Booker Prize Winner 2005

[ions]

John Banville winner of the 2005 Booker Prize for 'The Sea'

 

[mehastings]

I'm excited to see this. I messed up the days and checked their website a few times last night. I was really aggrivated that it wasn't updated. Then, I was aggrivated that I was the stupid one for screwing the dates up. Either way, I haven't read this yet, but I'll certainly be thinking about it.

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

Has anyone read this book, and if so what did you think of it? I personally thought that Never Let Me Go was going to win.

The above link didn't work for me, so if others have that problem too I have a link to the Booker site . You have to scroll down past the links to get to the article.

 

[Shade]

I'm disappointed that Banville won. It looked like a two-horse race between Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (which was my favourite) and Julian Barnes's Arthur & George (which was excellent also). Indeed, the chairman of the judges had to cast a deciding vote after the panel were locked between Banville and Ishiguro.

Banville's was one of only two on the shortlist I haven't read (the other being his fellow Irishman, Sebastian Barry), so it may be a little presumptuous for me to say I'm disappointed it won. But I have read five of Banville's other novels and have always admired them but never really loved them, and from the reviews I've read of The Sea it seems to slide easily into that category too. Ironically, as someone who values well-written books above all, I think he goes too far in obsessing over the mot juste to the expense of more reader-friendly factors like story and characters. All his narrators are depressive middle-aged men with a similar voice. My copies of Patrick McGrath's novels all have favourable quotes from Banville on them, which is interesting, because I think McGrath succeeds where Banville fails - to write beautifully but also tell a rich, psychologically intriguing and overall satisfying story. With a proper ending and all.

Banville certainly doesn't want for self-assurance anyway: one of his comments to Kirsty Wark on Newsnight last night was "It's nice to see a work of art winning the Booker Prize." Suggesting that previous winners, or his fellow contenders, weren't that?

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

I noticed when I went onto the Booker site that the People's Prize went to Ishiguro, with a total of 498 votes, with second spot being taken by Barnes with 431 votes. The most surprising, however, was that Banville was voted last, with only 181 votes. Very interesting, I thought.

 

[Shade]

Interesting but not surprising. It will never be a winner that breaks through to the mainstream in the way that Life of Pi or, to a lesser extent, The Line of Beauty, did. Never Let Me Go or Arthur & George could have done that, but still, you can't blame the judges for voting for their favourite, which is what they have to do, not consider the saleability of it. I see that this morning on Amazon (UK) it's just 15th in their sales rank, when normally the winner will be number 1 the next day.

 

[Erica]

I noticed when I went onto the Booker site that the People's Prize went to Ishiguro, with a total of 498 votes, with second spot being taken by Barnes with 431 votes. The most surprising, however, was that Banville was voted last, with only 181 votes. Very interesting, I thought.

I thought it would be 'Kazuo Ishiguro ' or 'Julian Barnes'

Here is the list from the Booker web site last night.......

Current People's Prize results: VOTES

498 for Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go
Faber & Faber


429 for Julian Barnes
Arthur & George
Jonathan Cape


240 for Zadie Smith
On Beauty
Hamish Hamilton


198 for Ali Smith
The Accidental
Hamish Hamilton


179 for John Banville
The Sea
Picador


132 for Sebastian Barry
A Long Long Way
Faber & Faber