Delighted to see David Mitchell back in the Booker Prize hunt

[Toby G Levy]

First of all, the Booker is not a prize for British Literature, it's a
prize for novels are written by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations
or the Republic of Ireland.  This includes Australia, Canada, Pakistan,
India and a big chunk of Africa. see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Nations

Secondly, there are other British writers of quality equal to Norfolk and
Mitchell.  I'll just mention one: Zadie Smith.

Thirdly, there are some outstanding authors on this year's long list. Two
of the names leapt off the screen at me:  Barry Unsworth, whose book
"Morality Play" was one of the best literary mysteries I've ever read,
and James Lasdun, whose "Horned Man" scared the pants off me when I read
it in a tent by flashlight on a camping trip some years ago! Kafka fans
definitely need to check out "Horned man."

Toby

On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:36:02 +0300 "Ya Sam" <takoitov at hotmail.com>
writes:
> Man, looking at the shortlist of the candidates for Man Booker I keep 
> asking 
> myself, what the hell has happened to British literature? Will evere 
> a 
> writer of Anthony Burgess calibre appear? For the time being the 
> British 
> literary landscape looks like a Dali wasteland with two grotesque 
> figures 
> looming on the horizon: David Mitchell and Lawrence Norfolk, the 
> best that 
> they have.
> 
> 
> >From: Toby G Levy <tobylevy at juno.com>
> >To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> >Subject: Delighted to see David Mitchell back in the Booker Prize 
> hunt
> >Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 09:19:12 -0400
> >
> >the following extracted from http://www.themanbookerprize.com/
> >
> >The judging panel for the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction today 
> (Monday
> >14th August) announces the longlist of books for this year.
> >
> >The longlist of 19 books was chosen from 112 entries; 95 were 
> submitted
> >for the prize and 17 were called in by the panel of judges.
> >
> >Chair of judges, Hermione Lee, comments:
> >
> >"Judging the Man Booker Prize puts you through almost as many 
> emotions as
> >there are in the novels. We’ve tried to be careful and critical 
> judges as
> >well as being passionately involved. We have many regrets about 
> some of
> >the novels we’ve left off, and we could easily have had a longlist 
> of
> >about 30 books, but we’re delighted with the variety, the 
> originality,
> >the drama and craft, the human interest and the strong voices in 
> this
> >longlist. It’s a list in which famous established novelists rub 
> shoulders
> >with little known newcomers. We hope that people will leap at it 
> for
> >their late summer reading and make up their own shortlist.”
> >
> >The judging panel for the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is: 
> Hermione
> >Lee (Chair); Simon Armitage, poet and novelist; Candia McWilliam, 
> award
> >winning novelist; critic Anthony Quinn and actor Fiona Shaw.
> >The 2006 shortlist will be announced on Thursday 14th September at 
> a
> >press conference at Man Group’s London office. The winner will be
> >announced on Tuesday 10th October at an awards ceremony at 
> Guildhall,
> >London.
> >
> >The longlist for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006 is as 
> follows;
> >
> >Carey, Peter Theft: A Love Story (Faber & Faber)
> >Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss (Hamish Hamilton)
> >Edric, Robert Gathering the Water (Doubleday)
> >Gordimer, Nadine Get a Life (Bloomsbury)
> >Grenville, Kate The Secret River (Canongate)
> >Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down (Canongate)
> >Jacobson, Howard Kalooki Nights (Jonathan Cape)
> >Lasdun, James Seven Lies (Jonathan Cape)
> >Lawson, Mary The Other Side of the Bridge (Chatto & Windus)
> >McGregor, Jon So Many Ways to Begin (Bloomsbury)
> >Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men (Viking)
> >Messud, Claire The Emperor’s Children (Picador)
> >Mitchell, David Black Swan Green (Sceptre)
> >Murr, Naeem The Perfect Man (William Heinemann)
> >O’Hagan, Andrew Be Near Me (Faber & Faber)
> >Robertson, James The Testament of Gideon Mack (Hamish Hamilton)
> >St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk (Picador)
> >Unsworth, Barry The Ruby in her Navel (Hamish Hamilton)
> >Waters, Sarah The Night Watch (Virago)
> 
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