Book Review: "Orbital" by Samantha Harvey

‘Maybe humankind is in the late smash-it-all-up teenage stage of self-harm and nihilism, because we didn’t ask to be alive, we didn’t ask to inherit an earth to look after, and we didn’t ask to be so completely and unjustly darkly alone.’

- Orbital by Samantha Harvey

I was going to make it my business to read all of the Booker nominees, but then I found that I was not interested too much in the longlist - I waited until the shortlist came out. This is a theme of the Booker Prize over the last few years - there has been some great misses and some which have been very well selected. I'm saying this because we have a book here that I can understand was selected for its literary power, but personally, I thought was pretty dull and bland. It's probably just me but even though the book was short, there was still some requirement for it to go somewhere. There was something about this book that told me I was wasting my time trying to see the constant profundity, never balanced out with the sentimental everyday emotions of actual people.

Let's look at a key advantage. On the surface, the book sounds pretty good. However, the advantage does not last so don't get too comfortable...

In this novella, we get a captivating glimpse into a single day in the lives of six astronauts and cosmonauts as they hurtle around Earth, not towards the moon or some distant galaxy, but in orbit above our own planet. Representing countries like the U.S., Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan, these men and women are part of one of the final space station missions before the entire program is retired. As they zip through space at over seventeen thousand miles per hour, we catch snippets of their earthly connections—brief calls home, cherished photos, and personal mementos that ground them amidst the vastness. We follow their daily routines as they float weightlessly through their work, prepare dehydrated meals, and adhere to rigorous exercises to keep their muscles from wasting away.

So, you can see why initially I was interested in the way this book would play out - it was different to my usual requests of literature. But as I have said previously, there was far too much for me within and yet, not enough. There was too much philosophy. Every single thing had to be some sort of profundity or something that made it 'quotable'. Nothing could simply be. I don't think it's good of a book to not balance itself correctly and concentrate on basically becoming bait for the awards.

On top of this, the book was also not enough because of the fact there was no story to connect me to anything. I didn't feel like I had any emotional connection with any character because of the fact there was (and correct me if I'm wrong) absolutely no plot whatsoever. I understand what it was about, but when you actually read the book, there is really no development, as if everything just keeps going around in circles (pun intended). Again, this is not a good look for a book either, but because of its experimental nature I guess it gets to be a part of the Booker Prize Shortlist, though I think it is a bit far-fetched to consider that it is the better of the list.

I wanted to like this book and I understand that a lot of people think it is beautifully written. It probably is on a literary level but on a personal level, I simply think that there is far too much of the philosophical that it kind of overloads the brain, leaving no space for any characters or development. So, unfortunately, this one was a miss for me.

In conclusion, I think I will continue to look at the Booker Prize Shortlist for some more reads, but I need some space after this one (the puns simply write themselves). I found it overloaded and yet, just kind of empty. There was nothing very memorable or something that stuck with me - there was a great need for some editing. However, I still hope it gets the recognition it deserves from being a Booker Prize nominee.