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Andrew Motion has likened Peter Carey to Charles Dickens after the Austrailian author was shortlisted for what could be a Man Booker hat-trick. The humorous nature of the six-strong list was also a big hit with the papers.
Twice-winner Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber) was assured of a place on the shortlist yesterday (7th September), alongside Emma Donoghue's Room (Picador), Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room (Atlantic), Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury), Andrea Levy's The Long Song (Headline Review) and Tom McCarthy's C (Jonathan Cape).
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/07/peter-carey-booker-prize-sho... target="_blank">reports that the poet and chair of the judging panel said of Carey: "He is one of the writers, speaking personally, that I feel most pleased to be alive at the same as. It is like being alive at the time Dickens was writing, I think he's that good, and I think this novel is right up there with the best of his books."
The newspaper also pointed out that the "omissions" – namely of Christos Tsiolkas' controversial novel The Slap (Tuskar Rock) and David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Sceptre), "will attract amost as much comment as those that were included".
The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/man-booker-prize-a... target="_blank">cited Ion Trewin, literary director of the Man Booker Prizes, who called the shortlist "the funniest in the history of the prize". The newspaper's literary editor Boyd Tonkin commented: "ommissions aside, this looks a pretty well-weighted list" adding "it all makes for a balanced ticket-and, at first glance, an open field."
In the Times, Motion was quoted, when asked if humour was the most notable theme of the original 138 contenders, as responding: "No. That was drugs." However Motion said of the shortlist: "There are various ways of finding the world risible that might include it feeling full of tragedies," with judge Rosie Blau adding "We all thought it important that we enjoyed the books that we are reading. Humour can be an aspect of that but we certainly weren't looking for a humorous book." Erica Wagner described the list as "funny", adding "Three cheers for a list with laughter in it."
The Telegraph's Michael Prodger described this year's longlist as representing a "solid if unspectacular fictional year", and of the "comic" shortlist: "[Motion's] panel must either have an itnersting sense of humour or they must be willing a certain homogeneity on their choices."
Waterstone's called the longlist a "a collection of bestsellers", but defended the shortlist despite the two bestselling titles—The Slap and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet—not making the second stage. Waterstone's fiction buying manager Simon Burke said: "The news that David Mitchell has not made the shortlist will cause great wailing and gnashing of teeth across the bookworld, but perhaps is a useful reminder of the independence and unpredictability of the Booker. But this is still a hugely varied and exciting list, worthy of the Booker brand. Carey and Levy have to be strong contenders, but our money is on Tom McCarthy's C. This is a challenging yet dazzling novel and the more people that read it, the better."