The Booker Prize

[Funhouse]

re: Man Booker Prize 2008

Interesting year for the Booker, anyway, given that much of the titles are relatively so so in peoples' views. I'm on my fourth title, The Clothes On Their Backs, which is okay so far. I had to abandon Michelle de Kretser's The Lost Dog as I had wasted two days on it and was getting nowhere and didn't want to lose my momentum, especially after just getting back in my stride a month back. (Will return to it, though.)

Huh, I had to put down The Clothes On Their Backs, because I really wasn't enjoying it (although I will return to it). I did like The Lost Dog a lot, despite a few reservations. That's definitely on my shortlist, along with The Enchantress of Florence, which, by the way Irene, I doubt will take out the prize, precisely because they've already given him one this year. I've nearly waded all the way through A Fraction of the Whole and while it's promising, and very funny in parts, it's about 300 pages too long. Who lets a first-time novelist write a 700 page novel? Have they never heard of an editor?

 

[Stewart]

re: Man Booker Prize 2008

Huh, I had to put down The Clothes On Their Backs, because I really wasn't enjoying it (although I will return to it). I did like The Lost Dog a lot, despite a few reservations.

Ha, nice inversion there. On the subject of The Lost Dog I got thirty pages in and had to start again, this time gettng fifty pages in, but the temporal jumps and the cast of many from the off meant I couldn't really settle into it. But I'm in a minority, as most who have read it on the Booker forum seem to have enjoyed it.

Who lets a first-time novelist write a 700 page novel? Have they never heard of an editor?

Fantasy editors?

 

[Sybarite]

re: Man Booker Prize 2008

Having suffered through Child 44, I have From A to X to try instead now.

 

[Sybarite]

re: Man Booker Prize 2008

Having suffered through Child 44, I have From A to X to try instead now.

And I'm liking it thus far.

 

[Sybarite]

re: Man Booker Prize 2008

I've now finished From A to X by John Berger ? very good indeed. Very subtle, gentle, passionate and humane. Review to follow.

 

[Stewart]

re: Man Booker Prize 2008

I've now finished From A to X by John Berger – very good indeed. Very subtle, gentle, passionate and humane. Review to follow.

I'm sitting with this just now - started it again after seventy pages flew past yesterday without being taken in. But on page 38, X writes on the back of one oif A's letters:

The Inuit poet, Panegoosho, dropped in and started to talk about people he knew as a child. "They did not even try to be beautiful, only true, but beauty was there, it was a custom."
​

In my head, Panegoosho is a new name so it's straight on to Google to find out more about him. There's not much out there, but it turns out he is a she: Where were the editors?

Here's the poem it's taken from.

MORNING MOOD

I wake with the morning yawning in my mouth,
With laughter, see a teakettle spout steaming.
I wake with hunger in my belly
And I lie still, so beautiful it is, it leaves me dazed,
The timelessness of the light.

Grandma cares for me, and our family needs nothing more.
They share each other for pleasure
As mother knows, who learns from happiness
From her own actions
They did not even try to be beautiful, only true,
But beauty is here, it is a custom.

This place of unbroken joy,
Giving out its light today--only today--not tomorrow.​

 

[Stewart]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

After six weeks of the longlist, the thirteen titles get whittled down to just six later today as the shortlist gets announced. For the first time since following the Booker I don't really care, having abandoned any attempt to read the longlisted titles. Of the four I read, I liked Netherland by Joseph O'Neill (but couldn't bring myself to review it) and The Clothes On Their Backs by Linda Grant and, while initially liking Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger, it has proven itself really unmemorable and has slipped in my estimation. Child 44 did nothing for me.

But not reading the books is no barrier to having a go at trying to predict the shortlist, so here's my attempt, based on some reading, others' reviews, etc.:

• The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry
• The Lost Dog, Michelle de Kretser
• The Clothes On Their Backs, Linda Grant
• A Case Of Exploding Mangoes, Mohammed Hanif
• Netherland, Joseph O'Neill
• The Enchantress Of Florence, Salman Rushdie

Let's see how I do when the announcement comes.

 

[Stewart]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

• The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry
• The Lost Dog, Michelle de Kretser
• The Clothes On Their Backs, Linda Grant
• A Case Of Exploding Mangoes, Mohammed Hanif
• Netherland, Joseph O'Neill
• The Enchantress Of Florence, Salman Rushdie

Let's see how I do when the announcement comes.

• The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
• The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry
• Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh
• The Clothes on Their Backs, Linda Grant
• The Northern Clemency, Philip Hensher
• A Fraction of the Whole, Steve Toltz

Hmmm, two out of six ain't good. Mirabell, you'll love it: the Toltz and Hensher both exceed seven hundred pages.

 

[Funhouse]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

Apologies to readers of The Fictional Woods for cross posting, but here are my thoughts...

I suspected it from the longlist, but this group of Booker judges really is clueless. I've read four of these six and I can categorically say that neither Steve Toltz nor Linda Grant are fit to polish Joseph O'Neill's cricket balls.

That neither Netherland nor The Enchantress of Florence is on the shortlist is a travesty. I know, I know, people bitch and complain every year. I bitch and complain every year, but really, they're just being perverse.

