Ghosh And Adiga in Man Booker Prize 2008 Shortlist

It always gives me a thrill to see an Indian name in the Man Booker Prize shortlist. Considering the size of the Commonwealth it shouldn't come as a surprise that an Indian figures in such a shortlist but then this has to do with creativity and there is no guarantee that a work by an Indian will be good enough to be in the shortlist. So I guess I am allowed the previlige of feeling a wee bit of patriotic thrill on such a non-nationalistic issue.

Of the six works in the shortlist this year two are by Indians. These are:

(1) Writer and novelist Amitav Ghosh for Sea of Poppies. (Indian Foreign Service officer Vikas Swarup had written a best selling novel titled Q & A a few years ago. He had mentioned in an interview that he was neither a Bengali nor from St. Stephens. Amitav Ghosh is both. And so is Upamanyu Chatterjee. But considering the large number of IFS officers who had started penning novels a wag had rechristened IFS as Indian Fiction Service!)

(2) Journalist (former India correspondent for TIME) and writer Aravind Adiga for his novel The White Tiger.

See the complete short list at the official website by clicking here.

Blogger Amit Varma of India Uncut fame whose novel Sancho My Friend is in the longlist of the Man Asian Literary Prize in a blogpost titled The Inside Story Of the Booker Prize had quoted James Wood who was a jury member of the Booker Prize in 1994:

"The absurdity of the process was soon apparent: it is almost impossible to persuade someone else of the quality or poverty of a selected novel (a useful lesson in the limits of literary criticism). In practice, judge A blathers on about his favourite novel for five minutes, and then judge B blathers on about her favourite novel for five minutes, and nothing changes: no one switches sides. That is when the horse-trading begins. I remember that one of the judges phoned me and said, in effect: “I know that you especially like novel X, and you know that I especially like novel Y. It would be good if both those books got on to the shortlist, yes? So if you vote for my novel, I’ll vote for yours, OK?....That is how our shortlist was patched together, and it is how our winner was chosen."

Ah well, choosing a winner had always involved some give and take. (Incidentally, the winner in 1994 was How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman.) Do I hear some of my compatriots shouting Jeetega Bhai Jeetega, India Jeetega! the way they shout before an India Pakistan match?

Added on Sept 12:

According to the bookies Sebastian Barry is the favourite to win. So I can celebrate a 'victory' by either Aravind or Amitav but I will put my money on Sebastian!!! The results will be out on October 10.

If I try to remember South Asians and/or WIOs (Writers of Indian Origin) who have won this prize I remember V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad - UK), Salman Rushdie (UK), Arundhati Roy (India), Michael Ondaatje (Sri Lanka), Kiran Desai (India) and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - the Polish lady married to an Indian Parsi which qualified her as an Indian and hence a citizen of a Commonwealth nation. Have I missed any?

And in case you wish to learn how to write a Booker winning novel this article from BBC News could be of some use. The article says, "Martyn Goff, who ran the award for 35 years, says the key is literary tourism - taking the reader somewhere they are not familiar with."

Sept 24:
Some more gossip on the Booker. Not to be missed.
And The Booker Goes To... by Nandini Lal (Tehelka Sept 27 2008)

October 22: The winner is Aravind Adiga this year. The results were announced a week ago. Chennai rejoices for he was born there. Bangalore rejoices for he is a Kannadiga. Delhi rejoices for his novel is set there. Indians, whether they read books or not, rejoice because an Indian has won the Booker..... Adiga is the third debut novelist to win this award after DBC Pierre won it in 2003 for his novel Vernon God Little and Arundhati Roy won it in 1997 for The God of Small Things . Adiga has dedicated his novel to the people of Delhi. It is in Delhi that the protagonist of his novel Balram Halwai lives. "My criteria were 'does it knock my socks off?', and this one did," is how Michael Portillo the chairman of the judges described this book. According to Portillo the book's originality lay in its showing the "dark side of India," - could that be an algorithm to winning more Bookers? Adiga, a former TIME correspondent in India, will be in the limelight now and his book may well sell in lakhs if not millions. But what about the others who also made it to the shortlist on the basis of their excellence? They may well fade into oblivion as also-rans. That is the dark side of all literary prizes. Maybe someone can write a Booker winning novel about that.