A Case of Exploding Mangoes

The book is a fictional account of the events leading up the real plane crash that killed Pakistan's president, Colonel Zia, in 1988.  At the core it is a story of revenge.  One of the narrators is a young silent drill commander in the air force, and the son of a former colonel in Zia's army who hung himself under questionable circumstances.  We learn early on that Ali Shigri has been training since he was a boy to kill the person responsible for his father's "suicide".  He just needs to find out who that person is.

The Books Arrive!

I don't know how they do it, but man, they do it good.  I ordered 9 longlisted books from amazon.com on Tuesday morning around 8am and they showed up on my doorstep Wednesday around 2 pm.  Fantastic.  I had a chance to read the dust jackets and know that I'm in for some good reading in the coming weeks.

I managed to make up for lost ground from day one and I'm back on track.  I'm enjoying "A Case of Exploding Mangoes" very much and can think of many people I'd recommend it to, especially Chris, my husband.  This is the kind of book that would make a good movie.  It's got action, adventure, twists and turns, romance, intrigue and it's funny too.  Too early to say whether or not I think it will get shortlisted.  I need to read a few more titles to get some perspective.

Day One: Not on Track

The longlist came out yesterday morning and I was itching to get to Barnes & Noble, but they don't open until 9 am.  I was thinking that I needed to be there as soon as they open, so I can pick up a copy of Hanif's "A Case of Exploding Mangoes" before they sell out.  In my mind, I was picturing a line-up around the block of people dying to get in and purchase all the longlisted books.

Well, wouldn't you know, yesterday also happened to be the day that Harry, my 3-year-old son, decided to sleep in.  Dilemma.  A peaceful morning sipping tea, catching up on emails and reading the paper, or getting a running start with the longlist.  Peace won out.  I know, I know, where are my priorities, right?  

We left the house around 10:30 am to go to Bonfante Gardens for the day, but first stop was the bookstore.  Jack, my 9-year-old son, read to Harry in the kid's section, while I frantically (frantics  were unnecessary by the way) searched for "A Case of Exploding Mangoes".  (Ha, ha.  That sounds really funny without the quotation marks.)  It was not shelved in the fiction section.  It was not shelved under "new fiction".  I found it in a section highlighting new authors and quickly (again, speed... unnecessary) scooped up a copy and practically ran to the register before someone could swipe the one of two copies in the store out of my hands.  VICTORY.

I read the jacket at the first traffic light while Jack kept a lookout for the light to change.  This is a book I probably wouldn't have picked up for myself because it sounds more action-packed than I usually read, but it looks interesting none the less.  I read the prologue at the amusement park while the kids were playing on the playground and couldn't wait to get home to immerse myself in the Pakistani military - who'd have thought?

By the time we got home I was tired, had the beginnings of a sinus headache and still had to feed the kids.  Their "meal" wouldn't win me any culinary or parenting awards, but they need to eat SOMETHING before they go to bed.  By the time I got to sit down and read I was too tired and headachey, so I only got about 50 pages into the first of 13 books.  I'm going to have to pick up the pace.  I did the page count.  I have 42 days to read 5171 pages, which means I have to read 123.11 pages a day to accomplish my goal.  I gotta go.  Later.

Longlist Announced!!

I made plans to take the kids to a local amusement park today so that I wouldn't have to sit around all day hitting "refresh" on the Man Booker website.  Last year, it seemed to take FOREVER before the list was announced, and this year I wake up, check the site, and THERE IT IS!  Shit.  Now I can't start the reading until this evening because I'm going to be at Bonfante Gardens all day with the kids.  Maybe they'll understand that Mommy needs a reading day.  Hmmm....

As usual, I only recognize 3 of the 13 authors on the list (Barry, Hanif and Rushdie) and had only heard of 1 title (The Case of Exploding Mangoes).  I was thrilled to find that I could order 10 of the 13 titles from Amazon, which meant that I only had to order 3 books from the UK this year, unlike last year, when half the list was not available here yet.

Here's the list:

Aravind Adiga             The White Tiger

Gaynor Arnold            Girl in a Blue Dress

Sebastian Barry          The Secret Scripture

John Berger                 From A to X

Michelle de Krester   The Lost Dog

Amitav Ghosh             Sea of Poppies

Linda Grant                The Clothes on Their Backs

Mohammed Hanif     A Case of Exploding Mangoes

Philip Hensher           The Northern Clemency

Joseph O'Neill            Netherland

Salman Rushdie         The Enchantress of Florence

Tom Rob Smith          Child 44

Steve Tolz                    A Fraction of the Whole

I immediately went to Amazon.com and ordered 9 titles.  Then I went to Amazon.co.uk and ordered 3 titles that will not be published here until after the winner is announced in October.  I'll pick up the last book at Barnes & Noble today and that will give me something to start with before the other books arrive in two days.

After I placed my order, I checked the Man Booker's "Debate" to see what Booker freaks think about the list.  Who are these people who have read 9 of the 13 titles?  Their houses must be even messier than mine.

It's All In The Preparation (I Hope)

This is a big day for me.  This is a huge day for me.  It's the day the "Booker Dozen" gets announced, and I know this makes me sound like a big book geek, but I could hardly get to sleep last night and woke many times from Booker dreams.  I think if I called around, I wouldn't find that any of my friends or family had that experience last night.  The only "people" who I can relate to when it comes to the Booker are my virtual buddies.  And they're even more out there than I am.

So what is this literary prize that turns me into a little girl on Christmas Eve every summer?  This link will answer all your questions http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/about/faqs

I've been following the winners since my university days in the 80's as an English Lit major.  I would read the winner over the summer, when I had a little freedom from required reading lists.  I started trying to read the shortlist, before the prize was announced,  in 1996.  That only gave me a month to read six books (something that would have come easy if I didn't have 2 jobs) and I was usually lucky to finish 4 of them.  Last year they reduced the longlist from around 30 titles, to 12 or 13 titles, the "Booker Dozen".  There were actually people who read the longlist when it was 30 titles long, but it was more common to read about library groups who would split the list up and conquer the list as a group.  I thought I would try to read as many of the books on the longlist as I could, before the shortlist was announced, about 4 weeks later.  I put a good dent in the list and had read 5 of the 6 shortlisted books, so I got a little lazy about the longlist books I didn't get to, and didn't finish the longlist until last month.  (Not my fault - I blame A.N. Wilson's "Winnie and Wolf" - every page was a chore.  I hated that book.  I guess if I were more interested in Niestche, Wagner and Hitler, I would have enjoyed it.)

This year there is a little more time between the announcement of the longlist and the announcement of the shortlist, so I think I can do it.  I've prepared.  The laundry is all caught up.  I'm ready.