Not Lost in Space
Long listed for the 2024 Booker Prize, it struck me as an interesting concept and-- being the shortest of the entries-- I thought I could squeeze this one in before the prize was awarded.
This is told from the viewpoint of six astronauts (two identifying as cosmonauts) orbiting the Earth in a space station. I was fascinated from the start. We are immediately transported into the character's mindsets, how they have to adjust to everything. The concept of time is turned upside down; we are programmed to measure it by sunrises and sunsets, so they have to be very deliberate with the 24-hour clock. "Space sheds time to pieces."
The cast here also struggle with distortions of reality brought on by the immense distances, by the separation from family, and even the physical toll that the lack of gravity extracts from the body. Late in the book there is an intriguing passage linking a spacewalk to memories from the womb.
Author Samantha Harvey does an amazing job getting into the heads of these people. This is more philosophical than plot-driven, however, and started to get a little long (even at 208 pages). It is the third entry I have read of the long list, and I do not really see it moving on to the short list.
***Edit: Shows my power of predictions! Orbital won the Booker Prize!
Thank you to my library for securing this copy for me!
Long listed for the 2024 Booker Prize, it struck me as an interesting concept and-- being the shortest of the entries-- I thought I could squeeze this one in before the prize was awarded.
This is told from the viewpoint of six astronauts (two identifying as cosmonauts) orbiting the Earth in a space station. I was fascinated from the start. We are immediately transported into the character's mindsets, how they have to adjust to everything. The concept of time is turned upside down; we are programmed to measure it by sunrises and sunsets, so they have to be very deliberate with the 24-hour clock. "Space sheds time to pieces."
The cast here also struggle with distortions of reality brought on by the immense distances, by the separation from family, and even the physical toll that the lack of gravity extracts from the body. Late in the book there is an intriguing passage linking a spacewalk to memories from the womb.
Author Samantha Harvey does an amazing job getting into the heads of these people. This is more philosophical than plot-driven, however, and started to get a little long (even at 208 pages). It is the third entry I have read of the long list, and I do not really see it moving on to the short list.
***Edit: Shows my power of predictions! Orbital won the Booker Prize!
Thank you to my library for securing this copy for me!
What can I say about this book? The writing was superb. In some places it followed the thoughts of the astronauts/cosmonauts; in other areas, it was like a flow of consciousness. I think that part of the appeal of this book is that the people depicted, those that we would see as heroes, were experiencing the same thoughts and emotions as everyman in ordinary lives. I know that I've experienced the same thoughts of wonder when in the middle of the ocean on a darkened ship and also in the solitude of the Antarctic with few people around. Though the thoughts were mundane, the descriptions were more lyrical than anything I would ever produce. I couldn't read more than a few pages of this book in one sitting because I needed time to process what I had read - something I don't normally require. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole thing...I'm not even sure that I liked it.
