Literally...

Banville’s the Man for Booker

The winner has been announced for the Man Booker Prize, and in something of a surprise selection, John Banville’s The Sea has been awarded Brit-Lit’s top prize. As we mentioned in our article last month, Banville wasn’t considered the front-runner for the award, but was a mid-field pick according to British bookmakers. The choice of Banville’s book obviously caused some consternation for the judging panel, as the vote was tied until the chairman used his tie-breaking vote to plumb for Banville.

Genre bias

Still on the Booker (sort of), Guardian columnist Peter Preston has penned a thought-provoking little piece on why some very good writers seem to be excluded from Booker contention because they happen to write “genre” novels. He argues that if Dickens were writing today, he would probably find it difficult to get a Booker jersey. Why, he asks, are writers like PD James and Ian Rankin never considered for the Booker, when for example the Oscars are happy to reward everything from crime dramas to romantic comedies to Westerns? Something to ponder on. You can read Preston’s article HERE.

Truth on trial?

A Turkish novelist is to go on trial for speaking out about events that happened 90 years ago. Orhan Pamuk, a best-selling writer in Turkey, allegedly told a Swiss newspaper that over 1 million Armenians were killed in 1915 “and nobody but me dares to talk about it”. Armenia and other countries recognise the events of 1915 as genocide. Turkey denies the claim, saying the Armenians died as the result of civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire crumbled during World War I. Pamuk also (and perhaps even more controversially) included a reference to the deaths of some 30,000 Kurds in his comments. Turkey has been fighting Kurdish rebels seeking autonomy for some 20 years.

Fire ravages legacy

Fire has destroyed the country home where the legendary writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn penned some of his most famous works. After being expelled from the Soviet Union of Writers in 1965 for his dissident views, Solzhenitsyn retreated to the dacha (country villa) near Rodzhestvo, outside Moscow. There he wrote his seminal account of life in Soviet prison camps, The Gulag Archipelago. The fire also destroyed some of the writer’s old photographs and papers, although a full inventory has not yet been taken. Faulty wiring is being blamed for the blaze.

David Edwards

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November 2005