2023 Booker Longlist: Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein 

Our next longlist nominee is Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein. Bernstein was born in Montreal and now lives in the Scottish Highlands, where she teaches literature and creative writing. Her first book was a collection of poems titled The Coming Bad Days. Earlier this year she was selected for Grant’s Best of Young British Novelists.

Synopsis from Booker Prize website:  A woman moves from the place of her birth to a ‘remote northern country’ to be housekeeper to her brother, whose wife has just left him. Soon after she arrives, a series of unfortunate events occurs: collective bovine hysteria; the death of a ewe and her nearly-born lamb; a local dog’s phantom pregnancy; a potato blight.

She notices that the community’s suspicion about incomers in general seems to be directed particularly in her case. She feels their hostility growing, pressing at the edges of her brother’s property. Inside the house, although she tends to her brother and his home with the utmost care and attention, he too begins to fall ill…

You can purchase a copy of the book here

Three of our panelists read the novel. Keep reading to find out how our panellists rated this book.

Tracy’s Thoughts: It reads like a combination of a horror novel and a study in ostracism- almost a Frankenstein without the physically created monster. I really liked it. 

There was really only one character, versus a town that could qualify as a character in itself. Her development in this time frame was both progressive and stagnant; she wanted to fit in, but she didn’t want to put in all that work. As the story developed, her reliability as a narrator seemed to unravel. Because of that, the plot seemed scattered as I was reading, but was actually straightforward upon review. 

The social commentary and deeper levels from this short novel were what got me, and are what require multiple readings. This book insists that the reader pay attention, and every reader will find something different. Sounds like a Booker book to me. 

Writing quality 4.5/5
Originality 4.5/5
Character development 3.5/4
Plot 3.5/4
Overall enjoyment 2/2
Total 18/20

Jen’s Thoughts: 1. This book will undoubtedly make the shortlist. 2. I despised it. This was the longest short book I’ve read in a long time. There is a type of writing style that I really struggle with, and this book exemplifies that style — long meandering sentences, philosophical musings, stream-of-consciousness, and academic literary style writing. Many of the sentences dragged on for almost a full page. Ironically, earlier I had complained that the longlist was feeling overly commercial/populist. Well, this book is the opposite. It is one that will likely be fawned over by literary critics, academics, and literary analysts. It’s probably a perfect book to read in a college or graduate level class. It’s chock full of literary references, and in order to fully appreciate this novel, you have to be a very well read person.

I fully admit that my review is colored by my lack of enjoyment and dislike for the writing style. Trying to be more objective, the book is quite clever and the concept of a study for obedience was interesting in the context of how individuals or groups internalize guilt, blame, marginalization. The narrator is female and many of the threads revolve around gender (I connected with some of these threads) but there is a wider scope that encompasses all sorts of power differentials and ostracism.

While I didn’t enjoy it, I can acknowledge that this is a book that will make you think. I rated it lower on character and plot development because it’s really more of a book about musings and ideas and the plot is minimal and the character development is minimal.  It’s not a book for the average reader. I leave you with a passage that I did like from the book.

I said so little and yet it was too much. Much too much. I vowed to make myself smaller and smaller, on numerous occasions throughout my life I had made this same vow, after speaking too rashly in the primary school lunch room or in the high school corridors, I would sit in my bedroom telling myself over and over again, hour after hour, that I would not speak a single word the following day, that I would limit myself in all ways, that I would take up less space.

Writing quality: 3/5
Originality: 4/5
Character development: 2/4
Plot development: 2/4
Overall enjoyment: 0/2
Total: 11/20

BookWorm’s Thoughts:  Having read other reviews of this book I was not expecting to enjoy it. So I was pleasantly surprised when I started reading and was immediately drawn into the narrative.

This is a book where the action very much happens off screen. We are given hints about what is going on, but never enough to form a full picture. Reality hoovers just out of grasp. With a book of this nature, not a lot happens, and conclusions are hard to draw.

I liked the hints that our narrator is not always truthful and that the events she is describing may not always be what they seem. There are hints later in the book that make you question the previous narrative.

Writing quality: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Character development: 2/4
Plot development: 2/4
Overall enjoyment: 1/2
Total: 13/20

Have you read this one? Let us know what you thought.

Our panel’s rankings

1. The House of Doors: 16.5
2. A spell of Good things: 15.38
3. Old God’s Time: 13.20
4. In Ascension: 12.5
5. Western Lane: 12.5
6. How to Build a Boat: 12.38