Tuesday, August 28, 2007

McCarthy wins James Tait Black


ISBN: 0307265439
Format: Hardcover, 256pp
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Price: $24.00

The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are the most prestigious and oldest literary awards in the United Kingdom. The prizes are awarded for literary excellence in biography and fiction. Past fiction prizewinners include:

  • A Passage to India by E.M. Forster (1924)
  • The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch (1973)
  • The Far Cry by Emma Smith (1949)
  • The Lost Girl by D.H. Lawrence (1920)

Now we have Cormac McCarthy's The Road which won the Pulitzer for fiction in 2007. So what is it about this 'searing postapocalytic novel' that sets it apart from the rest? I'm not sure because I haven't read it. I bought a copy, a first edition too, and after all these awards I bet it will be worth something eventually. But it sounds so depressing! The kind of book you really have to prepare yourself for before you begin.

Read a review of the book here and then go and check out the article The Guardian has about the winner.

4 comments:

minijonb said...

interesting. i've read so much "postapocalytic" crap that it would nice to read something in that genre that's worth picking up. it might have to go on my "to-be-bought list and then stuck in the ever growing to-be-read pile."

Katie said...

If you read it let me know.

minijonb said...

honestly, you'll probably read it before it do... so you let me know how it was.

=:-)

abotu all i can tell you about is what sports i watch on the tube and what blogs i read. i'm so sad.

Katie said...

Don't be sad! :(