The Booker in the 2010s
2010-19: New Frontiers
The 2010s were a hugely significant decade for the Booker, largely due to the shift in rules which came into place in 2014. From that year onwards, the Prize was open to all novels published in the English language, replacing the long-held (and, many might say, dated) criteria that focused on authors of British, Irish and Commonwealth heritage. This shift led to a lot of hand-wringing and fretting about the potential “domination” of the Prize by US authors, and a dilution of what the Prize stood for.
I’m someone who hates rule shifts like this in principle, because they remove a sense of consistency (especially when trying to construct a list of best winners - are the pre-2014 winners somehow devalued because they were up against narrower competition?) However, it’s hard to argue that the shift has had anything other than a positive effect on the Prize itself. The conversation seems to have been elevated, with perhaps more international focus on the award than ever before, and even more press and media interest. The quality of winners and nominees seems to be at a similar high point, with some of my all-time favourites coming in these recent years.
In terms of themes, the “anything goes” philosophy of the 2000s winners continued. If the decade started a little uncharacteristically, with “establishment”-feeling wins for Howard Jacobson and Julian Barnes, followed by the first ever case of two books in the same series winning the Prize, it rapidly sailed off into ambitious and exciting territories, with elaborately sprawling winners from Eleanor Catton and Marlon James, thought-provoking and timely offerings from Paul Beatty and Bernardine Evaristo, and the truly one-of-a-kind Lincoln in the Bardo. Overall, the Booker left the decade in healthier shape than it began, in spite (or because) of its rule changes, though the mystifying sharing of the 2019 Prize did leave a slightly sour aftertaste.
By force of habit, let’s check in on the “themes” I’ve been monitoring over the decades. More than ever. the winners feel way too diverse to summarise in this form, but I’m stuck with the format now and too stubborn to change it…
Confronting Horrors: Yes (in general)
From its first appearance in my 80s round-up: “There’s a definite sense of some stark, brutal reckonings with the worst of humanity in some of these 80s winners. It’s scattered across many of them, but we have novels covering the Holocaust, extremes of poverty in a racially divided society, extreme violence against a child, and the brutality of colonialism.”
Yes, another fairly brutal decade, if perhaps not the worst to date.
Case in point: The Narrow Road to the Deep North, The Sellout, Lincoln in the Bardo, Milkman, A Brief History of Seven Killings
AND YET: The slight tendency towards the more reflective rather than outright horrific makes a bit of a comeback in The Sense of an Ending and perhaps even Girl, Woman, Other
History: Not ending after all
I speculated last time out that there was a move towards the contemporary, but that seems to have mostly gone out of the window with a renewed focus on historical stories, though often ones told in refreshing and unusual ways.
Still a thing: Historical novels of various sorts include Bring Up The Bodies, The Luminaries, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Milkman, A Brief History of Seven Killings and Lincoln in the Bardo.
AND YET: While it explores some recent history, Girl, Woman, Other is probably one of the most contemporary-feeling winners to date and The Sellout feels similarly rooted in (a version of) the present.
Race (/ & Empire): Peeking back through
After a fairly barren period for stories directly addressing issues of race, we get some of the punchiest hitters to date in the late 2010s, as well as a few that touch on historical empire-building moments, taking us back to what was an early regular theme of Booker winners.
Still a thing: The Sellout, A Brief History of Seven Killings and Girl, Woman, Other all directly tackle issues of race, as well as giving us more diversity in winning authors than any other decade so far. The Luminaries and The Narrow Road to the Deep North both look backwards and touch on some of these issues, and The Finkler Question, of course, is focused on Jewishness and anti-semitism.
AND YET: It’s not every book, but there’s certainly a bigger focus on issues of race than we’ve seen for a few decades, perhaps reflecting the resurgence of very public racism fueled by the rise of populist governments around the globe.
Class: Yes, especially at the end of the decade
Few novels directly addressing issues of class, but it becomes a part of many of the decade’s later winners.
Still a thing: Poverty is a vital part of A Brief History of Seven Killings and The Sellout, and the setting of Milkman is certainly affected by class issues, even if others are more dominant. Girl, Woman, Other does a good job of representing a range of social classes in its many voices.
AND YET: As ever, there are a few middle-class specials in here, especially in the early part of the decade.
