John of John - Douglas Stuart

I almost didn't want to write this review. John of John has had a huge amount of hype attached to it for months now, and the people who love it seem to really love it. So it's not exactly fun to sit down and admit that I didn't get on with it. But I didn't. This is the eleventh book I've read from this year's Booker Prize longlist, and it's comfortably my least favourite of the lot. I've been deciding which book to read next by picking them out of a cup at random, so it's just chance that I came to this one so late. If this had landed earlier in my journey through the longlist I think I'd have DNFed it. The only reason I didn't is that by the time I got to it I'd already read ten other longlisted books, and I've become sort of stubbornly committed to finishing all of them, whether I'm enjoying myself or not. On paper this should have been an easy win for me. It's exactly the kind of book I usually love. We've got an isolated community that still does things the old way, and a main…