Wednesday, October 11, 2006

The Loss of Inheritance

The Man Booker Prize winner was announced and I should have put some money on this - the 5/1 outsider Kiran Desai walked away with the coveted prize. Sure, many will argue that the judges decision, when it comes to book prizes, especially one offering such a prestigious and diverse selection, is, to say the least, quite subjective, but it still holds much sway in literary circles and it's a great way for a lazy person like me to set-up a quickfire Christmas list.

Although I haven't read Indian-born Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, the storyline and location seems to have some things in common with another Indian-born writer Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things - dealing with death, depression, and village life (with all it's nuances and intricacies) in rural India. I loved Roy's novel and the opening chapter still sticks out as the most vividly described scene I've read so far and it's no wonder she won the Booker prize in 1999. Desai also comments on globalisation whilst Roy is a strong social activist in India and commentator on the country's nuclear policies and the effect on rural villages which large scale hydroelectric power schemes have and will continue to have unless re-evaluated.

You can check out the short-list for the prize here. South African Nadime Gordimer's Get A Life was nominated for the long list but didn't make the short one.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Het jy geweet Desai se ma is ook iets soos vyf keer benoem vir die Booker-prys, maar het dit nooit gekry nie?

henno said...

Ja, sy't die prys aan haar gededicate - seker maar unlucky. Jy sal maar seker jou eerste Pulitzer moet dedicate aan Rykie van Rheenen of Gawie Botma of iemand?

Anonymous said...

Dit is nogal 'n neerdrukkende gedagte.

Anonymous said...

Wil net sê as mede kollega van Loesil en red. van KampusBurger was dit fassinerend om meer van Vietam te lees. Interessante foto's ook!

Anonymous said...

Ek weet nie hoekom Malani nie haar naam bygesit het nie....maar anyways!

Nou verdien en blogger van die jaar, aangesien ek lede werf!

henno said...

Hehe cool dankie Melanie, jou kus bier en Agent Orange survival kit is in die mail Loesil ;)

henno said...

Sorry, ek bedoel Malani

Anonymous said...

Ag asseblief...asof ek dit nou sal glo! Het al te veel beloftes van kiste bier van jou af gekry om nog enigsins opgewonde te raak daaroor!

Maar die combat suit...hmm, dit klink opwindend! Maar ek is nie seker of dit by die kleur van my tande pas nie!