Men: Swings and roundabouts
Way back in my first 70s round-up I said “you'll find precious few stories told from the perspective of female characters, and even relatively few secondary female characters that are developed beyond their role as objects of male attention […] It does mean that the story of the Booker so far is largely the story of men.”
Another decade of improvement in the representation of winners, with 46% Female winners another new high, and generally good spreads across the shortlists.
I’m still slightly struggling across the bulk of the decade to find a great quantity of well-developed female characters, though, despite an end of decade surge…
Still a thing: For the bulk of the decade, men are the central characters as per usual in most of these winners.
AND YET: The last few years almost make up for it entirely, with the huge range of amazing women in The Testaments, Milkman and especially Girl, Woman, Other, in addition to 2013’s The Luminaries which despite a numerical advantage in male characters, comes to life when its focus is on its women.
Booze: A liberal sprinkling
While there’s one just around the corner, I don’t recall many of the 2010s winners being especially focused on alcohol, but it’s certain a presence in many of them.
Still a thing: Slightly struggling on this one - it pops up in convivial ways in The Finkler Question and possibly less so in Milkman, but elsewhere feels more relegated to background news.
AND YET: A few necessarily dry books here, and a few that are more into other vices.
Understatement: In places
A feature of Booker winners of the early years, especially, and declining through the “grand narratives” of the eighties and nineties, a tendency towards understatement popped up a little more in the Noughties, and while there were some big old adventures in the ‘10s, this didn’t entirely fall out of favour.
Still a thing: The Sense of an Ending is the most obviously old school Bookerish understatement. Elsewhere, where it pops up in this decade it’s somewhat transformed. The short stories (effectively) of Girl, Woman, Other feel generally understated (in a very good way) and for all its wildness there’s an odd case for the quiet beauty of Lincoln in the Bardo to fall into this category (maybe??)
AND YET: The Luminaries and A Brief History of Seven Killings are the first that spring to mind that can hardly be described as understated…
Seriousness: Still ebbing
Continuing a trend from the Noughties, there’s humour peppered through many of the winners, even if it is often necessarily dark. We even get a few near-enough comic winners!
Still a thing: I don’t remember laughing much in The Luminaries or The Narrow Road to the Deep North
AND YET: The Finkler Question is a comedy and The Sellout, if not exactly a satire, is heightened-reality/absurdist at the very least. Elsewhere the (dark) humour often comes through voices, as in parts of Milkman, Girl, Woman, Other, The Testaments, A Brief History of Seven Killings, etc.
Convention: Perhaps the most adventurous decade yet (in places)
In my Noughties roundup I said (haha) “I think I probably need to resign myself to the fact that there aren’t really going to be any wildly unconventional Booker winners (just waiting to be surprised in the 10s…)”
I think, ultimately, I was pleasantly surprised (inevitably, after setting a trap like that for myself!) - there are a couple of relatively straight down the line winners here but there are also some very adventurous books in comparison to previous decades.
Still a thing: As discussed elsewhere, the decade begins in relatively conventional form with a comic novel, a supremely Bookerish Booker from Julian Barnes and Wolf Hall Part 2.
AND YET: Well, there’s Lincoln in the Bardo for a start, which is probably the most interesting formally since… G? Plus you’ve got The Luminaries with it’s mildly infuriating but nontheless complex astrological structuring, the many voices of A Brief History of Seven Killings and Girl, Woman, Other, and the highly unusual voices of Milkman and The Sellout.
Water: Not really
The great watery Booker decade of the Seventies made a brief resurgence in some of the Noughties winners, but is less present again here.
Still a thing: The Luminaries is fairly integrally boat-y and there’s a bit of The Narrow Road to the Deep North that is, too.
AND YET: Can’t remember many more boat or sea based shenanigans?
* * *
For me, this is clearly the best decade for Booker winners to date. No bad books (closest being the relatively average The Finkler Question) and a host of all-time classics.
* * *
The 10s, Ranked:
Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders (2017) - 10
The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan (2014) - 9.5
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo (2019) - 9
A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James (2015) - 9
Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel (2012) - 8.5
The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes (2011) - 8
The Testaments - Margaret Atwood (2019) - 8
Milkman - Anna Burns (2018) - 8
The Sellout - Paul Beatty (2016) - 8
The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton (2013) - 8
The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson (2010) - 7.5
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Just two to go, at time of writing! Next up, it’s Shuggie Bain, which I’ve been wanting to read since its win (it was the first winner called during the process of writing this blog…)
