2016 Man Booker: Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves

After a rather polarizing last book, we have moved onto our next longlist book: Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves. Three of our panelists read and reviewed this book. Did our judges come to an greater agreement on this book? Keep reading to find out and see where it ranks on our list.

Note: Thank you to Scribner for providing us with review copies in exchange for our honest reviews

Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves
Published in: 2016
Judges: Jen, Nicole, Book Worm
Find it/Buy it here: Work Like Any Other

Synopsis (from Amazon): In this astonishingly accomplished, morally complicated, “exceptional and starkly beautiful debut” (Kevin Powers, National Book Award–nominated author of The Yellow Birds), a prideful electrician in 1920s rural Alabama struggles to overcome past sins and find peace after being sent to prison for manslaughter.

Roscoe T Martin set his sights on a new type of power spreading at the start of the twentieth century: electricity. It became his training, his life’s work. But when his wife, Marie, inherits her father’s failing farm, Roscoe has to give up his livelihood, with great cost to his sense of self, his marriage, and his family. Realizing he might lose them all if he doesn’t do something, he begins to use his skills as an electrician to siphon energy from the state, ushering in a period of bounty and happiness. Even the love of Marie and their child seem back within Roscoe’s grasp.

Then a young man working for the state power company stumbles on Roscoe’s illegal lines and is electrocuted, and everything changes: Roscoe is arrested; the farm once more starts to deteriorate; and Marie abandons her husband, leaving him to face his twenty-year sentence alone. Now an unmoored Roscoe must carve out a place at Kilby Prison. Climbing the ranks of the incarcerated from dairy hand to librarian to “dog boy,” an inmate who helps the guards track down escapees, he is ultimately forced to ask himself once more if his work is just that, or if the price of his crimes—for him and his family—is greater than he ever let himself believe.

Gorgeously spare and brilliantly insightful, Work Like Any Other is “a striking debut about love and redemption, the heavy burdens of family and guilt, and learning how to escape them

Jen’s Review: I loved this quiet and emotionally beautiful novel. I read this after finishing The North Water and The Sellout, both of which I enjoyed, but both of which were relatively dramatic and bold. This was a dramatic departure from those two books. I tend to favor writing styles that are more flowery and poetic and this book was written in a very sparse manner. Yet, I found the style to be beautiful and perfectly suited to the purpose of the novel. Reeves packs a lot into the book (racism, family relationships, prison conditions in the 1920s, love, resentment, guilt, and parenting) and she touches upon relationships of many kinds. I found myself very engaged in Roscoe’s story and I enjoyed the alternating chapters that shifted in both time and perspective. While the general themes weren’t the most original, the context/plot was different and the use of alternating time points and alternating first and second person narratives added to the originality of the book.

The characters were well-developed and complex. I took off one point for plot development because I felt like the author was attempting to take on more issues that needed for one novel (and some of them got the short end of the stick) and I didn’t love the ending (NOTE: added after reading Nicole & BW’s reviews — to clarify, I too thought the ending was very fitting for the book, but it still made me feel a little frustrated). It was a deceptively simple book that in reality had a lot of depth and emotion. From the synopsis, I didn’t think it would be the sort of book that would be too interesting to me. Boy was I wrong. It was interesting, beautifully-written, and touching. Overall, I loved the book and it would have been a 5-star read using my regular rating system. Definitely one of my favorites of the list so far and I’ll be added Virginia Reeves as an author to follow in the future.

Writing quality: 5/5
Originality 4/5
Character development: 4/4
Plot development 3/4
Overall enjoyment: 2/2
Total 18/20

Nicole’s Review:  This seemed like it was going to be a book like any other and at first I didn’t think I was going to like it, in fact I thought about abandoning it.  But there was something about it that drew me in and it didn’t take long before I was completely in love.  Poor hapless Roscoe reminded me a lot of Stoner; this totally lovable person who bumbled his way into a circumstance he didn’t seem destined for.

It’s not particularly original, and had I not loved the book so much I would have scored that lower.  It was a beautiful book, and unlike Jen I thought the ending fitting.  It’s 5 stars and a 2016 favorite for me.

Writing quality: 5/5
Originality 4/5
Character development:4/4
Plot development 3/4
Overall enjoyment: 2/2
Total 18/20

Book Worm’s Review: Like Jen and Nicole I also loved this book and I agree with Nicole that the ending was fitting.

While the main character was Roscoe and all the narratives focused around what was happening in his life, the secondary characters were all well drawn and 3 dimensional. Each had their own faults and foibles and I have to confess I loved Maggie the hunting dog.

I loved the way the story had a different take on what would usually happen within a marriage, how Roscoe faces his life in prison, what keeps him going, and how different life is from what he expects.

The time period and setting of Alabama also added to the enjoyment for me.

This is my favourite of the longlist so far.

Writing quality: 4/5
Originality 4/5
Character development: 4/4
Plot development 4/4
Overall enjoyment: 2/2
Total 18/20

Average score across all panelists: 18/20

Ranking of Longlist books to date:
1. Work Like Any Other (18/20)
2. The Sellout (17/20)
3. My Name is Lucy Barton (16.13/20)
4. The North Water (13.5/20)
6. Eileen (12.5/20)

Want to try it for yourself? You can buy your copy here: Work Like Any Other

We want to hear from you! Have you read this book? What did you think? Does it deserve to make the Man Booker Shortlist? Do you plan on reading this book? 

Next up (tomorrow): Hot Milk by Deborah Levy