Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Given that this book has won not only the Booker Prize but the Booker of Booker Prize as well, my hopes were high. Granted, Midnight's Children is very well written, and there are passages that are simply beautiful. I did find, though, the lack of character development a real barrier for me, so while I thought the book was very good, I didn't think it was excellent. It's worth reading though, if only to have a view on a book that is supposed to be the best book of the last 25 years.

Slightly over-rated rating: 10/10
Overall rating: 8/10

The Gathering by Anne Enright

As this book won the Booker in 2008, I feel the need to share just how bad I found it. There seems to be a disturbing trend in literature recently to have over-written books that have no plot and too much middle class angst. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good meandering slow book if it’s well written – such as anything by Kazuo Ishiguro, or Murakami when he’s not dipping in magic realism. The Gathering, though, was not well written at all – it was confused, pretentious and boring. I do not recommend this book at all, and since reading it have lost respect for the Booker as a marker of a good book. It has also well put me off the sad Irish childhood genre of books.

4/10