I quite enjoyed The White Tiger, but it's a first novel and it shows, as does A Fraction of the Whole, which is approximately 300 pages too long and is so in love with the voice of its first-person narrator that everything else is blotted out. It's purportedly set in Australia, Paris and Thailand, but I really couldn't tell the difference between any of the locations. Adiga's novel is blurbed on the back by some reviewer who says it's not like any other Indian novel because it's not full of exotic things like saris and spices. The reviewer has obviously read maybe two other Indian novels in his life, because everyone's writing novels set in modern India these days. Adiga is just not that original.

I hated The Clothes on Their Backs at first and, though I hated it less by the end, Grant has a tin ear for writing prose.

The Secret Scripture is well-written, by contrast, but some of the plotting struck me as a little contrived.

I'm looking forward to reading Sea of Poppies, which I was planning to start tomorrow anyway. Ghosh deserves all the accolades he can get. And I understand Hensher's novel is a very long one. Still, assuming I can get hold of a copy I'll comfortably have the shortlist all read before the prize is announced. And then I can authoritatively bitch about the winner as well.

 

[Stewart]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

Louise Doughty, blogging on the Booker site, has the gall to say, "Ignore the moaners and vested-interest commentators who have read a fraction of what we have this year but still feel entitled to bellow at us about just how wrong we are."

I suspect the "vested-interest commentators" may refer to Canongate's Jamie Byng, after his post about the judges' ineptitude on the Booker site. As for the moaners - that's us, the readers, the ones who compiled longlists three times over on the Booker site that most agreed could trump this year's offering.

 

[Sybarite]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

... Where were the editors?

I ask myself this time and again ? usually over literals in a text. I suspect that the editing process has been cut back greatly in order to cut costs. I'm sure that I read somewhere (but for the life of me I can't remember where) that publishers now expect that the author will have ensured that the text is free of literals, correctly punctuated etc. Because they're not going to do it.

 

[obooki]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

"I suspect the "vested-interest commentators" may refer to Canongate's Jamie Byng, after his post about the judges' ineptitude on the Booker site."

Have you got a link? - Couldn't find it. - I did notice the other day, looking through a news aggregator, that one of the prize judges Hardeep Singh was published by Canongate, and when asked his favourite book of all time, he said Alasdair Gray's Lanark - also, as it happens, published by Canongate. If Byng can get him to say that, surely he can get him to vote the right way?

 

[Mirabell]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

The Hensher -so far- really nice. But I've been reading bits of an older Ghosh novel and if the new one is anything like it, the Ghost novel is far better.

 

[Stewart]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

Have you got a link? - Couldn't find it.

I missed this question the first time round. You can read it here. It's Louise Doughty's blog, dated September 9th.

 

[Stewart]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

This just in: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga has won the MAN Booker Prize in its fortieth year. Yawn!

This prize is in real danger in disappearing from the public consciousness, if it hasn't already. TV coverage stopped a few years ago*. Media coverage is minimal, with only small mentions of the longlist/shortlist/winner announcement in the national press. Only the Guardian, on their blog, seems to get any mileage out of the prize these days, and they probably milk that a tad too much. Still, it fills a slow book news day.

TV coverage is now a blink-and-you'll-miss it spot on the BBC's Ten o' Clock News. Usually it cuts to the announcement, then returns to the newsreader just as the winner is running up to make their speech. No difference tonight.

Michael Portillo commented:

"The judges found the decision difficult because the shortlist contained such strong candidates. In the end, The White Tiger prevailed because the judges felt that it shocked and entertained in equal measure.

"The novel undertakes the extraordinarily difficult task of gaining and holding the reader's sympathy for a thoroughgoing villain. The book gains from dealing with pressing social issues and significant global developments with astonishing humour."

Portillo went on to explain that the novel had won overall because of 'its originality'. He said that The White Tiger presented 'a different aspect of India' and was a novel with 'enormous literary merit'. ​

 

[Stewart]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

Just has my attention drawn to this article in today's Independent, regarding Booker judge Louise Doughty.

One of the judges of this year's Man Booker Prize has launched an outspoken attack on male academics who sit on literary judging panels, ahead of the award ceremony tonight.

Louise Doughty, who has written five novels, said such men should not be invited on to judging panels as they "always have their eye on their reputations" and are too concerned with picking a "highbrow" author rather than a readable one. She added that they tended to made judgements based on "how well the winning book reflected on them", often choosing the most obscure and self-consciously highbrow novelist, rather than considering the best entry.
​

What rot! With people her on the panel no wonder this year will go down with many as the lowest point in Booker history. It certainly explains how tripe like Child 44 made the longlist. Still, what did we expect from a woman who wrote a how to write a novel by numbers book. Perhaps the WH Smith award is more her level.

