And the Award for Being Margaret Atwood Goes to…
The Toronto Star’s Geoff Pevere described the Giller prize as being given to “serious writers for serious readers”. He goes on to say,
“That's right, not a runaway popular page-turner among them – and featuring despair to burn”
And,
“This is a contest about literary achievement, and it includes books unlikely to be found on the racks at the front of airport bookshops.”
So what’s with all of this Anti-Canadian elitism? Why is the Canadian public regarded as so inept at choosing a good book? Just who are these “serious readers”, who are most qualified to decide for the rest of us who is the pinnacle of Canadian literature?
“As winnowed down by an international jury of reputable writers, the competition for the most outstanding achievement in English Canadian fiction is a serious affair, and that's why it's worth following.”
And there we have it. This is a competition in which writers select from among themselves those who exemplify what they think we ought to be reading. Who does the Star think the odds are on this year?
“Anne Michaels' The Winter Vault, which describes the collapse of a marriage in the dual context of the building of the Aswân Dam and the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.”
Is this what you would want to read on a six hour flight? Perhaps the Gillers would be more of a prize if writers were competing for more than there own self-gratification, and weren’t assuming they had ours.
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