2009 Man Booker Prize Winner
Hilary Mantel has won the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Wolf Hall. I wasn’t interested in this book, but I do have the goal to read all Booker Prize winners. So, when the mood strikes . . .
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A nice article on winning the Booker Prize, by Hilary Mantel.
I'm liking Ron Charles more and more and more, and this video review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom makes just makes me giddy.
Over at Critical Mass, the blog for the NBCC, Wyatt Mason writes about Roth's "tenth, short, and perfect novel, The Ghost Writer." I agree with Mason; this is one great novel, and a great place to start if you're looking to get to know Roth. Here is my review. It wasn't my first Roth, but it is the book that made him one of my favorite writers of all time (if not my favorite).
This promises to get interesting. Anis Shivani of The Huffington Post has posted his list of the fifteen most overrated contemporary American authors. As usual, he makes some great points. Often when I see these, though, I think, "Okay, so they are bad. Now, tell me who is good -- and why the difference." Shivani promises to follow-up with the most underrated contemporary American writers. Followed with similar lists for American writers of the past century, and going further to include lists for the global writers.
Patricia Zohn interviews Jennifer Egan at The Huffington Post. I still think A Visit from the Goon Squad is one of the best books of the year.
New York Magazine has a nice look at independent bookstores in the City, which are rising "against all odds."
At Reading Matters, Kim has featured my blog on her Triple Choice Tuesday. My choices? The Ghost Writer, So Long, See You Tomorrow, and Butcher's Crossing. Pop on over and see my fresh, brief write-up of each title.
For Independence Day, the Huffington Post has a slide show of fifteen great independent publishers, featuring a few of my favorites -- Open Letter, Archipelago -- and a few I didn't know about. New Directions is a model of perfection, and I agree. I have stacks and stacks of books from these three presses, and I'm anxious to see what the others have to offer.
Michiko Kakutani's review of Jacob de Zoet is surprising in its lack of substance. It's mostly just a plot rehash (which I think gives away a bit too much). It's boring to read and insightless, where I usually enjoy her reviews even if I disagree (as I do here). I'm not saying my reviews are better, surely, but this is pretty poor for The New York Times daily and from a Pulitzer-winning critic.
In the new issue of The New Yorker, James Wood takes a look at The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: "This is to argue not that David Mitchell should be more like Tolstoy or Conrad or Beckett but, curiously, that he might be more Mitchellian—that the reader wants a kind of moral or metaphysical pressure that is absent, and that has ceded all the ground to pure storytelling."
The Paris Review blog has a Q&A with Jennifer Egan, author of The Goon Squad, a piece of which was published in The New Yorker and discussed here.
Click here for the Never Let Me Go trailer. I didn't like the book as much as I hoped I would, but the trailer makes the film look good.
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2010 Book Awards
2009 Book Awards
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I hope you have a week when the mood strikes. It is not a bad book, by any means, but (from my point of view) it is a very disappointing book. I have no problem with investing time in a 650-page book, but I do expect a return — Wolf Hall did not provide it. I won’t be reading volume two in the series.
I’m sure the mood will strike. It will probably be my next historical novel. As for the 650 pages — that I’m not looking forward to. There are other long books I’ve been meaning to read. So, sometime in the next year or so. None of this is to detract from Ms. Mantel. I’m just not sure I would be a good reader right now.
I actually won this book in a giveaway and have yet to read it, but I have heard some wonderful things about it so I am looking forward to reading it. I was expecting either Waters or Byatt to win. Oh well.
I’m getting used to the idea that Wolf Hall won and am coming around to the idea that she deserved it. She will do as much for the prize as the prize will do for her, as it was already a popular book before it even made the list if library waiting lists are anything to go by. I borrow many books and I have never seen as many reservations as this one has had, and still going strong in that regard. I’m sure booksellers are very pleased.
From a personal point of view, I expected not to like Wolf Hall but ended up liking it a lot. I will certainly read the next in the series. I learned a lot from this book in an enjoyable way, contrasted with Byatt’s offering which I put down after 104 pages.
Hilary Mantel seems to be a lovely, genuine, and enthusiastic person.
Even though I personally would have chosen Summertime to win, I do believe the judges did the right thing this year.
It’s not just 650 pages Trevor, it’s 650 pages in what isn’t yet a complete work, there’s a sequel on the cards and this isn’t intended to be standalone as I understand it.
I look forward to your thoughts though when you do get to it, but I fear it’s territory I shall be leaving you to chart for me, while I remain at home reading your despatches from the front…