The Booker Prize
Introduction
Fast becoming one of the most prestigious awards
in the literary field, the Booker-McConnell Prize, most often referred
to as simply the "Booker," is administered by the National Book League
of the United Kingdom. It is "awarded to the best full-length novel written
in English by a citizen of the UK, the Commonwealth, Eire, Pakistan or
South Africa. American and other authors are excluded from eligibility,
even if they write in English. Publishers are invited to submit entries
with scheduled publication dates between January and November of the award
year" (Middlemiss).
During the 1990s, awarding of the prize has become a highly controversial.
Publicity stunts encouraged by the marketing power of the prize have marred
the prestige of the award. Many have accused the prize committee of catering
to either the needs of otherwise unknown authors in the right place at
the right time or to the same few authors each year. Political agendas
and profit motives have also received much attention in recent years, further
fuelling the controversy surrounding the prize. Furthermore, there has
been much debate over the qualification of novelists and other members
of the prize committee.
Marketing & Publicity
Because
of its prestige, the Booker Prize has become an enormously successful marketing
vehicle for nominated authors and their publishers alike. It has been so
ubiquitously sought after that the award committee has limited entrants
to three per publisher for each year with the £20,000 prize being
awarded in late October or early November (Middlemiss). That prize money,
however, is hardly worth mentioning compared to the exponential growth
in book sales that follows. It is because of almost guaranteed marketing
power that the Booker is not without controversy. Even during the mid 1980s,
the Booker was known to "create free publicity on a scale which makes it
a major marketing tool" (Potts 27). For example, Anita Brookner had previously
sold 2,000 to 3,000 of her books each, but when Hotel du Lac was announced
the Booker Prize winner, sales soared to best selling levels (Goff 22).
Such an enormous potential by means of increased sales has made the
Booker subject to marketing ploys heretofore unknown in the literary field.
First of all, an author must make his presence known to his potential judges.
It seems as though the author has to live in the literary section of London
but not write about modern life there; instead, write "magically realistically."
Booker winners all should have "cool, stylish, amoral pose[s]" on the book
cover. Because of the increased media attention for which the authors who
win the Booker seem to strive, Richard Potts, a critic for the Times
Literary Supplement quips that the author should "go for extreme publicity
ploys i.e. the author should shoot his literary agent on live TV--anything
to draw attention" (27).
In accordance with Potts' observations, in 1996 four of the six writers
on the Booker's short list had been nominated before. The other two consisted
of a magical realist writing about London in the 1950s and a Northern Irish
poet and critic. Both of the authors match exactly Potts "criteria." They
are both well known among their colleagues, and one of them has the good
fortune of being from a politically sensitive area ("Déjà
Vu All Over Again" 106).
The Judges
Unlike many other modern awards, the Booker committee
must consist of an author, a hardback and a paperback publisher, a librarian,
the chairman of the committee, the prize's administrator and an executive
from the Booker Party, Limited (Goff 12). Not even the judges of the prize
can exist without controversy ("Judging the Booker Prize" 89) even though
the actual administration of the prize is handed over to Book Trust, an
independent charitable organisation whose mission is to promote reading
and literacy (Goff 12).
All the judges of the prize are industry "insiders," but it is arguable
whether those people are the most qualified to judge novels. From the strict
criteria regarding the qualifications of the judges, one can only assume
that Booker officials assert that no other reader of fiction has the ability
to properly judge a novel in any capacity whatsoever. It also appears that
the judges have the obligation to share the prize amongst authors, for
no one has ever received the prize for a second time. So disgusted are
some authors such as Graham Green, John Fowles, and other popular writers
that they refuse to even have their book sent to the Booker committee for
critique.
