Man Booker Prize 2011

Man Booker Prize 2011
The long list announced on 26 July includes two writers I am familiar with.
Booker Prize winner Alan Hollinghurst, author of The Line of Beauty and The Swimming Pool Library. At the time when they were first published, both books I found too sexually explicit and I left them partially read. I picked them up again this year. Hollinghurst’s writing is truly beautiful if one is able to accept or set aside graphic descriptions of homosexuality. Both exposed me the sadness and loneliness of homosexual men especially as they aged. In The Swimming-Pool Library the connections between two generations of gay men shows us the shifting social expectations. I am looking forward to reading Hollinghurst’s The Stranger’s Child, which foreshadows change, in civil partnerships of gay men (and women). With recognition of gay unions in many parts of the world it would be interesting to see change of outdated social mores. The life and legacy of a war-slain Georgian poet of The Stranger’s Child brings this change more to the forefront.

Having met Allan Hollinghurst in person, I found him to be a dignified, down to earth, quiet gentleman. He had time to listen to his readers. I was much impressed by this, so unlike some writers I have met who are standoffish.

Julian Barnes essays are sharp and witty. The Lemon Table treats aging with humour and emotion. Many of the characters have “an awareness of their own folly for refusing to relinquish the pleasures and passions of the younger self, and a concurrent awareness of a growing inability to pursue those passions with consistent vigour.“

It is believed for the Chinese, the lemon is the symbol of death, and where the characters gather to discuss mortality is the ‘Lemon Table.’

The Man Booker Prize long list this year includes a former winner, former shortlisted and longlisted authors and four first time authors. Three Canadian writers are also among the 13 chosen.

The List
Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape – Random House)
Sebastian Barry On Canaan’s Side (Faber)
Carol Birch Jamrach’s Menagerie (Canongate Books)
Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)
Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent’s Tail – Profile)
Yvvette Edwards A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld)
Alan Hollinghurst The Stranger’s Child (Picador – Pan Macmillan)
Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)
Patrick McGuinness The Last Hundred Days (Seren Books)
A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)
Alison Pick Far to Go (Headline Review)
Jane Rogers The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)
D.J. Taylor Derby Day (Chatto & Windus – Random House)
The four first timers to lookout for are Yvvette Edwards – A Cupboard Full of Coats, Stephen Kelman – Pigeon English, Patrick McGuinness – The Last Hundred Days, and A.D. Miller – Snowdrops.
The longlisted authors were chosen from 138 books submitted, and this year seven of those were called in by the impressive list of judges: Matthew d’Ancona, writer and journalist; author Susan Hill; Chris Mullin, author and politician, and Gaby Wood,head of Books at the Daily Telegraph,. The Chair -Dame Stella Rimington.
The short list will be announced on Tuesday 6th September and the winner of the 2011 Booker Prize on 18th October.