... Did someone slip something into the judges' tea?
Well, I don't agree about John Banville's The Sea, which I reviewed and liked a lot.
In the meantime: Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children wins 40-year Best of the Booker Prize. (Hat tip, Judith Fitzgerald.)
I believe they're awarding the novelists, not the particular book that's put up for that year. Although I agree with you, Frank, about "The Sea" -- that has to be one of the best novels I've ever read. If I could write like him, I'd be happy to die and go to heaven.
ReplyDeleteBut there have been duds. I found "Amsterdam" intensely annoying, but I would certainly give a Booker to "Atonement." And one of my favorite novels ever, by Penelope Lively -- "Passing On" -- I would also give a Booker, but what won for her was a much less good one called "The Moon Tiger." I believe someone wanted to award Salman for his sufferings, though "The Moor's Last Sigh" was his more readable novel.
One thing's for sure: The short list always has some excellent novels on it. "Cloud Atlas" is one of my favorite novels ever (by David Mitchell) and it was the Booker list that helped me discover it. "Black Swan Green" also fantastic, and it didn't win either.
A friend of mine recently read "The Gathering" by Ann Enright and hated it. Didn't she win last year's Booker?
I agree with much of what you say. Amsterdam is a fairly ordinary novel with some excellent charictorisation, but a Booker winner? Is it even a novel?
ReplyDeleteI also think that Midnight's Children to be especially overated and have written about why it is essentially just a derivative of The Tin Drum.