A collection of short pieces of writing from past winners of the Booker Prize. There are new short stories from authors such as William Golding, Penelope Lively, Penelope Fitzgerald and Iris Murdoch, and extracts from the past writings of a prestigious collection of authors.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Might Be Worthwhile If You're Looking for an Introduction to These Writers,
This review is from: Prize Writing (Paperback)
This book was published in 1989 and collected writing by winners of the first 20 years of the Booker Prize, 1969-88. All the winners during this time were represented, except for V. S. Naipaul (1971) and John Berger (1972).
Some of the writers were represented by short extracts from the novels that had won them the prize: J. G. Farrell, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, David Storey, Salman Rushdie, J. M. Coeztee, Anita Brookner and Peter Carey. Rushdie also contributed an essay on unreliable narration in his novel. Paul Scott and Kingsley Amis were represented by excerpts from other novels they'd written, and Thomas Keneally by a segment from an unfinished novel. Iris Murdoch contributed poetry. The rest included short stories, which apparently were new material. In all, there were 10 excerpts from novels, 8 short stories, 4 poems and 1 essay. The oldest writers were William Golding (1911-93), Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000), P. H. Newby (1918-97) -- the first winner -- and Stanley Middleton (1919-). The youngest were Coetzee (1940-), Carey (1943-), Keri Hulme (1947-) and Rushdie (1947-). Among the others were Nadine Gordimer (1923-), Anita Brookner (1928-) and Penelope Lively (1933-). The introduction by long-time Booker administrator Martyn Goff mentioned the prize's growing prominence since about 1980, which he attributed mainly to a careful choice of judges, the expectation that judges would read every book, and the balanced structure of the management committee. Even more important, maybe, were announcements that put each year's choice of authors' books in derby-like competition with each other, adroit leaking of rumors of literary spats, and headline-grabbing incidents by participants over the years. As for the writing itself -- in this book -- most of all it directed me to J. G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur for his blend of action and historical satire and to the careful story-telling ability and precision of Penelope Lively, Penelope Fitzgerald and Anita Brookner. Other books in this line are Booker 30: A Celebration of 30 Years of the Booker Prize for Fiction 1969-1998 (1998) and The Man Booker Prize: 35 Years of the Best in Contemporary Fiction 1969-2003 (2003). In nonfiction, there's Goff's own modestly titled Booker Man: The Riveting Memoirs of the Man Who Ruled British Fiction's Biggest Prize (2009).
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
