February 21st, 2008
What’s your favourite Booker prize winner?
That’s the question the folk at the Man Booker Prize are asking. Just as they did with the ‘Booker of Bookers’ when the prize was 25 years old, now they’re asking the public to vote for their favourite* to mark the 40th anniversary in a ‘Best of the Booker’ competition. One of my all time favourite books - Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children - won at the 25 year mark. Has any work in the successive 15 years bettered it? There have been some fantastic winners in that period - Ishiguro’s The Remains of The Day, The Ghost Road by Pat Barker, Disgrace by JM Coetzee and three Irish novels: Roddy Doyle’s Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, John Banville’s The Sea and Anne Enright’s The Gathering.
41 novels are eligible to win as there were two winners in both 1974 (Nadine Gordimer and Stanley Middleton) and in 1992 (Barry Unsworth and Michael Ondaatje).
According to the website:
“* The public will choose from a shortlist of six novels to be selected by a panel judges chaired by Victoria Glendinning. The two other judges on the panel are writer and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup and John Mullan, Professor of English at UCL. Their shortlist will be announced in May, and public voting will then begin here on the Man Booker Prize website.”
Various UK bookies are tipping Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Midnight’s Children, Ondaatje’s The English Patient, Barry Unsworth’s Sacred Hunger and Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin to win.
The winner of the Best of the Booker will be announced in July.
Who’s your money on?
Links:
John Banville Interview
The Sea Review
Kazuo Ishiguro Interview
Anne Enright Interview
February 21st, 2008 at 10:52 am
Definitely Life of Pi for me. I found The God of Small Things over rated and very Bookerish in the same way that some films are very Oscarish. I only read Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha on a plane recently, I forgot it was a Booker winner. I found it amusing enough but not of great substance whereas The God of Small Things was full of substance but not very amusing.
February 21st, 2008 at 11:34 am
She probably won’t win, but Keri Hulme would be my personal pick. “Bone People” has almost spiritual status with me. Such a pity she hasn’t published another novel, although I think she’s been working on one for years.
I would bet on Ishiguro, although “The Remains of the Day” eh..remains the only example I have of enjoying a film adaptation more than the book.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I’m a big fan of The Ghost Road where Barker gave us the perfect end to a stunning trilogy.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Midnight’s Children by Rushdie wins again though. I have a feeling that both the book and the writer need to be held in great affection, befitting a national treasure, to carry this accolade.
February 21st, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Keri Hulme’s unstructured, emotional The Bone People would be one of my favourites. I picked it up by accident at the library and the sadness and love in it has lingered with me since. Te kama.
Rushdie would be a more conventional favourite of mine, more likely to earn me some sheckles if I bet on it. Whatever happened to such sumptuous magic realism?
February 21st, 2008 at 6:26 pm
I’m actually reading The Inheritance of Loss at the moment! I’d go for God of Small Things, Midnight’s Children or Disgrace as my favourites.
But I think Life of Pi will probably win - the number of people who read that book is phenomenal, even people hwo don’t normally read. Imho, it’s definitely the last Booker winner that really captured the public’s attention.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:02 am
It’s still Midnight’s Children, definitely. One of my favourite books ever, and I think a couple of steps ahead of anything that’s happened since the last Booker of Bookers.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Life of Pi was delightful and intelligent (animals are so like us and much more like us). Freedom at Midnight was a great read because it used magical realism to analyse India since independence, and I specially liked it because I’ve worked with Indian expats, have read Indian history and visited the country. Disgrace by Coetzee is nicely short and looks at post-apartheid South Africa from a wry,scary, multiracial and non-pc angle. I don’t rate Banville’s The Sea highly, and think Doyle’s funny novels come nowhere near the zany subtlety of Flann O’Brien.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Would like to see Midnight’s Children win it again as well- while I haven’t read all of the other winners there is a great depth to the book that is hard to match. Shame that his latest books haven’t quite reached this level at all.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Rushdie is sooooo overhyped.
I’m rooting for Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
John - I think LOP is a certainty to get on there, so many people I know who wouldn’t really read Booker books have read it and loved it. If it can make it past the first round with the judges, it’ll grab a huge chunk of the public vote. I loved Paddy Clarke at the time, I wonder if it has stood the test of time well.
Becs - agreed on the film adaptation of TROTD. The scene where she tries to pry the book from his hand is one of the most heart-breaking, emotionally repressive things I’ve ever seen on film. Must get around to the Bone People, you’re not the first to recommend it.
Eolai - The Ghost Road is in my Top 10 of all time favourite books.
“I have feeling that both the book and the writer need to be held in great affection, befitting a national treasure, to carry this accolade”
You’re right. In fact I’m sure there’s a Paddy Power strain of betting on the winner’s nationality and the odds of it being a British writer are probably very short.
Mish - how are you finding The Inheritance of Loss?
Karl - snap.
Garreth - I think Banville’s win was quite unpopular. Many thought Ishiguro would win for The Remains of the Day. So I don’t think he’ll make the shortlist. And I was in a minority and liked The Sea.
Tim - Rushdie has pretty much disappointed me since then. Although I loved his children’s stories Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
Medbh - nooo! I would have had you pegged as a Rushdie fan. I don’t see Roddy or Anne winning, as much as I loved The Gathering.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 pm
TIOL is ok so far, nothing spectacular story wise, but some of the writing is nice I’ll admit. It’s not the kind of book I would typically go for though. From what I’ve read so far, I wouldn’t put it up there with my favourites or anything but certainly worth a read (plus it’s nice and light for carrying on the train ;))
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Yeah like Haroun as well- short stories but great imagination. Think Louis de Bernières has gone the way of Rushdie as well- started off with some great magical realism but along the way the magic just vanished.
February 25th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
For me it would be The Remains of the Day, which in my opinion is one of the greatest novels of the second half of the 20th century. (Why undersell it, eh?)
I do think it will make the shortlist of six, and that Midnight’s Children and Disgrace will also be in there. Any of those would be a worthy winner. Can’t imagine Rushdie taking the popular vote though.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I would like Disgrace to win it, and I think it might well. I found Life of Pi to be a bit over-rated and I’d be disappointed if it won. The Sea wouldn’t be a bad choice either but I can’t see it happening.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Am I the only one who found Pi (the character) to be a total pain in the arse? He irritated the hell out of me. Glad I read the book, but definitely wouldn’t be a big fan. Amazed by how many people love it. I thought The Sea was brilliant though, so seem to go against the tide with these Booker winners…(I just finished reading Amsterdam, having had it forced on me - hated it).
Shamefully, I’ve never read Midnight’s Children so not in a position to vote for the best yet - it’s in my stack of to-read… about 3 down. At the moment, I’d go for Disgrace..