Hello Gentle Reader,
This year’s Booker Prize winning author is M. John Harrison with his novel “The End of Everything.”
On a shortlist that included two previous winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart and the three-time nominated (twice shortlisted) Elizabeth Strout; M. John Harrison was considered the dark horse contender on this year’s shortlist, which included Rebecca Perry with her debut novel “May We Feed the King,” and Luke Kennard with his satirical campus novel “Black Bag.” What truly separated Harrison from the other nominees, however, was his unapologetic writing career taking place within genre fiction, mainly fantasy and science fiction. Though as critics and reads will attest, M. John Harrison never quite subscribes to the traditional conventions of either genre. Leading Robert MacFarlane to describe Harrison as: “[. . .] one of the restless fathers of modern SF, but to my mind he is among the most brilliant novelists writing today, with regard to whom the question of genre is an irrelevance.”
The Booker Prize has entertained the notion of genre fiction before: Margaret Atwood’s dystopian feminist classic, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” was shortlisted in 1986, as was the environmental dystopian novel “Oryx and Crake,” in 2003; Suzanne Clarke’s postmodernist historical fantasy novel, “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,” was longlisted for the Booker in 2004; Kazuo Ishiguro’s alternative history science fiction novel, “Never Let Me Go,” was shortlisted in 2005; while Alan Garner’s strangely mundane and mythical novel, “Treacle Walker,” was shortlisted in 2022. Despite the prizes flirtation with what could be called ‘genre inclusivity,’ the Booker Prize judges have always aired on the side of caution and conservatism. In 2011 when the judges appeared to be favouring writers of ‘readability,’ instead of literary innovation, critics pounced, forcing the judges to award Julian Barnes. Over the years, however, the Booker Prize has undertaken great pains to sanitise the image and persistent reputation that the prize is snobbish and stodgy, and M. John Harrison’s award could be considered the result and reckoning of such efforts.
Readers and critics should not be quick to patronise M. John Harrison as a writer of pulp fiction either, and while Harrison does indeed explore the realms of fantasy in his fiction and enter the orbits of science fiction, Harrison’s treatment of genre is almost deconstructionist in treatment, evading any subscription to the fashions of genre expectations. Harrison’s winning novel “The End of Everything,” is of no exception. Though if you asked me what it’s about, I still can’t quite fathom it based on the few descriptions available. What I have been able to ascertain is its about a post-cataclysmic world recovering or suffering from the repercussions of an alien visitation. Normal society has collapsed, but despite this, people still continue on, which is what M. John Harrison’s novel probes, the farce of going on even as society fails and the world falls apart. “The End of Everything,” has been described as a peculiar dreamlike novel reflecting the increasingly bewildering and absurd strangeness of our contemporary reality. The Booker Foundation described it as a “slyly satirical and unsettling post-apocalyptic adventure into the limits of human understanding.”
In short, I’m not entirely sure what to make of this years Booker Prize. M. John Harrison and his novel, “The End of Everything,” are indeed the epitome of what can be considered the ‘dark horse,’ candidate for the prize. While the judges stated their decision was unanimous; I believe that conclusion was reached after lengthy discussions and debates, whereby the merits of a novel whose defining qualities are celebrated for being almost undefinable in spirit, yet whose originality shone through and above the others in its striking originality.
Very warm congratulations to M. John Harrison. I think this year’s Booker Prize winning novel is by far the most interesting one in ages, and hopefully the prize will bring legions of new readers to M. John Harrison’s work, which has been highly praised from across the literary world.
Congratulations M. John
Harrison.
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
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