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Originally Posted by sun surfer
I'm about three quarters through so far and really enjoying it. I can't remember where I read it but remember seeing that when it first came out it was divisive and had some critical reviews although it also won the Booker that year. When it was nominated for Best of the Booker a little over a decade ago as one of the best Booker winners ever, it began to be reevaluated by critics, and the top Goodreads user reviews are basically very positive (the first page of reviews is almost all 5 star and none lower than 3). So as I've read I've wondered what might have caused the original divisiveness of opinion on it that was eventually overtaken by a coalition of positive sentiment.
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The answer may be literary snobbery. From what I’ve researched, the book was consider too “ordinary,” and the heroine was not “exceptional” enough to stand out. It sold well but was patronized as "the housewife's choice" and "suitable for the Harrods and Hatchard's market." It was competing against books by Iris Murdoch and Doris Lessing that critics thought were more deserving of such a prestigious literary award.