Because no prize can be complete without some sort of controversy, here are some articles about the dust John Banville left in his wake after winning the Booker for The Sea:
The chair of the Judging committee’s opinion in the Guardian,
A dissenter,
And of course the party report.
On a side note, in the last article there, they mention that Banville was scheduled to receive an honorary degree at Skidmore College the next day, which just happens to be my alma mater. How very interesting.
You may have heard that John Banville won this years Man Booker prize, which ought to make Mark very happy. Apparently this is quite the “coup” according to the Guardian, who report that the voting was tied until the chairman cast his vote. I love reading about this prize as every year we get to hear about the British odds.
In other prize news, the Nobel prize for Literature should be awarded this Thursday. They’ve gone and surprised everyone by announcing it a week later than the rest of the prizes. Supposedly the controversy has to do with honoring Orhan Pamuk, but I can’t help but feel they are trying to stir up some news about the prize, which usually gets a very tepid response from the media. And a judge has stepped down, declaring giving the prize last year to Elfriede Jelinek has done “irreparable damage to all progressive forces”. Meow.
Laila Lalami, author of the wonderful Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and creator of MoorishGirl.com, writes about rich vs. poor in an essay at Powells.com. It’s thought provoking, so read it.
And the Morning News has another long Robert Birnbaum interview up today. This time, Uncle Bob speaks with Stuart Dybek, author of I Sailed with Magellan and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods: Stories.
Sara Ivy interviews Sherwin Nuland, whose new book Maimonides is the second in the Jewish Encounters series, a collaborative effort between Schocken and Nextbook. Sherwin Nuland will be appearing at Harvard Hillel on October 11th at 6:30pm for those interested.
I wrote about this book a few months ago. It’s Doug Psaltis’ memoir about his rise in the food world. I hated it. Psaltis comes across as a complete asshole in my opinion. And apparently, others in the business seem to think the same thing according to this article in the NYT. His book has caused quite a stir, as he criticizes a lot of big time chefs. Even the Jacques Pepin and Mario Batali who both wrote the blurbs that got me to read this book have recanted.
Bookdwarf 