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bookgazing) wrote2010-06-09 04:04 am
bookgazing) wrote2010-06-09 04:04 am
A Little Bite of the Orange
Tonight is the night the Orange prize winner and the Orange New Writers award will be announced. I have nothing to offer on the New Writer’s selection as I haven’t read any of the three shortlisted entries. I actually find that second award less fun because we never know what got long listed for that prize, but then I will always come out on the side of more book lists.
I can tell you that having set my cap early this year I’m sticking with ‘Wolf Hall’ for the win in the main prize competition. I know lots of people think it should go to a different book because ‘Wolf Hall’ has won, what, three prizes already, but I think out of the shortlist the Orange judges picked I think ‘Wolf Hall’ is the best book and that’s the book the prize should go to. Simples.
In the end I finished ‘The Lacuna’ and ‘The White Woman on the Green Bicycle’, which means I read five out of the six on the shortlist. So I could be totally wrong and ‘The Very Thought of You’ could be a prize contender. From the reviews I’ve seen so far I gather it is a good book but doesn’t stack up to the rest of the list, but as I haven’t read it yet I can’t count it out of the competition. In total I finished nine long listed books and bought three more that I didn’t have time for (‘Small Wars’, ‘Hearts and Minds’ and ‘The Very Thought of You’) and one off the New Writers shortlist (‘After the Fire a Small, Still Voice’).
It has been very enjoyable to concentrate on some Orange prize reading and to follow the progress of others who read much more than me. It’s been something a little bit special and I won’t lie and say it’s specialness isn’t connected to my gender because it is. To think that at one time so few women were published and now there’s a whole prize bursting with entries and serious people look at each book as a book, not a something limited because it was produced by a female author. The Orange prize is about ensuring equality in literary prizes, but it’s also become a kind of celebration, a yearly look at how far women have come and how many different ways of writing a story female authors come up with each year. It’s a cultural celebration, a kind of literary carnival that we need even as women begin to find recognition in other prizes.
Or maybe I’m being a bit soppy. Whatever, the waiting is nearly over. Which book is your winner?
Update: And the winner is...'The Lacuna'. In a way I've been expecting this result. I had a sneaking suspicion that this was not a judging panel that would pick a book already honoured by so many and as I said in my thoughts 'The Lacuna' is so comparable to 'Wolf Hall' that it's the obvious choice if 'Wolf Hall' is not to be considered. It's not as if us 'Wolf Hall' acolytes can moan is it, as the book has already won so much, but still...
No, no more being ungracious, well done Barbara Kingsolver. Final thoughts on 'The Lacuna' to come soon. Let's see who has won the rest of the associated prizes. Ah the one no ones been talking about, 'The Boy Next Door' has taken the New Writers prize. Very interesting and one to look into. And the youth panel (fantastic idea, just wish they'd taken some of the discussion from Spinebreakers and advertised it on the main Orange site) picked 'Fugitive Pieces' by Anne Michaels as the 'Best of the Orange' winner.
I can tell you that having set my cap early this year I’m sticking with ‘Wolf Hall’ for the win in the main prize competition. I know lots of people think it should go to a different book because ‘Wolf Hall’ has won, what, three prizes already, but I think out of the shortlist the Orange judges picked I think ‘Wolf Hall’ is the best book and that’s the book the prize should go to. Simples.
In the end I finished ‘The Lacuna’ and ‘The White Woman on the Green Bicycle’, which means I read five out of the six on the shortlist. So I could be totally wrong and ‘The Very Thought of You’ could be a prize contender. From the reviews I’ve seen so far I gather it is a good book but doesn’t stack up to the rest of the list, but as I haven’t read it yet I can’t count it out of the competition. In total I finished nine long listed books and bought three more that I didn’t have time for (‘Small Wars’, ‘Hearts and Minds’ and ‘The Very Thought of You’) and one off the New Writers shortlist (‘After the Fire a Small, Still Voice’).
It has been very enjoyable to concentrate on some Orange prize reading and to follow the progress of others who read much more than me. It’s been something a little bit special and I won’t lie and say it’s specialness isn’t connected to my gender because it is. To think that at one time so few women were published and now there’s a whole prize bursting with entries and serious people look at each book as a book, not a something limited because it was produced by a female author. The Orange prize is about ensuring equality in literary prizes, but it’s also become a kind of celebration, a yearly look at how far women have come and how many different ways of writing a story female authors come up with each year. It’s a cultural celebration, a kind of literary carnival that we need even as women begin to find recognition in other prizes.
Or maybe I’m being a bit soppy. Whatever, the waiting is nearly over. Which book is your winner?
Update: And the winner is...'The Lacuna'. In a way I've been expecting this result. I had a sneaking suspicion that this was not a judging panel that would pick a book already honoured by so many and as I said in my thoughts 'The Lacuna' is so comparable to 'Wolf Hall' that it's the obvious choice if 'Wolf Hall' is not to be considered. It's not as if us 'Wolf Hall' acolytes can moan is it, as the book has already won so much, but still...
No, no more being ungracious, well done Barbara Kingsolver. Final thoughts on 'The Lacuna' to come soon. Let's see who has won the rest of the associated prizes. Ah the one no ones been talking about, 'The Boy Next Door' has taken the New Writers prize. Very interesting and one to look into. And the youth panel (fantastic idea, just wish they'd taken some of the discussion from Spinebreakers and advertised it on the main Orange site) picked 'Fugitive Pieces' by Anne Michaels as the 'Best of the Orange' winner.