Booker Prize winner to be announced tomorrow amid controversy
The author favored to win the Man Booker Prize tomorrow, four-time nominee English author Julian Barnes, , calling it 鈥減osh bingo.鈥�
Barnes, who is nominated for his work "The Sense of an Ending," said judges for the award have been 鈥渋nflated by their brief celebrity.鈥�
And that鈥檚 not the only drama surrounding the prize this year. Dissatisfaction with the award, which is given to an author from Ireland, Zimbabwe, or the Commonwealth of Nations, which includes the United Kingdom, New Zealand, India, Australia and Canada, was shown in one of several instances when agent Andrew Kidd recently announced the creation of a new prize called the Literature Prize. Kidd is the spokesperson for the organizers of the new award and said in that the Booker prize 鈥渘ow prioritizes a notion of 'readability' over artistic achievement.鈥� Authors of any nationality will be eligible for the Literature Prize.
Argument has also arisen this year over the list of six nominees, which some critics said was severely lacking. Chair of judges Stella Rimington, a former British spy chief and former judge for the Booker who has written several thrillers as well as an autobiography,
A perceived focus by the judges on books being readable versus being good works of literature has also annoyed some, including former poet laureate of the United Kingdom Andrew Motion, he thought the judges鈥� attitude 鈥渙pens up a completely false divide between what is high end and what is readable, as if they are somehow in opposition to one other, which is patently not true.鈥� Others were offended when novelist and one of this year鈥檚 judges Susan Hill posted on last week a list of books she found 鈥渦nreadable鈥� that included James Joyce鈥檚 鈥淯lysses鈥� and Tolstoy鈥檚 鈥淲ar and Peace.鈥�
Ion Trewin, the prize鈥檚 administrator, that the judges just wanted to reward novels that were readable as well as being good works of literature.
鈥淣obody wants something with literary quality which is unreadable,鈥� Trewin said. 鈥淭hat would be daft.鈥�
Winners of the Booker Prize receive a check for 50,000 pounds, or $79,000, and in the past winners have seen the sales of their books skyrocket.
Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.
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