This Year’s Booker List

I became aware of the Booker Prize when Arundhati Roy won it for The God of Small Things. Salman Rushdie got it for Midnight’s Children. Both these books deserved the award, especially Midnight’s Children. Apart from these two, I have never read another Booker Prize winning entry. I purchased Disgrace last year but my sis-in-law borrowed it so I never got to read it (that’s why I don’t like exchanging books, not even the ones I have read). After reading this blog entry Alka vehemently protested that her sister had returned the book immediately after reading it and it was I who was not aware of that.

It is a well known fact that most prizes, including the Nobel, are politically and economically motivated. Personal prejudices of the selectors and the judges play a big role and often people who really deserve the prize, don’t get it. So the best prize is the reaction of the readers. If your book sells, it has earned its prize, judges be damned.

Some big names such as Martin Amis and VS Naipaul are missing from this year?s list. Critics have commented most of these writers? works are not up to the mark and some newer, lesser known artists who have done splendid jobs should be included. One of the judges, Rowan Pelling views the absence of big-name writers like VS Naipaul, Louis de Bernieres and Jeanette Winterson as a way to “deadhead the roses” and encourage new growth.

Whereas Scottish writers are complaining that some of them have been wrongly omitted due to the judges? bias against Scottish and working class writers, an Australian author has found her name in the list astonishing.

According BBC, the Booker panel has chosen 22 books from amongst 132 entries for the award, which will be announced on October 19. The judges say that this years list is mix of “serious and fun books”.

The 22 short-listed novels for the time being are:

• Chimamanda Ngozi - Purple Hibiscus
• Nadeem Aslam - Maps for Lost Lovers
• Nicola Barker - Clear: A Transparent Novel
• John Bemrose - The Island Walkers
• Ronan Bennett - Havoc, In Its Third Year
• Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
• Neil Cross - Always The Sun
• Achmat Dangor - Bitter Fruit
• Louise Dean - Becoming Strangers
• Lewis Desoto - A Blade of Grass
• Sarah Hall - The Electric Michelangelo
• James Hamilton-Paterson - Cooking with Fernet Branca
• Justin Haythe - The Honeymoon
• Shirley Hazzard - The Great Fire
• Alan Hollinghurst - The Line of Beauty
• Gail Jones - Sixty Lights
• David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
• Sam North - The Unnumbered
• Nicholas Shakespeare - Snowleg
• Matt Thorne - Cherry
• Colm Toibin - The Master
• Gerard Woodward - I’ll Go To Bed at Noon

Six out of these, I guess, will be chosen for the final list.