Newspapers hail "comic" Booker shortlist
08.09.10 - Katie Allen - The Bookseller

Andrew Motion has likened Peter Carey to Charles Dickens after the Austrailian author was shortlisted for what could be a Man Booker hat-trick. The humorous nature of the six-strong list was also a big hit with the papers.

Twice-winner Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber) was assured of a place on the shortlist yesterday (7th September), alongside Emma Donoghue's Room (Picador), Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room (Atlantic), Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury), Andrea Levy's The Long Song (Headline Review) and Tom McCarthy's C (Jonathan Cape).

The Guardian reports that the poet and chair of the judging panel said of Carey: "He is one of the writers, speaking personally, that I feel most pleased to be alive at the same as. It is like being alive at the time Dickens was writing, I think he's that good, and I think this novel is right up there with the best of his books."

The newspaper also pointed out that the "omissions" – namely of Christos Tsiolkas' controversial novel The Slap (Tuskar Rock) and David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Sceptre), "will attract amost as much comment as those that were included".

The Independent cited Ion Trewin, literary director of the Man Booker Prizes, who called the shortlist "the funniest in the history of the prize". The newspaper's literary editor Boyd Tonkin commented: "ommissions aside, this looks a pretty well-weighted list" adding "it all makes for a balanced ticket-and, at first glance, an open field."

In the Times, Motion was quoted, when asked if humour was the most notable theme of the original 138 contenders, as responding: "No. That was drugs." However Motion said of the shortlist: "There are various ways of finding the world risible that might include it feeling full of tragedies," with judge Rosie Blau adding "We all thought it important that we enjoyed the books that we are reading. Humour can be an aspect of that but we certainly weren't looking for a humorous book." Erica Wagner described the list as "funny", adding "Three cheers for a list with laughter in it."

Much more at The Bookseller.