All That Man Is
.jpg) | |
| Author | David Szalay |
|---|---|
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
| Publication date | 2016 |
| Publication place | Canada, United Kingdom |
| ISBN | 978-0224099769 |
All That Man Is is a 2016 book by David Szalay.[1] A collection of nine intertwined short stories about men at different moments in their lives,[2] it was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize and won the 2016 Gordon Burn Prize.[3]
Reception
In his review for The Guardian, Edward Docx described All That Man Is as "the work of a first-rate writer" and that the nine stories "are replete with richly observed humanity".[4]
In a long review for The New Yorker, James Wood first characterises the novel as "bracingly unsentimental about male desire and male failure" and goes on to describe it as being "narrated in an urgent, poking present tense, [where] the pithed characters, of different ages, are presented without complex histories—indeed, without much history at all". While identifying some similarities to the narrative approach of Michel Houellebecq, Wood focusses on three elements that are signs of Szalay's "flight from a certain kind of conventional storytelling": "exclamatory artlessness" (resembling that found in the work of Karl Ove Knausgård); descriptions like those found in film scripts; and use of the aesthetic components of contemporary songwriting. Wood concludes his review by noting that the book is full of "great brilliance and brutal simplicity".[5]
Awards and honours
- 2016: Gordon Burn Prize, winner[3]
- 2016: Man Booker Prize, shortlisted.[6]
References
- ↑ "Man Booker prize 2016: the longlist – in pictures". The Guardian. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ↑ "All That Man Is". The Booker Prizes. 7 April 2016.
- 1 2 Flood, Alison (7 October 2016). "David Szalay's 'unsparing' All That Man Is wins Gordon Burn prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
- ↑ Edward Docx (9 April 2016). "All That Man Is by David Szalay review – a kaleidoscopic portrait of masculinity". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
- ↑ James Wood (3 October 2016). "Nine Tales of Crises in All That Man Is". The New Yorker. Retrieved 18 January 2026.
- ↑ "Man Booker Prize announces 2016 shortlist". Man Booker. 13 September 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2016.