And Then There Were Six
September 21st, 2004The Booker shortlist has been announced:
- Achmat Dangor: Bitter Fruit
- Sarah Hall: The Electric Michelangelo
- Alan Hollinghurst: The Line of Beauty
- David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas
- Colm Tóibín: The Master
- Gerard Woodward: I’ll go to Bed at Noon
I’ve only read Cloud Atlas, but I loved it and think it should win. Those of you who have read it know that six is a significant number in the book…
Surprisingly, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell didn’t make it past the longlist. But I’m sure we’ll see it on shortlists to come, not the least of which will be the 2005 World Fantasy Award next October.
September 21st, 2004 at 6:34 pm
Man, I’ve only heard of two of them and just read the one. And here I thought I was hip. :)
September 23rd, 2004 at 2:24 am
Hye, it’s the first time I’ve even read one in advance! I hear that one of the reasons that Clarke did not make it was that some of the panelists felt it was excessively padded for all the actual substance it contained, I believe ‘200 pages too many’ was one comment. A valid critique or are they missing the point?
September 23rd, 2004 at 9:47 am
I think that’s a fair critique of Clarke’s book, even if I don’t agree. It could have been a shorter novel, but I don’t think it suffered for its size.