Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Giller long list announced...

The Scotiabank Giller Prize long list was announced yesterday. Here is a link to the list:

http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/

If someone would like to read them all and let me know which I should add to the list, it would be much appreciated!

One of the judges is already causing some trouble; Victoria Glendinning made some disparaging comments about Can-Lit. The Globe and Mail blog has summed them up:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/in-other-words/a-brit-giller-judge-makes-fun-of-canadian-fiction/article1297024/

As I am only at the beginning of this challenge, I can't particularly say if I agree or disagree. The only book I have read so far that meets her description is Alistair MacLeod's ("often about families down the generations with multiple points of view and flashbacks to Granny’s youth in the Ukraine or wherever") and he is a fellow judge! Not to mention how wonderful his novel was.

Her comments sound fairly petty, but I suppose everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It would seem to me there are probably plenty of mediocre British writers as well, she just didn't have to read them all.

I finished Michael Crummey yesterday and promise to post about it tomorrow!

- Katy

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