Conclusion
Because of the marketing potential and the industry-renowned
judges, the Booker Prize now is a very high stakes award. Authors, in turn,
have more reason to tailor their work to the expectations of the Booker
arbiters. On occasion, the obtuse wording of the requirements of the winning
book has been exploited and has resulted in ironic results. For example,
because South African authors are included in those eligible to receive
the Booker Prize, twice during the Apartheid regime, Nadine Gordimer and
J. M. Coetzee, authors known for their anti-Apartheid stance won the award.
Also, a novice author who believes that his work qualifies to win the Booker
but who feels that his work will not be submitted because of his publisher's
other clients, might change publishers. Even though the second publisher
might not have the marketing power that the first commands, the winning
of the Booker will certainly cause higher sales of the book (Goff 19).
Those types of abuses definitely provide fodder for thought about the validity
and the purpose of the Booker. The Booker Prize garners much attention
but not always for reasons with which the prize committee would be most
comfortable.
For the most part, though, Booker Prize winners are excellently-written
works with well executed themes, plots, and purposes. The books themselves
are well deserving of such prizes and can provide for entertaining reading
or appropriate additions to a college level literature course. Sometimes,
though, the Booker Prize garners much attention but not always for reasons
with which the prize committee would be most comfortable.
Recent Winners
Winners of the Booker Prize over the past few years are as follows:
2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
1999 Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
1998 Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
"In 1969, in Kerala, India, Rahel and her twin brother, Estha, struggle
to forge a childhood for themselves amid the destruction of their family
life, as they discover that the entire world can be transformed in a single
moment" (Amazon.com).
1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift
"Last Orders is a subtle yet piercing story about the ways in which
friendship and love are shaped by the past and by fate. At its center is
a group of men, friends since the Second World War, whose lives
revolvebaround
work, family, the racetrack, and their favorite pub. When one of the group
dies, the survivors are compelled to take stock" (Amazon.com).
1995 The Ghost Road by Pat Barker
"The Ghost Road is the shattering conclusion of Pat Barker's brilliant
World War I trilogy. Set in the final months of the war, The Ghost Road
focuses on Dr. William Rovers, the compassionate psychiatrist of Regeneration
and Lt. Billy Prior, last seen as a domestic intelligence agent in The
Eye in the Door" (Amazon.com).
1994 How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman
"When an ex-convict with a penchant for shoplifting becomes blind, his
stab at Disability Compensation embroils him in the Kafkaesque red tape
of the welfare system" (Amazon.com).
1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
"Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha charts the trumphs, indignities, and bewilderment
of Paddy as he tries to make sense of his changing world" (Amazon.com).
1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
"In a brilliantly original novel, four people come together in a deserted
Italian villa during the final moments of World War II: a young American
nurse and her horribly burned English patient, an American soldier of fortune,
and an Indian soldier in the British army. Their stories of the past and
of the present weave a spellbinding tapestry of how lives are caught and
changed by the circumstances of war" (Amazon.com).
1991 Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
"Set in colonial America, Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William
Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son, who
needs his father's fortune; and his nephew, who sails on the ill-fated
ship" (Amazon.com)
Works Cited
Amazaon.com: Earth's Biggest Bookstore. Internet. http://www.amazon.com.
"Booker Prize Winners." Northern California Independent Booksellers
Association. Internet. http://www.nciba.com/booker.html.
Carver, Robert. "Tips For Would-be Booker Prize Winners: Stuff That
Hamster." New Statesman and Society. 20 Dec. 1991: 52.
"Deja Vu All Over Again." Economist. 26 Oct. 1996: 106.
"Judging the Booker Prize." Economist. 4 Oct. 1997: 89-90.
Goff, Martin (introduction). Prize Writing: An Original Collection
of Writings by Past Winners to Celebrate 21 years of The Booker Prize.
London: Hodder & Stoghton, 1989.
Middlemiss, Perry. "The Booker McConnell Prize." Victoria, Australia,
November 1997. Internet. http://ncc1701.apana.org.au/~larrikin/lit/prizes/Booker.html.
Potts, Richard. "Booker Time Again." Times Literary Supplement.
1 Nov. 1986: 27.
Related Sites
Author: Warren Jacobson, Fall 1997
Links
within this site
Postcolonial Studies at Emory
(Image of an "Homme Carrefour" from Donald J. Cosentino's
Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou [Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of
Cultural History, 1995].)
