2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Long List



The longlist for 'the largest and most international prize of its kind' has been announced. The shortlist will be revealed early in April next year, and the winner in June, which gives us all plenty of time to read the 150 or so books on the list and get into a position to criticise the final judgement. (And no, I don't have the slightest intention of doing that.) I found myself mentally ticking off the books I'd read, noticing that I had strong opinions of their likelihood of winning the prize if the world shared my taste and judgement. I've read eight, with -- embarrassingly -- no overlap at all with Matilda's list of the Australian titles that made the cut. In a spirit of emulating our self-quoting Prime Minister, here are my eight with relevant (sometimes paraphrased) bits from this blog:

Pat Barker, Life Class: ends up feeling like a footnote to the Regeneration trilogy

Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader: hardly more than a short story, but one that cried out nevertheless to be published as a book in its own right

Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union: the prose was a constant joy and pleasure; the story was pretty good too.

Moshin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist: the narrator's rage at the terrible realities of Pakistani politics is delivered with mellifluous inevitability that made me think of a Handel concerto

Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach: a beautifully written book that was still resounding in my brain several days after I finished reading, full of intense emotion and rich with possibility

Haruki Murakami, After Dark: whatever Muraki was trying to do, he took me along as a willing passenger

Ian Rankin, Exit Music (at least, I assume this is on the list: the web site gives Ian Rankin's Exit Ghost and Philip Roth's Exit Music, thereby demonstrating that even huge literary awards secretariats nod at times): from the first page, we hear the insistent tick-tick-tick of a gold watch approaching as relentlessly as Peter Pan's crocodile

Jeanette Winterson, The Stone Gods: I was largely bored.

Out of this lot, I'd give the prize to Michael Chabon.

Posted: Wed - November 12, 2008 at 02:34 PM           |

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