The New York Times poll-cum-popularity-contest that elected Toni Morrison’s Beloved as the winner now has an copycat. The Brits couldn’t resist the allure of staging their own survey, and canvassed famous authors for their “best of” between 1980 and 2005. Here’s the Guardian article. Much as I think the contest misses the mark of nailing down a hierarchy of talent or “goodness”, it still manages to reveal our cultural preferences and valuations, so here:
First place: Disgrace (1999) JM Coetzee
Second place: Money (1984) Martin Amis
Joint third place: Earthly Powers (1980) Anthony Burgess
Atonement (2001) Ian McEwan
The Blue Flower (1995) Penelope Fitzgerald
The Unconsoled (1995) Kazuo Ishiguro
Midnight’s Children (1981) Salman Rushdie
Labels: Prizes
