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Writers on the Booker and Populism
[from the Independent, 18 September, 2003, p. 3]
THE BIG QUESTION: SHOULD THE BOOKER PRIZE BE MORE POPULIST?
The absence of Martin Amis from the final shortlist has provoked charges that the prize discriminates against books that people actually enjoy reading. Here are the comments of selected writers on the issue:
JG BALLARD Author
I think there is an excessive emphasis on youth. The prize should be awarded much more frequently to elderly writers, preferably those in their seventies.
DJ TAYLOR Booker judge
Of the 117 books I read, the examples of "popular fiction" proved to be most laxly written and devoid of interest. But I don't care for the division into "literary" and "popular". It ignores the fact that many "popular" novelists (George Macdonald Fraser for example) are very good. And calling the highly accessible Monica Ali and Clare Morrall "literary" patronises thousands who would enjoy their work.
BARBARA TRAPIDO Novelist
I don't think it's too literary - there's quite a good balance of popular and esoteric books there. Some have already been selling: Margaret Atwood always sells, and Monica Ali is selling like hot cakes. Zoe Heller will see a lot more sold after this. It's a good balance - and it's interesting that there are so many women and some first novels.
LISA JARDINE Writer, critic and chair of 2002 Booker judging panel
The structure of the prize seems traditional, but last year showed it is flexible enough to yield a populist winner. Yann Martel's Life of Pi is read universally, on all levels. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
THOMAS JONES Assistant Editor, London Review of Books
Almost the only good thing about the Booker prize is that it gets people to read books they otherwise wouldn't. Last year's winner, The Life of Pi, has since sold a million copies. If the prize was more populist, and given to a book that everyone was reading anyway, it would be pointless.
DR DREW MILNE Faculty of English, University of Cambridge
It isn't anti-populist enough. It's a middle-class marketing exercise to feed middle-brow taste. It neither thrills to the gutter nor rises to really serious stuff. It isn't even, like the Turner prize, daftly pretentious. As a rule, pets win prizes.
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