First American Wins Man Booker

[issybird]

Paul Beatty was a unanimous choice for The Sellout, a satire on race in America.

Americans have only been eligible for the Man Booker since 2014, when the rules were changed. There were differing opinions at the time about the advisability of opening up the prize.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/bu...e-sellout.html

[kennyc]

Nice! And sounds like an interesting book as well. I saw a brief interview on the BBC with him just following the announcement - cant find it on line, but here's this.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37770363

[llcj]

There is an excellent interview with Paul Beatty by CBC Radio host Eleanor Wachtel on the program Writers and Company.

Hope the below link is appropriate and works.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersandco...ture-1.3464151

[HarryT]

Congratulations to Mr Beatty for winning the prize, although personally I'd have preferred that it be a prize for British writers. There are already existing prizes for American writers (eg the various Pulitzer Prizes).

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by issybird

Paul Beatty was a unanimous choice for The Sellout, a satire on race in America.

Americans have only been eligible for the Man Booker since 2014, when the rules were changed. There were differing opinions at the time about the advisability of opening up the prize.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/bu...e-sellout.html

Thanks for the heads-up.

I will now purchase it.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Congratulations to Mr Beatty for winning the prize, although personally I'd have preferred that it be a prize for British writers. There are already existing prizes for American writers (eg the various Pulitzer Prizes).

I think it adds to the lustre of the Man Booker as the preeminent English language literary award to be open to all comers. When Americans were excluded, there was a "Yes, but..." about it. I doubt Americans will take over the awards, so why not?

And there are a plethora of other British book awards, starting with the British Book Awards. There's even the Commonwealth Prize, so that association hasn't been lost. And I suspect most Commonwealth writers don't consider themselves British writers!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by issybird

I think it adds to the lustre of the Man Booker as the preeminent English language literary award to be open to all comers. When Americans were excluded, there was a "Yes, but..." about it. I doubt Americans will take over the awards, so why not?

Purely a personal opinion. The Booker was traditionally a prize for British and Irish authors. Then it was extended to include English-language writing from the British Commonwealth, and now it's any English-language writing. I just preferred it in its original form. American literature has a wholly distinct heritage from that of British literature and deserves to have its own separate recognition.

[Barty]

^^^ yes I agree with you, and I'm American.

[doubleshuffle]

Reading the book right now and enjoying it so far. Had to laugh out loud at this:

The meetings consisted mostly of the members who showed up every other week arguing with the ones who came every other month about what exactly “bimonthly” means.