Anne Enright wins Booker Prize

Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, October 17th, 2007 - 1 comment
Categories: culture - Tags:

mister_pip_narrowweb__300Ãâ€'4.jpglloyd_061002112055410_widew.jpgWell I must admit to having been excited about the prospect of congratulating Lloyd Jones on winning the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Unfortunately it hasn’t turned out that way, the prize instead going to Anne Enright – congratulations to her instead!

The Gathering by the 45-year-old Dublin writer was somewhat of a surpise winner, most pundits picking a two way constest between Jones and McEwan.

The Booker Prize site reported that the betting war was furious in the final days with the two major bookmakers at odds over the likely winner. Ladbrookes had McEwan’s On Chesil Beach with odds of 6/4 to win, while rival William Hill is tipping Jones’s Mister Pip, also as the 6/4 favourite.

Jones’ novel, Mister Pip, tells the stort of a Mr Watts, who takes over as village teacher on the island of Bougainville in 1991, using Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” as his one and only text for the children.

Jones said after the award ceremony, “I’m a little bit disappointed but I’m not crushed”. On the upside, it must be fantastic to have been recognised internationally and making it to the Booker short list will surely give the sales a lift.

One comment on “Anne Enright wins Booker Prize ”

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  1. the bean 1
    17 October 2007 at 12:58 pm

    have you read mr pip? it is an accomplished concept and the narrative voice is reasonably well executed- and generally i dislike the male attempt at a female voice but Lloyd does well on this count. i couldn’t help feeling however that what muddled through a young girls consciousness of the results of an almost impossible to comprehend political conflict, suddenly felt the need to race to the finish. finishes matter and i do not mind if they are done slowly and carefully- as arguably the rest of the tale is.
    but it is nice to see a nz writer upsetting the canon of nz literature and not talking about a male, moody, middle new zealand protagonist with social relationship issues.

    did he have to be related to bobby though? guess he can’t help that

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