Hello Gentle Reader
To continue with last weeks, discussion of the literary news, and the brief discussion of the IMPAC Literary Dublin Award's shortlist, and now the revealing of the winner was announced yesterday. Jon McGregor a British author (in a previous post I had misidentified the novelist as a Scottish writer) has won the IMPAC Literary Dublin Award, for his third novel “Even the Dogs,” about an alcoholic and the various drug addicts that surround him. The judges of this year’s award praised the novels fierce experimentation with narrative technique that engages the readers with the book itself, and grapples into the situations of the characters themselves. They go on to praise is ability to craft a complex and compelling story in such a shorter frame of a novel. Personally after reading about the shortlisted authors, I would not have guessed that any of the authors would have won, on the simple descriptions of their own. The description of “Even the Dogs,” didn’t sound all that interesting to me at first glance. A novel about an alcoholic, who dies and the addicts that surround him – for me sounded like a moral novel, which was to leave readers with the impression of “don’t do drugs kids.” However Jon McGregor’s novel doesn’t sound so moralistic as it does sound like a novel of face value, and allows for the readers and characters to speak for themselves. Jon McGregor himself had stated that having any agenda in a story destroys the openness with the characters, and lose sight of where the story is going. Jon McGregor continues with his interview to go on and explain to his choice to write about the subject matter of the less extraordinary people of the world, rather than the extraordinary people who in their success now face moral dilemmas, of money, office politics, and addictions; rather Jon McGregor goes on to point out that it has all been said and done. Everyone has done the same old song and dance, throughout literature history and even in today’s world. As he points out the story or novel with a twenty page passage of a brain surgeon whose playing racket ball. This is where Jon McGregor and I can agree completely on. A (fictional) neurosurgeon or doctor or political ambassador or wealthy lawyer and I have little in common. Their situations or their problems maybe universal, and yet. A doctor whose marriage is fallen apart, whose children despise him or her, who copes with alcohol, makes poor decision on the job, et cetera is a human and universal themes of suffering, but the success of the character in his career or (earlier life) leads to some alienation between character and reader.
The same resonates with political novels that deal with the narrator being a revolutionary or rebel, it is difficult to feel a sense of mutual understanding when the experience is different, leaving the novel to become a political message or a political piece of work rather than one brought on by its own individual merit. Jon McGregor’s novel also risks the possibility of doing this, dealing with an area that most people would rather avoid all together. But with it Jon McGregor is able to go beyond the superficial elements of the novel, and is able to discuss universal human suffering as a whole, and the modern worlds reality of disposed souls.
In all an interesting win, and most likely a deserving win as well.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
