There is definitely a whole preamble I could do about the issues of centring my lily-white self in discussing a prize that’s for and about writers of colour. However, I don’t have much time because the shortlist is going to be announced any hour now, so suffice to say that I don’t think my opinion on this matter is important in the least. But I’ve always wanted to read a full long list of a literary prize before the shortlist is announced, and I’ve actually managed to do it, so consider this my gloating space. It’s problematic, I know. But it’s also problematic for white writers to pretend that initiatives like the Jhalak prize aren’t an important part of our current culture, and therefore worthy of comment. Otherwise the only white people you get commenting on things like this are the people who’re thrilled to have an excuse to claim reverse racism (eye rolls all round). Ultimately you’ve got to pick one path to go down, and I’ve picked this one. Let’s acknowledge that and then plough on.
I read the long list because I thought it would be good to read a curated cross-section of diverse texts published in Britain, and first of all I want to take my hat off to the organisers of this prize. They honour diversity not just in the submission process and judging panel, but in the range of genres that have been included. This has led me to pick up some books that I’d probably never have read otherwise, and it’s been joyous. The long list included a children’s book, two poetry books (not to mention a poetry-memoir hybrid), a book about structural engineering and an anthology. That’s bold and brave and cool, and makes me less depressed about literary prize culture. Nikesh Shukla no longer administers this prize, but kudos to him for establishing it. I’ll definitely be reading the Jhalak longlist again next year.
So without further ado, here is my fantasy Jhalak shortlist**, in no particular order*.
NATIVES - Akala - Two Roads
I really hope this wins the whole thing. Of all the longlisted books, this was the one that most felt to me like an instant classic. It’s part memoir, part history book and part polemic, and those combine to create something entirely unique. Akala’s study of Britain in terms of ‘race and class in the ruins of Empire’ is scholarly and rigorous in his approach, but never alienating. His dazzling intellect is widely lauded, but I think it’s also important to acknowledge what a mammoth task this work must have been. To be so consistently thoughtful, so even-handed and so perceptive, must have been a colossal undertaking. Thank you, Akala. It was worth it.
I listened to NATIVES on audiobook, binged over two days. I’d recommend that medium because Akala reads it himself and draws on many years honing his craft as a rapper and performer. But I’ll be buying a hard copy too, to dip in and out of and to lend to friends.
BUILT - Roma Agrawal - Bloomsbury
I do not list structural engineering among my primary interests. As such I was slightly dreading this submission - a history/overview of the built structures that govern our lives, and the principles that govern their construction.
Einstein supposedly said that if a person cannot explain a concept simply then they do not understand it well enough. By that logic Roma Agrawal must have total mastery over her discipline, because I could follow everything and learned a lot. More than that though, Agrawal infects her reader with her joy and excitement about the built environment. There’s a real generosity about a woman at the top of her game putting her expertise out into the world in accessible terms.In that she reminded me a little of Samin Nosrat’s SALT, FAT, ACID, HEAT. Who could fail to be beguiled by such uninhibited geekishness, such wonder for the world around? I’ll be taking a bit of that wonder next time I go for a walk in the city.
THE STOPPING PLACES - A JOURNEY THROUGH GYPSY BRITAIN - Damien le Bas - Chatto and Windus
A book that I’ll be recommending to anyone who loves travel writing. Le Bas is writing about a familiar world - the geography of England. But he’s doing so while centring a culture that has been more consistently outcast, reviled and marginalised than, arguably, any other in Europe. How many books have most people read about Gypsy/Traveller culture? How many are published by mainstream houses?
Le Bas is arguably something of a contradiction himself, if you set too much store by the material value of stereotypes. He was raised in the Romany culture, although by some people’s standards he cannot be considered a full Romany himself. He went to Oxford and now is something of a cultural powerhouse for Romany representation in Britain. Old anxieties about class and education spin away within the power of his voice, which is by turns lyrical, workmanlike, dreamy and rooted.
IN OUR MAD AND FURIOUS CITY - Guy Gunaratne - Tinder Press
It is an outrage and a scandal that this novel didn’t make it to the Booker shortlist last year. Guy Gunaratne is a dazzlingly talented novelist. I feel like so many people have tried to write this kind of ‘zeitgeist’ (ugh) novel, but they can lay down their pens now, because Guy Gunaratne’s done it. I’ll link to my review on Instagram, which I did a few months ago, when it was fresher in my mind.
HAPPINESS - Aminatta Forna - Bloomsbury
An exquisite novel. The kind of characters that you just want to spend time with. Quietly perfect prose, and a central thesis that is both disruptive and invigorating. The seemingly disparate themes - wolves, trauma, foxes, immigration - are elegantly woven together by a master novelist. I have a lot of trouble reading novels because I get too caught up in trying to examine the joins and hinges, but I was completely swept away by this one. I finished it today, and when I go to sleep last night I’ll idly wonder where Attila and Jean are, and what they’re up to. To me, that’s the sign of a great novel.
THE HEALING NEXT TIME - Roy McFarlane - Nine Arches
The first section of this poetry collection in particular felt like a walk through the news of my own childhood, but follows the life of ‘the family man’, an unnamed protagonist who haunts the pages, doing his best to get by in a world that allows Joy Gardner and Stephen Lawrence, amongst too many others, to be killed with impunity. In this world there’s space for joy and love and despair and everything in between. One of the most lucid, synthesising and integrated poetry collections I’ve ever read. It’s hard to write about poetry, and I don’t have much experience, but I do want to do my best to convey how transportingly wonderful this was.
So that’s all. Scorecards ready, let’s see how many I got right…
*apart from placing NATIVES at the top, because in my mind it’s the clear frontrunner.
**I’ve not written about the books that I’m not hoping to see shortlisted, partly because it seems pointless to spend energy writing about books that I didn’t love, and partly because that’s where things could get really Problematic™. No one needs my critique. But suffice to say there was not a single book on this longlist that I did not wholeheartedly enjoy. Usually my efforts to read a prize longlist stall when I encounter one really interminable offering, and there was nothing like this here. Again, I doff my cap to the Jhalak judges.
Also, in case it needs pointing out, I’m not benefitting financially from writing this. I read the longlist and then wrote about it for free, because I’m a sucker. It would obviously be inappropriate for me to materially benefit from writing about this.
