Booker Prize Shortlist Announced

Lynne Kiesling

Having a bookish day here at KP … just heard a news story that reminded me that the shortlist for the Booker Prize was announced earlier this week, and here’s a brief synopsis of each of the six novels. Last year two of the shortlisted books, Wolf Hall (the ultimate winner of the prize) and The Children’s Book, were easily the two best novels I read. Out of this list, the one that seems to fit my tastes best is Peter Carey’s Parrot and Olivier in America, a tale based on a fictionalized version of Alexis de Tocqueville and his manservant on their voyage to the young United States.

And, because I appreciate witty, ironic, comic writing, I really enjoyed Harry Mount’s Telegraph column on serious comic writing from earlier this week. If you are a fan of Austen, Wodehouse, and/or Waugh, you’ll appreciate his observations, and, like me, you’ll probably appreciate his closing Walpole quote:

Horace Walpole, the 18th-century writer, said: “This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.”