Inaugural 'hatchet job of the year' prize announces shortlist in order to boost profile of professional criticism
The Guardian is represented in the shortlist by classicist Mary Beard and her review of Robert Hughes’s book Rome. Photograph: Eamonn Mccabe
From Thomas Macaulay observing of Socrates: "The more I read … the less I wonder that they poisoned him," to Edith Sitwell on DH Lawrence – "very dirty" – there has been a noble history of writers getting it in the neck from critics. But now the critics may get a prize for their harsh words.
The shortlist was announced on Tuesday for the inaugural Hatchet Job of the Year award, a celebration of "angry, funny and trenchant" book reviews which the organisers hope will "promote integrity and wit" in literary journalism. Anna Baddeley, editor of The Omnivore website which is behind the prize, said one aim was to boost the profile of professional arts criticism. "We think it is at risk from the growth of book bloggers and Amazon reviews," she said.
The website was set up by Baddeley and her friend Fleur Macdonald when they left university three years ago. "It makes no money at all," she said. "It is a labour of love." It aggregates press reviews of books, films and plays and has a database of more than 10,000.
It means they have to read a lot of reviews and Baddeley said they had concluded that many were just not as good as they should be. "We do get annoyed as we read hundreds of book reviews a week. So many of them are really boring and a lot are just plot summaries with just a couple of sentences of cliched opinion tucked at the end."
Hence the decision to celebrate "artful demolitions", although Baddeley stressed it was meant to be fun and they were careful not to include scathing reviews of debut writers.
The Guardian is represented in the shortlist by classicist Mary Beard and her review of Robert Hughes's book Rome. She helpfully advises skipping the first 200 pages and concludes: "If a book about the history of the 20th century had as many mistakes as this one, I am tempted to think that it would have been pulped and corrected."
Adam Mars-Jones is shortlisted for his Observer review of Michael Cunningham's novel By Nightfall. "Nothing makes a novel seem more vulnerable, more naked, than an armour-plating of literary references," he writes. And if any bookie were to offer odds on the prize they might make Geoff Dyer a short-priced favourite with his skewering of Julian Barnes's Man Booker winning The Sense of an Ending.
Writing in the New York Times he laments: "It isn't terrible, it is just so … average.
"It is averagely compelling (I finished it), involves an average amount of concentration and, if such a thing makes sense, is averagely well written: excellent in its averageness!"
The judges are Suzi Feay, Rachel Johnson, Sam Leith and DJ Taylor and the prize of a year's supply of potted shrimp (courtesy of the Fish Society) will be awarded on 7 February.
The shortlist was announced on Tuesday for the inaugural Hatchet Job of the Year award, a celebration of "angry, funny and trenchant" book reviews which the organisers hope will "promote integrity and wit" in literary journalism. Anna Baddeley, editor of The Omnivore website which is behind the prize, said one aim was to boost the profile of professional arts criticism. "We think it is at risk from the growth of book bloggers and Amazon reviews," she said.
The website was set up by Baddeley and her friend Fleur Macdonald when they left university three years ago. "It makes no money at all," she said. "It is a labour of love." It aggregates press reviews of books, films and plays and has a database of more than 10,000.
It means they have to read a lot of reviews and Baddeley said they had concluded that many were just not as good as they should be. "We do get annoyed as we read hundreds of book reviews a week. So many of them are really boring and a lot are just plot summaries with just a couple of sentences of cliched opinion tucked at the end."
Hence the decision to celebrate "artful demolitions", although Baddeley stressed it was meant to be fun and they were careful not to include scathing reviews of debut writers.
The Guardian is represented in the shortlist by classicist Mary Beard and her review of Robert Hughes's book Rome. She helpfully advises skipping the first 200 pages and concludes: "If a book about the history of the 20th century had as many mistakes as this one, I am tempted to think that it would have been pulped and corrected."
Adam Mars-Jones is shortlisted for his Observer review of Michael Cunningham's novel By Nightfall. "Nothing makes a novel seem more vulnerable, more naked, than an armour-plating of literary references," he writes. And if any bookie were to offer odds on the prize they might make Geoff Dyer a short-priced favourite with his skewering of Julian Barnes's Man Booker winning The Sense of an Ending.
Writing in the New York Times he laments: "It isn't terrible, it is just so … average.
"It is averagely compelling (I finished it), involves an average amount of concentration and, if such a thing makes sense, is averagely well written: excellent in its averageness!"
The judges are Suzi Feay, Rachel Johnson, Sam Leith and DJ Taylor and the prize of a year's supply of potted shrimp (courtesy of the Fish Society) will be awarded on 7 February.
1 comment:
I would have loved to have the power and wit to a] have written Geoff Dyer's review and b] to have that sort of review available to me more often. I agree with him - I finished the book because it was on a short list so I thought someone must see value in this book - the first few pages seemed well written - then it deteriorated into a driftingness - maybe that is Julian Barnes's intention and skill - but I was left with the same feeling as at the end of "On Chesil Beach' - annoying characters , well drawn - but was there any point in reading about them?
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