As has been its wont in recent times, the Booker Prize shortlist has thrown some curveballs this year, not all of them successful.
Though it was heartening to see Colin Barrett's scintillating debut novel Wild Houses longlisted at the end of July, the omission of other deserving Irish entries like Kevin Barry’s The Heart in Winter, Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo and Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits has left a number of readers scratching their heads.
Curiouser still is that when the shortlist was finally whittled down from thirteen to six earlier this month, Wild Houses did not feature in the final running.
Books such as Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake —which caused a stir when it was negatively reviewed by Brandon Taylor in the London Review of Books — and Anne Michaels’ Held, which treads well-worn —albeit well-written — fictional territory with a story centred around World War One, were featured instead.
Given that Irish fiction has been going through a period of particularly rude health, it seems strange that the Booker panel should overlook stronger, more daring novels in favour of works which appeal to safe, often more commercial trends.
Despite the odds being stacked against Irish authors in an industry still struggling to keep up with the shifting tastes of the reading public, last year appeared to mark a turning point; with four out of the thirteen authors on the Booker longlist, two out of six on the shortlist and its eventual winner, Paul Lynch for Prophet Song, being Irish authors.
Anna Burns’ blistering third novel Milkman won the award in 2018, of course, as well as Anne Enright for The Gathering in 2007 and John Banville for The Sea in the 2005. But recognition has been criminally sporadic, with Irish books being curiously underrepresented when it comes to the award.
In fact whenever Irish authors do receive the recognition they deserve, the tone in English media outlets tends toward either outright consternation or self-congratulation that some great favour has been bestowed upon them. The deputy literary editor of a major British newspaper commented publicly that last year’s Booker longlist was evidence of Irish authors ‘punching above their weight’.
In 2016, outcry over Tramp Press and Mike McCormack's Solar Bones being passed over by the Booker committee inadvertently led to changes being introduced whereby Irish publishers could submit entries for consideration to the prize. Though things were perhaps already in motion, many felt that the Solar Bones debacle was the real catalyst for such a change.
On the face of it, these might seem like small things. Over time, however, the lack of recognition in the form of prizes appears absurd. It is a profound indictment on the books industry that the only way of formalising our appreciation of authors’ work and potentially giving them a boost in book sales is through prizes; especially considering that many of these prizes are often selected by elite panels ensconced within the publishing industry and not representative of the average reader.
Today, large readership trends tend to be dictated by amateur tastemakers on social media outlets like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. The popularity of a given author can depend as much on their own particular brand of marketing nous as it can on whether the official representatives of industry get behind them, and a certain fluency in the language of popular culture is key when it comes to shifting units off shelves.
Though none of these new realities are reflected by the major book prizes, perhaps not all of them are particularly desirable, since the familiar problems of demographic exclusion, commercial viability versus literary value, and monoculture when it comes to genre still persist.
Instead of asking whether the Booker is up-to-date in terms of its selection process, perhaps we should be asking what can be done to overhaul the books industry as a whole, so that all authors have equality of opportunity and the right books can find the right readers at the right time.
The winner of this year's Booker Prize is announced on November 12th - find out more here.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
