Backstage At The Booker: The Night Of The Long Knives

Arundhati Roy joins a long list of embattled winners

I disliked the book so much.. It has got a vulgarity about it that embarrasses me.

Carmen Callil, 1996 Chair of Booker judges.

It should never have been on the shortlist. The book is very reminiscent of Rushdie... I felt it was overwritten.

A S Byatt, Booker winner 1990 for Possession.

A Tiger Woodsian debut.

John Updike, author.

These three literary figures were all talking about the same book, which in itself is not unusual everyones talking about Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things. But is it possible for opinion to be so sharply divided on a novel thats just won the 1997 Booker Prize?

 

The answer is yes especially if its won the Booker. The 30-year-old prize has the sex appeal the Nobel lacks, and a strong tradition of judges and writers breaking silence to come out with unkind carping. Over the years, this has become such a strong alternative tradition by itself that it now lends itself to cataloguing for greater ease. As she turns from the warmth of the limelight to the coldness of critics, Arundhati Roy can take heart. Theres a band of very distinguished writers keeping her company, while we take a look at some of the pet post-Booker peeves.

Look what they left off the shortlist

This year, Ian McEwan and John Banville played spectres at the feast. Dan Jacobson, a Booker judge, summed up the panels feelings when he complained that the 1997 shortlist pleased nobody. Going by fellow judge Jason Cowleys account in The Times, London, McEwans absence was almost accidental the panel completed their five hour discussion to find that, like Macavity, McEwan wasnt there.

But this year was tame compared to 1993, when Anthony Cheetham, chairman of Orion, called the judges a bunch of total wankers. The provocation was the omission of Vikram Seths A Suitable Boy from the shortlist. Lord Gowrie, chairman of the judges, put up a muddled defence. All the wrong bits are in and the right bits are out, he said apropos Seths magnum opus. That, countered Cheetham, was a criticism that could well be applied to the shortlist itself.

Over its 30-year history, the Booker has kept the following undesirables off the shortlist entirely: Graham Greene, Robertson Davies, Iain Banks, Allan Sillitoe... and many, many more.

Thanks for the award, and while Ive got the mike...

John Berger set the standard for a truly gracious acceptance speech when he won in 1972 for G. He called his hosts imperialists and exploiters at the awards dinner. Then he announced that he was splitting the 20,000 cheque with the Black Panthers. A year later, J G Farrell made a creditable effort to outdo him, attacking public schools and demanding that miners be paid more than company chairmen in his speech.

My book should have

won anyway.

Martin Amis dealt with the passing over of Times Arrow in favour of Ben Okris The Famished Road like a gentleman; well, sort of. When he was pressed for comments by reporters, he merely said that he had a dentists appointment the next day. Amis had been sorely tried: the countdown to the award began with a judge storming off because Times Arrow had been nominated instead of his choice.

Anthony Burgess, who lost out to William Golding in 1980, pulled off something of a coup. Like many an author before him, he trashed the winner but he did it before the awards were announced. Saying that Rites of Passage was a book all too easily put down, he sulkily refused to attend the awards dinner.

Salman Rushdie, conversely, stuck to the script. His book, Shame, lost out to J M Coetzees Life and Times of Michael K in 1983, the year after Rushdie had picked up the Booker for Midnights Children. When asked what he thought of the winner, Rushdie dubbed it a shitty choice and stalked off. But the years have mellowed him. When a journalist asked him whether there was enough room for him and Arundhati as subcontinental writers at the awards dinner, Rushdie merely raised his eyebrows and smiled blandly.

Well, Im a judge and I

say it stinks.

The silence of Booker judges used to rival the silence of Nobel judges, but that was a long, long time ago. In 1975, the Booker panel effectively converted it into a two-horse race, listing only Tomas Keneallys Gossip from the Forest, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvalas Heat and Dust. Angus Wilson, chairman of the judges, said that it reflected the abysmal standards that year, but another judge disagreed. In a letter to The Times, where he identified himself only as a Booker judge, he claimed that the boxes of books they were supposed to peruse arrived over two months late.

But Brian Aldiss began the trend, really, when he revealed why certain books had been left off the list, going public just after the 1981 shortlist had been announced. He was only one in a long string of petulant panelists, weary of having spent a whole year of their lives reading steadily through mountains of books.

More sensational was the leaked letter from the 1986 chairman, Tony Thwaite, to Julian Barnes. Thwaite explained to Barnes in the letter that his omission from the shortlist was the result of affirmative action by the other judges, all women, who had favoured Margaret Atwood instead. Though Atwood did not win, that was not a happy year for the Booker.

More recently, after critics had relentlessly slammed James Kelmans 1994 winner, How Late It Was, How Late, they were startled to find that one of the judges had joined in the chorus. Rabbi Julia Neuberger went on record saying that she was implacably opposed to the book. Poor Kelmans triumph was curtailed even more sharply when that years Chair, John Bayley, admitted that the panel had not chosen well. Since the other picks that year included George Mackay Browns The Ocean of Time, and Romesh Gunesekaras Reef, most literary observers agreed with him fairly forcefully.

It wouldnt have had a chance in a better year.

That, unfortunately, is the single most effective piece of criticism that might be levelled against The God of Small Things. But again, its happened before. Thats what was said about Pat Barkers 1995 winner, The Ghost Road. Insiders said knowledgeably that the two main contenders, Barry Unsworth and Salman Rushdie, had won Bookers before and nobody ever wins a second Booker.

Ultimately, Roy shouldnt let it get to her. After all, A S Byatt has her own personal cross to bear: shes on The Guardians list of The Ten Worst Bookers. The Booker bandwagon goes on regardless, accompanied by the gentle thuds that signify another round of backstage backstabbing.