The Prize Ceremony - 7.03pm
Bringing it to you *as* it happens! I'm watching the podcast this very moment...listening to a looooong "thank you" speech by Kate Mosse (who we now know as the author of Labyrinth but who also happens to be the co-founder of the Orange Prize).
Och...the Orange also has a short story prize I didn't know about...hrumph. Oh well, the winner of that is: Deborah Metter (sp?) for a story about incestuous sibling rivalry. (Sounds right up my alley...must look it up...)
And now for the New Writer's Award...I'm investing a lot in this one...go Naomi go!... And the winner is: Disobedience by Naomi Alderman. Huzzah! Incredibly well-deserved and bless Naomi, she can hardly stop laughing in excitement. :-)
And last, but certainly not least, the main prize..."the shortlist incredibly strong...exceptionally lucky to live in times of such fiction" as Kate says. Lots of blah de blahing... And it goes to: Zadie Smith's On Beauty. Wow...I'm so shocked...and...well...I'd be lying if I didn't say I was disappointed...but she's being incredibly sweet on the podium. Still, we all read in diverse ways and end up feeling differently; this, after all, being the joy of books. All my heartfelt congratulations to Zadie. :-)
And that, my dears, is that. Now it's time for tea. ;-)
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The Afternoon Before the Evening Above
Witness my oodles of excitement: the Orange Prize for Women's Fiction and the Orange Prize New Writer's Award is being announced this evening between 6.30pm and 7.30pm. And, joy of joys, they're webcasting it live from their website - just go here for instructions on how and when to view (info courtesy of Esther who found it this morning :-)). As you probably know I've been reading all the shortlisted novels since the announcement in late April in order that I might have An Opinion. (I had been reading the long-listers as well, only to discover to my chagrin that of the 8 or so I'd consumed during March/April only two made the final lists...) And verily I do have An Opinion, or rather a number of Opinions, loosely stacked.
[All links are to my posts...]
Opinion No. 1: The short lists, both for the main and the New Writer's prize, were very strong, and of the 8 novels I've read thus far (I'm still 50 pages from the end of The Dream Life of Sukhanov...I absolutely *will* finish it before 6.30pm) only one - see my post on Zadie Smith's On Beauty - really failed to capture my imagination.
Opinion No. 2: Two of the others - Yiyun Li's A Thousand Years of Good Prayer and Carrie Tiffany's Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living - despite being well-crafted, thoroughly enjoyable and deserving in their own ways, didn't fill me with the kind of anticipation that shouts "winner".
Opinion No. 3: Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black, which I read way back in March, both repulsed and compelled me and was, no doubt about it, quite excellent. Still, there was something about Mantel's novel that left me chilled and barren-minded; it did everything a novel should except *something* essential that I can't quite place my finger on. It wouldn't be my choice for the main prize but, then again, it wouldn't be at all unjust if it won.
Opinion No. 4: Of the three novels left of the main short list - Ali Smith's The Accidental, Sarah Water's The Night Watch and Nicole Krauss's The History of Love - I find it difficult to choose a favourite. They're all so different, yet all so worthy in their own ways: Smith is most clever, Waters most socially and culturally conscious, Krauss most moving. I have my prejudices. For example, I can't help feeling that The Accidental has already been well recognised by the Whitbread and by the Booker shortlist...but then again it wouldn't be the first time a novel won both in the same year and, after all, if something deserves an award it should be given regardless. Also, I would love to see Sarah Waters win an international prize like this, especially for The Night Watch.
So...my verdict? For the main prize I'm putting myself primarily in Sarah Waters corner, but also cheering non-partisanly for Ali Smith and Nicole Krauss. I honestly think it will be a close-run race; the Prize judges will have a very difficult decision to make this afternoon. May they choose wisely.
As for the New Writer's Award? I'm unabashedly partisan on this one. I thought Naomi Alderman's Disobedience was an impressively strong first novel, thoughtful and well-written. I do hope that it wins. I say this despite the fact that I'm enjoying Olga Grushin's The Dream Life of Sukhanov immensely; it is also thematically strong with an enviably muscular descriptive prose. Which is the better first novel? It would be hard to judge between them...I'm being entirely personal in my choice. Disobedience deals eloquently with matters close to my own heart - sexuality and religion - and with Jewishness and gender, which happen to be my overwhelming academic interest (my MA thesis being on the domestic and economic status of Jewish women in medieval England).
I'll post this evening with thoughts as soon as I know the winners...
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This whole process of reading and writing about the Orange Prize novels has been a great focus for me, an energising challenge that has led me to read and enjoy authors that I might not usually have read right away (like Olga Grushin, Yiyun Li and Carrie Tiffany) and to think about women's writing in the broadest senses: geographic, linguistic, cultural and thematic. I can hardly wait till the Booker shortlist is announced... But till then I have other literary things to get excited about:
1. The Summer Reading Challenge - Despite starting a whole 10 days later than I should be doing I mean to get underway with my two books a week from the To Be Read pile by this Saturday 10th June (once I've finished the Grushin I have to read and review Susan Palwick's The Necessary Beggar for next month's Emerald City and so Saturday is the earliest I can plan for). I've made up a schedule to take me all the way to September 9th (thereby making up for my lost 10 days), with two books from my TBR pile per week. Tis a mixture of fiction and non-fiction and it's incredibly juicy...I'll post it later this week.
2. Jane Harris's debut historical-pastiche The Observations is waiting for me at home (leading me to explain that I've been staying at my parent's house for the last 2 weeks dog-sitting while they swan about Italy...). I've read some highly flattering reviews (including one shockingly timely one in the LRB), seen comparisons made to Sarah Waters and am consequently in a state of high anticipation. Gods bless York City Library for having such short waiting lists on holds.
3. I still have a good 250 pages of Julia Brigg's bio-critical Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life to frolic through, which means I can prolong my contact with that great Patron Saint of my reading career for at least another week. Joy, joy, joy.
4. In the longer term, I remembered this morning that Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu - a book of shorter fiction to see us through the withdrawal from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - is released this October. Tis just a few weeks after my thesis is due and, as an anticipatory treat for myself and knowing that I will *need* the hardback, I preordered it straight away. Also of note is Vikram Chandra's new novel Sacred Games due at the beginning of September which Jay (one of our commenters) kindly reminded me of a few days ago.
~~Victoria~~