tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post112901996741876704..comments2024-03-29T07:15:11.234+00:00Comments on Grumpy Old Bookman: The Booker PrizeMichael Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11338398159818400930noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1129165423120621992005-10-13T02:03:00.000+01:002005-10-13T02:03:00.000+01:00Unlike the GOB, I always read Booker winners, and ...Unlike the GOB, I always read Booker winners, and usually a couple of others from the shortlist. I am seldom disappointed, though Anita Brookner’s <I>Hotel du Lac</I> (1984) made me wonder if it was something about me, and Ian McEwan’s <I>Amsterdam</I> (1998) struck me as slight by his standards.<BR/><BR/>What is not to be doubted is that the whole notion of choosing the best novel from any particular year is really pretty daft: you may as well, as Bob Dylan told us decades ago, ‘try and catch the wind.’<BR/><BR/>This truth was amply demonstrated a few years back, when the very first Booker winner, PH Newby’s <I>Something to Answer For</I> (1969) was offered to publishers under a pseudonym, and universally rejected. From year’s best to unpublishable in a generation. Enough said.<BR/><BR/>For the record (see Adrian Weston’s comment), Jill Paton Walsh’s <I>Knowledge of Angels</I> (1994) – if you haven’t read it, it’s time you did – was indeed shortlisted for the Booker, but did not win. Its rejection by UK publishers is the more bizarre in view of the fact that it had already been successfully published in the US.<BR/><BR/>Literary prizes tell us a lot about our culture. The truth is that they are essentially high-profile marketing exercises of a kind that scarcely existed a generation back. For most of us, their main value is as a kind of compass to help us navigate through an ocean of books in which we might otherwise get hopelessly lost: more than 10,000 novels are now published annually in the UK, God help us.<BR/><BR/>Fifty years ago, a manageable number of novels appeared each year, and winners were effectively chosen by a combination of critical and popular acclaim. Up to a point, this system is still in place. But the marketeers have moved in now, and novelists, like it or not, have become pawns in their cut-throat game.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1129057008366787782005-10-11T19:56:00.000+01:002005-10-11T19:56:00.000+01:00I became a lawyer after many years as a musician, ...I became a lawyer after many years as a musician, and can attest that it is delightful to be judged by quantity rather than quality. Nobody ever says, "Oh, I'm hiring you because of the profoundly luminous intensity of your firm's past work."archerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07585829829302449682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1129047261834834942005-10-11T17:14:00.000+01:002005-10-11T17:14:00.000+01:00Michael! Friend! Comrade! Forget about the blasted...Michael! Friend! Comrade! Forget about the blasted Booker. Why not nominate your own new tome, Essays and Criticism from the Grumpy Old Bookman, for the Blooker? I just read about this new contest at GirlOnDemand.Blogspot.com and you sound like a shoo-in. Info is at http://www.lulublookerprize.com.<BR/><BR/>Yr friend across the pond,<BR/>CantaraAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1129021151793390122005-10-11T09:59:00.000+01:002005-10-11T09:59:00.000+01:00Interesting - and I do agree wholeheartedly with y...Interesting - and I do agree wholeheartedly with you on the absurdities of publishing this throws up. Jill Paton Walsh's The Knowledge of Angels had not found a publisher because she is an acclaimed children's author, so for heaven's sake how could you market her? I mean really, the public wouldn't understand, would they, and as for the trade? They'd be baffled beyond recovery. So she self-published. So she won the Booker. So finally, she got published as an 'adult' writer. More power to her and humble-pie to her publishers. I guess there is one other element to the literary prize stuff, though, which is whether people read the short (or long) list of the prizes: new readers for authors, perhaps? I'm usually completely turned off by the Booker list, but I've gradually come round to the Orange Prize (iknowiknowmobbilephoneseeek) and have found several authors I know I would not have read otherwise.Adrian Westonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16949094257780832625noreply@blogger.com