Delighted to see David Mitchell back in the Booker Prize hunt

[Ya Sam]

Well, Zadie Smith is good, but let's face it: not good enough and not enough 
good. Morality Play owes too much to The Name of the Rose, as for "Horned 
Man", I haven't read it. The problem is with the general tendency in British 
literature which does not give much optimism.


>From: Toby G Levy <tobylevy at juno.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: Delighted to see David Mitchell back in the Booker Prize hunt
>Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 10:30:04 -0400
>
>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)
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search!
> > http://search.msn.com/
> >
> >
>

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