 

[Mirabell]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

Aravind Adiga becomes the third debut novelist to win the coveted prize

14 October 2008

Aravind Adiga is tonight (Tuesday 14 October) named the winner of the ?50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2008 for his novel The White Tiger,published by Atlantic.
The thirty-three year old novelist was presented the prize at an awards ceremony at Guildhall, London. Adiga becomes the third debut novelist, and the second Indian debut novelist, to win the award in the forty year history of the prize. The two other debut novelists to have won the prize are DBC Pierre in 2003 for his novel Vernon God Little and Arundhati Roy in 1997 for The God of Small Things.
Aravind Adiga's winning novel The White Tiger is decribed as a ?compelling, angry and darkly humorous' novel about a man's journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. It was described by one reviewer as an ?unadorned portrait' of India seen ?from the bottom of the heap'.
Adiga, who has wanted to be a novelist since he was a boy, was born in Madras and now lives in Mumbai. He becomes the fifth Indian author to win the prize, joining VS Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai who won the prize in 1971, 1981, 1997 and 2006 respectively. In addition, The White Tiger is the ninth winning novel to take its inspiration from India or Indian identity.
The win is a first for publisher Atlantic; although they had books shortlisted for the prize in 2003 with The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut, and in 2004 with Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor.
The White Tiger was one of six shortlisted titles for the prize. Also shortlisted for this year's prize were Sebastian Barry for The Secret Scripture (Faber), Amitav Ghosh for Sea of Poppies (John Murray), Linda Grant for The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago), Philip Hensher for The Northern Clemency (Fourth Estate) and Steve Toltz for his debut novel A Fraction of the Whole (Hamish Hamilton). Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives ?2,500 and a designer-bound edition of their book.
Michael Portillo, Chair of the 2008 judges, made the announcement, which was broadcast live on the BBC Ten O' Clock News. Peter Clarke, Chief Executive of Man Group plc, presented Aravind Adiga with a cheque for ?50,000.
The judging panel for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction comprised: Michael Portillo, former MP and Cabinet Minister; Alex Clark, editor of Granta; Louise Doughty, novelist; James Heneage, founder of Ottakar's bookshops; and Hardeep Singh Kohli, TV and radio broadcaster.
Michael Portillo commented:
"The judges found the decision difficult because the shortlist contained such strong candidates. In the end, The White Tiger prevailed because the judges felt that it shocked and entertained in equal measure.
"The novel undertakes the extraordinarily difficult task of gaining and holding the reader's sympathy for a thoroughgoing villain. The book gains from dealing with pressing social issues and significant global developments with astonishing humour."
Portillo went on to explain that the novel had won overall because of 'its originality'. He said that The White Tiger presented 'a different aspect of India' and was a novel with 'enormous literary merit'.
Aravind Adiga studied at Columbia and Oxford Universities and is a former correspondent for Time magazine in India. Adiga's articles have also appeared in publications such as the Financial Times, Independent and Sunday Times.
An audio download of The White Tiger is available in our audio section or read a Q&A interview with him given shortly after The White Tiger was longlisted.
Aravind Adiga was interviewed by BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier this week.
You will also be able view a video interview with Aravind Adiga on the Man Booker site from 15 October 2008.

 

[Eric]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

When the Nobel, Neustadt and other prizes announce their awards, it's often for someone who has produced a whole body of work. In the case of the Man Booker, this consideration seems not to apply. A journo, who has published pieces in the FT and WSJ, has studied EngLit at Columbia University (I believe that the Booker is not awarded to U.S. authors) and Oxford does not strike me as y'r average Indian author. He does not meet my criteria, as outlined on the Nobel thread, for an ex-colonial who is not cosily entangled with the educational and cultural system of the former colonial power.

Maybe we need an analysis as to why ex-colonials who admire the erstwhile metropolitan countries get awarded, while thousands of Indian authors who write in "foreign" do not.

There's too much brown-nosery going on, if those of you that do not read Private Eye understand this highly sophisticated term.

And: he wanted to be a novelist since he was a boy. This is, of course, in no way a clich

 

[Stewart]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

When the Nobel, Neustadt and other prizes announce their awards, it's often for someone who has produced a whole body of work. In the case of the Man Booker, this consideration seems not to apply.

Of course it doesn't apply. The Booker recognises the 'best' (ha ha!) book of the year while the others you cite are for bodies of work. It's in the rules and regulations. Not much that can be done.

WMaybe we need an analysis as to why ex-colonials who admire the erstwhile metropolitan countries get awarded, while thousands of Indian authors who write in "foreign" do not.

There are Indian literary prizes. I believe the Asian Booker doesn't quibble over the language, with most of this year's list being Indian Filipino, and Chinese. It does quibble over what constitutes Asia though, but that's probably because they have an Arabic Booker too.

 

[Eric]

Re: Man Booker Prize 2008

I think that "body of work" versus "latest work" should be a clearly delineated criterion for book prizes. Giving the prize to an established author whose latest work is "backed up" by his previous ten novels is surely different to awarding a beginner.

I would like to see an international literary prize that didn't only look at Indian books written by the authors belonging to the minority of 300,000 with English as their mother-tongue, but those from among the other billion or so who speak indigenous languages. The way it is at present, those that have the pushiness, talent or gumption to write in the former colonial language win all the prizes. So much for postcolonial Indian literature.

It strikes me that the dominant literary caste in India today is the one writing in that foreign language, English.