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Originally Posted by issybird
I'm minded of Justice Potter Stewart's famous comment on pornography, "I know it when I see it." I think that's probably best. Reasonable people can disagree, of course, but I think thoughtfulness combined with a gut reaction might be the best litmus test.
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A bit difficult if you haven't actually read the book though. You may well know it in the end, as I believe I did with Geraldine Brooks' novel, but it's too late by then.
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Frankly, I think winning a prize is a dreadful test. There are so many undeserving prizewinners, IMO, and so many factors including hot topics, political correctness, connections, etc, etc, that winning a prize means very little in terms of literary quality.
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Perhaps, but it's also a very simple measure. At least one body has classified it such and that body is probably no less qualified than we are in this book club regardless of mistakes they may or may not have made.
Are we happy that sometimes a book is selected that is thought by enough people to be sufficiently literary to be voted in as a book club read only for us to find out later that perhaps it should not have qualified? Is the possibility something we should just accept gracefully? Or is there something we think we need to address to improve the selections going forward? If so - how would we go about it?