Booker Prize Countdown
October 10th looms large on the horizon, and the annual madness (in the English reading world) should have started on 8th September with the announcement of the Booker Shortlist.
This year the bookmaker's favourite is "Arthur and George" (Julian Barnes, Jonathan Cape) which is based on the (shock! gasp!) real life story of that most famous of authors' (A. Conan-Doyle) attempt to overturn a wrongful conviction. Although Barnes is the favourite, I can't help but suspect that this (as in so many other years) will turn out to be wrong. Please, do not misunderstand me - I love (but am not "in love with") Barnes and I have done for a good 14 years. But this year I think that the prize will go to Zadie Smith for "On Beauty"....
On Beauty is a literary rimming of EM Forsters "Howards End", and revolves around the life of Howard Belsey, who is English and unhappily married to Kiki (an American), and the changes that his stagnant life receives when his eldest son falls in love with Victoria (who is the daughter of Monty Kipps, a right wing politician). The story follows the changes that unfold as these two families find themselves thrown together against the backdrop of war and the beautiful pastoral scenes of rural America. It has drama, war, love, lust, middle aged mediocrity, and is written by a woman.
The "other runners", to completely not pay dues to 4 literary greats, are:
Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go
Ali Smith - The Accidental
Sebastian Barry - A Long Long Way
John Banville - The Sea
I will be reading Ishiguro this week and posting my opinion (which, like a sows ear is worth nothing) - and aim to get through Ali Smith next week, quickly followed by Barry and Banville.
So - lets get geared up for this annual event and see who actually wins!
As an aside, the peoples prize is currently running as follows:
Banville - 9
Barnes - 35
Barry - 9
Ishiguro - 26
Ali Smith - 26
Zadie Smith - 7
But it is early days, and everything is up for grabs. This week I will write a quick tool to grab these stats off the Booker prize website and produce a realtime graph of the voting pattern....technology and literature meet!
posted by Neil at 10:00 am
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2 Comments:
I really enjoyed Zadie Smith's White Teeth, but nosso much her The Autograph Man; the latter was too cryptic for me. But I would like to think, based on your blurb above, that third time's the charm.
That is likewise my position on American writer Chang-Rae Lee, whose debut novel Native Speaker was just so. neat. and. good., but his second one A Gesture Life was a total bomb, IMO. I've purchased his third, Aloft, in the hope that he too will redeem himself.
I haven't had time to read Barnes's The Lemon Table and already Arthur and George is out. Argh!
Please please please let us know about the Ishiguro, as his last (Once We Were Orphans) was just so weak and a sellout. Surely it's time too for his redemption?
Haven't read any of the other writers before, so I eagerly await your report! Happy Booker-reading!
3:45 pm
I've only read the Ishiguro...finished it, but disliked it. Worse than Once we were Orphans, really. at least that had some colonialist-romance-delusion whatever going on. Never Let Me Go is like a novel that could have been interesting if it was written in the 50s or 60s (then, at least Ishiguro would have abused some substances when he was writing). Put it next to something like Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, and you'll see how Ishiguro would have done better in the world of Sense and Sensibility. There!
But there's been some positive reviews of the book, so maybe it's just me.
Yes,yes, report and recommend once you done with any of the other books!
4:50 pm
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