Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

I think this has been my favourite of the Mann Booker longlist! The story is told through the eyes of a girl Marie [Li Ling] who is living in Vancouver  with her mother. Her father was a musician who had fled from China to Hong Kong before committing suicide in 1989. Marie and her mother are joined by Ai-Ming, the daughter of a musician who had been a friend of Li Ling’s father. Ai-Ming is on the run, having been a demonstrator in Tiananmen Square. Marie pieces together Ai Ming’s story and that of her ancestors. 
I liked the historical bits about China before, during and after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. It really is an ambitious novel spanning fifty years.

There are simialries between this and the book The Four Books when it was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize and there is some overlap between that and this as both have The Great Leap Forward as dominant themes.

However, the first half(ish) of the books I did find confusing with its flashbacks, numerous characters set in different times of history - I felt like I needed a list of characters at times!

Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves

This is a story set in American south of the 1920s with all its racism, violence, and hardships telling of love, family, guilt and redemption. It is a quiet, understated story about a man who loses everything, about the consequences that can follow even the most well-intentioned actions.
Roscoe’s years in prison and what they do to his relationships, especially with his wife.
It was clever with its alternating chapters in the third person narrative on what happened to get Roscoe in prison with chapters in the first person as Roscoe is in prison.
The writing felt realistic and pragmatic.
The dialogue is authentic, and the historical background well-researched.

But the plot develops slowly and as such it was an OK read, but it didn't grip me!

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

 
I had a feeling, as I read this, of the plot being familiar... so I don't know if I ad heard it before or reading something similar.
It tells the story of Eileen, an unstable twenty-four-year old woman who works at a juvenile correctional facility for boys and lives with her alcoholic father in a shambles of a house. it chronicles the events of one week in winter where she has to leave town, never to return.
The writing is taut and evocative, the setting so specifically bleak.
I quite liked the description of Eileen - she is one of the  most pitiable and despicable characters I've ever read; neurotically self-absorbed, insecure but prone to feverishly obsessive behaviour.
The ending felt odd - quite abrupt. 

Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

 Before I read the book I had listened to it on Radio 4. It tells the story of the relationship of a hypochondriac mother and her daughter.
The dialogue to be intelligent, and funny
The whole book had a dreamy, bizarre, disjointed feel that was both intriguing and confusing.
Although I did really enjoy this book I couldn't help but feel that I was missing the main message of the book. There are metaphors aplenty - stinging jellyfish called medusas, a chained-up dog, a shattered computer--I could go on. I found it hard to enjoy the story because I was constantly struggling to understand the deeper meanings.

The North Water by Ian McGuire

 
SO far this has been my favourite longlisted book. It tells the story of a doomed whaling voyage in the 1850s. The Volunteer sets sail from Hull with the motliest of crews, made up of brutes and savages and skippered by the dubious Captain Brownlee. In the first few pages we meet Henry Drax, a vicious harpooner with a thirst for murder. He casually slaughters a drinking partner and rapes a young boy in the harbour before even setting foot on the ship.
I thought the character Drax was one of nastiest characters I had read about for a long time.
The writing is violent and unflinching from the beginning with insurance fraud, sodomy, abuse, survival in a desolate environment and some pretty gruesome scenes within the pages. McGuire doesn't shy away from writing about the gory details of life, whether that’s putrid smells, bodily fluids, animal slaughter, or human cruelty.
The sharp dialogue and stylish prose help to create an unnerving atmosphere of peril and suspense on the high seas. However the violence eventually loses its power to shock because of its frequency.
The ending felt a bit abrupt

Hystopia by David Means

This story is a unique and strange alternate history story -  JFK is in his third term, federal agencies have been created for the sole purpose of drugging vets, and deranged psychopaths running around violently murdering people. One of the main charcters, Rake is one of the creepiest nastiest characters I have come across 
 The book requires careful reading as there are lots of small details - fsuccessfully-enfolded vets are meant to be sent back into action, implying that this government administration has no real interest in ending the war at all.

 However, I just didn't enjoy this book - I found it too weird.
I also found the 3 main story lines confusing : the storyline featuring Rake, the storyline with the Corps agents, and finally Eugene’s story. While they were all tied up at the end of the book, I didn’t feel it was enough pay off for the struggle early on in the book.

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

 
Lucy Barton is in the hospital for nine weeks following an appendectomy with complications. The novel is set during the five days her mother comes to stay by her bedside. It is written in the first-person narrative, which means the reader gets to see inside Lucy’s head: about her growing up in poverty, being abused, rising above it all, plus her constant worry about whether her mother loves her. 
 I loved the way the characters are so realistic. The book makes you think about big things. Like how we never escape from our past or the pain that was planted in us when we were growing up.
 Nothing much happens in this book; it’s all introspective and psychological, recollection and insight - one has to read between the lines. It's what isn't said that twists you all up inside, it’s the undercurrent that gets you. There’s melancholy and there’s longing, and there’s tenderness, regret, and acceptance.

The Many by Wyl Menmuir

 I really enjoyed this odd book although I am left with a sense I didn't get it! It offers a dystopian low-tech vision of a West Country fishing village where the waters are poisoned, rare catches are confined to strange mutated fish and jellies, and a cordon of empty container ships marks off a no-go zone offshore.  I found The Many more enjoyable and resonant than Howard Jacobson's J (2014).  it's significantly shorter, and the writing more atmospheric, powerfully written and haunting. 
I liked the relationship of the various time-periods as it not always what you assumed. 
The book is a metaphor about grief but it left a lot of unanswered questions.