one could consider as classic literary. She presents us with a well-structured plot, main characters that develop through the pages and a sublime style of writing. Her plot was not dealing in major world issues, it restricted itself to ordinary lives. Something I quite liked in this day and age in which we are confronted with life changing major world issues on a daily basis, wanting to escape from them through reading a novel like The Wren The Wren.
There was no escaping major life-influencing issues in Enter Ghost. The novel presents a unique view on Palestinian life, confronts the reader with the difficulty of living in Israel, the West Bank or Gaza if you are not Jewish. Hammad succeeds in combing the urgency of the topic with a well-structured novel, beautiful writing and main characters that might remain slightly on the prototype side, nevertheless create awareness for their plight.
Maybe this year I should not decide a winner based on literary quality only. Maybe this year’s winner should be the novel that drew the reader’s attention to a conflict that seems to have no winners, no escape at all. A political choice this year: Enter Ghost.
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