Customer Reviews

Prize Writing

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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).