Damning the oriental scene

Reading literature and having a damn good time had become quietly but decidedly uncoupled,” writes Lev Grossman in an essay on the rise of the trashy hybrid novel. He could have been writing about India, where the rise of imitation pulp fiction — the Third World version of Eric Segal, not even the Third World version of Stephen King — and the growth of worshippers at the broad church of illiterature is an alarming but persistent trend. These are four things I’d love to see changing about the Indian literary scene in the next decade.

The Booker: It’s so tempting to pin the Indian obsession with the Booker on Arundhati Roy, whose win in 1997 for God of Small Things sparked off the great Indian Booker gold rush. (Blaming Arundhati is now a small cottage industry in its own right, so she may as well take the rap for the Booker. It’s a more interesting crime than hating the US, sympathising with the Maoists and never writing a sentence if she can get away with a paragraph.)


But the truth is, it’s our fault. If we’re losing interest in the Booker this year because Rushdie didn’t make it to the longlist and there isn’t another Indian/Asian contender, perhaps we need to ask when we became such insular readers. A century ago, the first Indian writers to claim English as one of their own languages read broadly; their imaginations were fired by their counterparts in Russia, Europe and America. A generation ago, Amitav Ghosh chronicled the practice of using the list of Nobel literature laureates as a kind of reader’s guide — a dreary but worthy way of inviting the world onto one’s bookshelves. What we’re seeing today isn’t just a preoccupation with literary success; it’s an unhealthy self-obsession.


Full report here Business Standard

Booker prize longlist promises to 'entertain and provoke'

Martin Amis may be getting heartily sick of people mentioning he's never won the Man Booker. But the wait goes on, after his novel The Pregnant Widow – along with books from Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan – today became the most surprising omission from this year's longlist.

Amis, McEwan's Solar and Rushdie's not yet published Luka and the Fire of Life all failed to make it onto a 13-strong list comprising eight men and five women. This year's judging panel is chaired by the former poet laureate Andrew Motion.

The only former winner listed is Australian Peter Carey, one of two novelists to have won the prize twice, who was immediately installed as 3-1 favourite by Ladbrokes to win for his novel Parrot and Olivier in America. If he emerges victorious, Carey will make history by becoming the first three-time winner.

Motion said the discussions had been "amiable and clever", and that the judges had tried to put aside literary reputations and judge the novels on their individual merits. Motion is aware that eyebrows might be raised at the omissions, though. "It's slightly invidious to talk about the books that aren't there," he said.

Full report here Guardian

Ang Lee to begin shooting ‘Life of Pi’ in Kerala

Academy-award-winning director Ang Lee will soon begin shooting for his ambitious new project, the silver screen adaptation of Booker Prize winning novel Life of Pi, in the picturesque locales of Kerala.

The Taiwanese-American director had begun auditions for the lead in the film earlier this year and had made a stop-over at Mumbai for the Indian round of casting and later scouted for locations in Puducherry, where part of the film will be shot.

Contrary to reports that the film is on hold due to budget disputes with the producers, 20th Century Fox, the filming will commence soon and Lee is currently dividing his time between New York and Southern India.

“Lee has completed his recce in Kerala and Puducherry.

Full report here Hindu

JG Farrell a worthy winner for the Lost Booker

Winning the Booker prize almost 40 years ago for The Siege of Krishnapur, JG Farrell used his acceptance speech to denounce capitalism, specifically in the form of the prize's sugar-trade sponsors. The late author would no doubt have been delighted to be given a similar platform today after his novel Troubles was chosen by the reading public as winner of the Lost Booker award.

The story of an army major who travels to a decaying Irish hotel in 1919 to meet his rashly acquired fiancee, Troubles was one of six novels published in 1970 to be shortlisted for the Lost Booker, intended to reward books that were ineligible when they were published, thanks to a shift in the fledgling prize's schedule that year, which resulted in the exclusion of almost 12 months' worth of novels from consideration.

More than 4,000 readers worldwide cast votes for their favourite shortlisted novel, with Troubles taking 38% of the vote, more than double that of other contenders by Muriel Spark, Nina Bawden, Shirley Hazzard, Mary Renault and Patrick White.

Full report here Guardian

Man Asian Booker turns focus on English writing

The Man Asian Literary Prize has been restructured, to award novels written by "a citizen of an Asian country and first published in English in 2010". Translations into English are also eligible, as long as they are first published in English this year. The prize previously went to books that had not yet been published in English.

The prize money has been trebled from $10,000 (£6,580) to $30,000, and the translation prize has nearly doubled, from $3,000 to $5,000.

Entry forms will be available later in the year, "around May" according to the organisers. Detailed rules for eligibility will be released soon.

Full report here Bookseller 

Rushdie's Midnight Children to be filmed

Salman Rushdie's best known work, Midnight's Children, which won the Booker of Bookers, is to made into a film directed by Deepa Mehta.

Incidentally, the film will also see an appearance by the author, in keeping with Mehta's style. The film is expected to release in 2010.

Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das and Seema Biswas are said to be in the cast. Rushdie and mehta will co write the script.

The book, which was released in 1981, is a fictional account of Saleem Sinai, who was born at the stroke of the midnight hour, August 15, 1947.

Mahasweta Devi, VS Naipaul in Man Booker shortlist

Mahasweta Devi and VS Naipaul are among the 14 writers from 12 countries who are in the running for this year’s Man Booker International Prize.

Also on the list is doube Booker winner Peter Carey from Australia. Others in the list include Manuel Vargas from Peru, UK's James Kelman and three Americans including Evan S Connell. Also on the list are Croatian Dubravka Ugresic and Russian Ludmila. Arnost Lustig from the Czech Republic and Italian Antonio Tabucchi complete the list.

The £60,000 award, instituted in 2004, is different from the annual and better-known Man Booker Prize. This one recognises a writer’s life-time achievement rather than judging him or her on the basis of the latest work.

It is given every two years to a writer who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in English.

The previous two winners of the award are the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare and the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe. Kadare won the inaugural one in 2005. This year’s contenders were chosen by a panel of judges that included Amit Chaudhuri.

The winner will be announced in May.