A Different Stripe

Best of Booker:Last chance to vote for Siege of Krishnapur

It's the last week to vote for J.G. Farrell's Siege of Krishnapur as the Best Booker book ever (it's made a shortlist of six books). Though the 1973 winner may look like a long-shot, we can be heartened by a BBC story about an experiment done in a small English village, in which copies of all six finalist books were distributed and The Siege of Krishnapur beat favorite Midnight's Children. As reported on the Booker Prize site:
 

Despite being one of the earlier winners, the villagers called the book a "rip roaring yarn", enjoyed the humour and adventure, and likened it to the "Indiana Jones" films. Tim Samuels suggested the Best of the Booker award might bring the book back in to circulation after it had dropped off the radar for modern readers.

[when did the word "modern" come to mean anything that happened more than five years ago? is there some meaning drift happening, making "modern" a direct synonym for "contemporary"? maybe the shift is inevitable and we should stop being prescriptivists.]

We've finally tracked down Lavinia Greacen's Farrell biography, which turns up some other tidbits:

• Mary McCarthy and Edna O'Brien were judges that year
• John Banville was on the unofficial longlist; he would not win until 2005
• Iris Murdoch, who was the presumed winner, did not attend the award ceremony
• After criticizing the prize's sponsor in his acceptance speech, Farrell eased up on the company, which produced Tia Maria: "An acquired taste, perhaps, but delicious poured over vanilla ice-cream and served with a sprinkling of Ovaltine for the texture. I call it Sepoy's Surprise."

Vote here and spread the word!

The Best of the Booker: The Siege of Krishnapur

As we mentioned last month, the second "Best of the Booker" award will be given out this summer. Now the shortlist has been announced, and J.G. Farrell's Siege of Krishanpur (a creative retelling about seemingly hapless Brits during the Sepoy rebellion of 1857) is indeed one of the six finalists. Farrell is not as well known over here as some of the other names on the list (Rushdie, Gordimer, Carey, Coetzee, Barker), but his inclusion on the shortlist points to the importance of his "Empire Trilogy"—which also comprises Troubles (about Ireland) and The Singapore Grip.

Vote for The Siege of Krishnapur at themanbookerprize.com.

 Though the bookies aren't setting great odds for Farrell's book to win, its underdog status has brought out reevalutions from many intelligent fans.

One of the best discussions of The Siege comes from Sam Jordison at The Guardian books blog. He manages to touch on the book's humor, its pathos, why it isn't "guilty of 'cultural imbalance,'" and the debate still going on about the significance of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (for more on the rebellion—or mutiny, or "first war of independence"—see William Dalrympole's history The Last Mughal.)

Sam Jordison also reminds us what a tough-ass Farrell was: "At the ceremony he pointedly remarked that he was going to use the money they'd give him to research 'commercial exploitation' and noted that: 'Every year, the Booker brothers see their prize wash up a monster more horrid than the last.'" (Now where is our copy of Lavinia Greacen's Farrell biography so we can read more about this episode?)

Also rooting for Farrell is James Higgs, who writes about the book at the Telegraph.com, and also at his blog, 26 Books:

Farrell’s prose has a wonderful sense of place, and the disintegration of the community and its values is subtly conveyed by the writing. It is also wonderfully funny, with almost no character escaping Farrell’s scorn and ridicule.

The author of the Fleetofworlds blog remarks,

If I had to choose one book to take to a Desert Island it would be The Siege of Krishnapur. It is a work of genius. If you haven’t read it, I strongly suggest you do so. It is funny, heartbreaking, horrifying and touching, and essentially British - a damning critique of Empire which never resorts to mere Empire-bashing.

Tom at Omnivoracious, admitting to having read none of the books on the shortlist, nevertheless sends us some love, as do Eric Forbs at Goodbooksguide and the bookdwarf.