For her novel The Children’s Book, this year’s Niehoff Lecturer A.S. Byatt appears on the long list for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. Also appearing on this list is a memoir by Cheeta, Tarzan’s pal. Clearly, this is some sort of twisted allegory on the degraded state of Literary prizes. On the one hand, we have a respected writer and Princeton professor, on the other, a banana-breathed movie star wannabe memoirist. A memoirist, for crying out loud! Byatt won the Booker in 1990 for her book Possession: A Romance, which was adapted for the screen. Obviously, we’re biased here, and there are 11 other worthies on the long list, but we’ll be watching closely as the shortlist is announced, as we firmly believe that even 100 memoirists, in a barrel, armed with electric typewriters couldn’t in a million years produce work of a quality approaching that of Byatt.
-Ed Scripsi
