Friday, October 24, 2008
Booker Judges Avoid Another Irish Winner
The Guardian reports that the Booker prize judges nearly awarded the coveted prize to Sebastian Barry for The Secret Scripture but didn't because Anne Enright's win last year "was enough Irish literature for a while, thank you very much." In recent comments, Michael Portillo, one of the Booker judges, admits that The White Tiger is "not such a beautiful book [as The Secret Scripture]; not written to the same heights of literary magic." What a shame.
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5 comments:
Politics, bleh!
'Such a beautiful book...but we don't like the geographical location of the writer so let's give it to the poor schnook who hasn't written to the same heights of literary magic but at least comes from a country we aren't inherently biased about.'
My mistake, I thought it was about the writing. Guess which one I will be reading first?
I’m Irish and I’m furious about this. I shouldn’t be - the war is over - but failed British politicians should learn to keep their trap shut. Once again, what this proves is that the Booker judges can always be relied on to get it wrong. To borrow that memorable phrase from Julian Barnes, it’s little more than posh bingo.
I'm not Irish, and I'm furious too!
Gwen
The White Tiger is not highly literary, but no doubt it's well written. The voice is original and innovative. It's musing on the global problems.
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