40 years after publication, J.G. Farrell's Troubles wins the "Lost" Man Booker Prize

If you're wondering why the Man Booker committee decided to bestow this prize a few years later than might have been expected, here's the lowdown: In the first years of the Booker's history, prizes were awarded the year after publication (the 1970 prize was given to a book published in 1969). But in 1971 the rules changed, and the prize was given to books published in the year named in the prize  (the 1971 Booker was given to a book published in 1971). But wait, hey—what about books published in 1970? Well, no one really cared because the prize had yet to become as big a deal to as it has since morphed into. It took Peter Straus, Booker archivist, to realize that something was fishy and to remedy the situation and propose the "Lost" [Man] Booker Prize.

We'd like to think that our nagging getting out the vote helped Troubles win the Lost Man Booker Prize with more than double the votes of any other shortlisted book.

Troubles is set in a crumbling Irish hotel, but we didn't realize until leafing through the recently released J.G. Farrell in His Own Words, that Farrell worked on the book while visiting the US and that one of the inspirations for Troubles's troubled Majestic Hotel was located on Block Island, off the coast of New Hampshire Rhode Island:

"While here I've made another 'fresh start' on my book—partly inspired by the charred remains of the Ocean View Hotel which stands, or stood, on a cliff overhanging the old harbour where the ferry comes in. It burned down a year or so ago."

 

The Ocean View Hotel, from the breakwater, New York Public Library

A 1902 New York Times article (rounding up the best places to summer on Block Island) described the Ocean View as "a liberally conducted house, [which] has numbered among its guests Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, diplomats, Senators, and Congressmen." Today a nature sanctuary stands on the ruins of the hotel.

Farrell's letters also show his initial confidence in the worth of Troubles:

7 July 1969

"I still haven't heard what anyone thinks of Troubles...Can it be that it's really no good? In spite of everything, I find this hard to believe. I've never felt as confident about a book as about this one and if it should be judged to be mediocre then it means that my judgement has seized up."

and later frustration during what appears to have been a very long and involved process of cutting many passages from its text.

27 March 1970

"Troubles went off to the printer a couple of weeks ago at long last—I was beginning to think it would never get there. I understand that they plan to publish it in September. However, to say that excitement is running high in the book world about its forthcoming appearance would be an exaggeration. Indeed, excitement seems to be running low here, and even lower in the US where, after months of study and a course of electric shock treatment the editor in chief of Harper and Row reached the conclusion that he didn't know whether he wanted it or not."

It's also fun to find out, via these collected letters, the types of books and movies Farrell was consuming while writing and editing Troubles: Cold Comfort Farm, Thomas Hardy ("barmy"), The Garden of Finzi-Continis, Easy Rider. He also, delightfully, recommends Olivia Manning. Earlier he writes: "I've been reading Olivia Manning's splendid Balkan Trilogy set in Bucharest and enjoying it guiltily when I should be writing me own novels."

Farrell died in 1979—had he lived he would be 75 years old now and no doubt pleased to find his early assessment of what would come to be the first volume of his Empire Trilogy (the two other volumes are The Siege of Krishnapur, which won the Booker Prize outright in 1973 and The Singapore Grip) so heartily justified.

Comments

[Alan Fitzgerald]

Troubles is not as good a book as claimed. Farrell is hopeless at female characters and appears to pad the book with description to make up for the creaking plot and lack of characterisation.

The novel is tedious at times - you can skip whole pages - and the fire came as a welcome relief. However it was an anti-climax and the novel falls away afterwarda.

True it gives some insight into the Troubles

[Sara]

Thanks for the correction, Julia. I should know better! Have you ever been, or were you at all aware of, the Ocean View preserve?

[Julia]

Exceptionally nit-picky of me and I apologize, but Block Island is off the coast of Rhode Island, not New Hampshire. I'm looking forward to reading "Troubles" all the more now--Block Island is one of my favorite places to visit.

[MelissaW]

I'm halfway through "Troubles" and I'm really glad it won the "lost" Booker. I'd never read any Farrell before and I'm enjoying his writing (also order the next two books in his trilogy - "Krishnapur" will help with my Booker Project!)