Literary world in 2009

Spicezee Bureau Here is a quick rush-through what occupied the bookworms this year, in no particular order of importance. High-tech reverberations in the Land of Words After the paperback revolution in the 1930s, Kindle has now brought another tumult in the literary world. According to the Publishers Association’s Statistics Yearbook, 81 per cent of the fiction and general nonfiction titles sold by UK publishers last year were paperbacks. The share of the fiction market taken by paperbacks was 89 per cent. Now the quick popularity of Kindle is threatening the paperback. Kindle and its lesser-known cousin Sony Reader are the handy reading gadgets that have made lugging a bagful of books on holidays redundant. Unfriendly fonts, crumbling old books and smelly pages are also history – Kindle has a button to suit most of one’s tastes in reading. However, true bibliophiles swear that kindle-love cannot override the love for the physical books. Hardbound books are still revered and the popularity of paperbacks is still unrivalled. But now authors do remember to launch the e-versions of their new books, as well as make it available for emarketing, when they go on book-signing campaigns. The virtual world of literature is gaining popularity, but is nowhere near to invading the real world. Fiction 1 Big Machine by Victor LaValle – Novel The narrator of this extensive novel says, “Lurking in toilets is my job.” The novel looks very much like a horror tale grippingly resplendent with dark humour, but LaValle has basically talked about faith and how religion can create monsters more terrifying than anything imaginable. 2The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Short story collection These stories are about women, about being Nigerian, and sometimes about being among unknown people in an unknown land – and discovering foes and friends among them. 3 Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon - Novel It has been regarded one of the most paranoid material to hit American literature since Don Delillo’s ‘White Noise’. People are either losing limbs, dead or are contemplating suicide – all within a very intricate and riveting plot that unravels with titillating brilliance. 4 In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin – Short story collection The eight linked stories follow the members and employees of Harouni family. In Mueenuddin’s Pakistan, corruption is ubiquitous and sex is used as a social device for personal or familial betterment by women of all class and ages. 5 Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer – novel Geoff Dyer’s central character is Jeff Self – you’d say, ‘very funny!’ Pico Iyer very succinctly describes the trademark witty book, ‘To bring Mann and Ginsberg into the same sentence, to summon and advance European high culture with a slacker casualness, to mix a with-it, slangy, trans-Atlantic prose with the concerns of classic fiction (about self and morality and God): such are the novel fusions that Geoff Dyer has made defiantly his own.’ Non fiction 1 Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey – Biography A person who has so wittily and in such a detailed manner documented himself, can be a tough topic for a more interesting biography. But Bailey takes up the challenge with success and draws up the life of Cheever, a precocious young snob, from his affluent childhood through his struggling youth to the hard earned success that, quite paradoxically, failed to erase his frustration or hedonism. 2 The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes – historical How would a poet appreciate science? By falling in love with it! Through this breathtaking journey through the lives of scientists and romantic poets, Holmes proves that ‘Romanticism is often presumed to be “hostile to science,” the Romantic poets seem to have been positively giddy — sometimes literally so — with scientific enthusiasm.’ 3 Stitches by David Small – memoirs by illustrator When a children’s illustrator and storyteller, with an eye for quirky realism, decides to compile a memoir, the result promises to be anything but comical. All the ingredients that make cartoons appealing are present in this illustrated memoir, but realistically believable. 4 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel- historical Henry VIII’s tumultuous reign attracted her as her over-arching theme has always been the battle between the weak and the strong. Wolf Hall is really the story of Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith`s boy who became the king`s right-hand man. This superb historical novel teases the dead into dancing life, revealing the humanity that has flaked away from the official record. 5 A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon by Neil Sheehan – Historical This important book dramatized a nonevent of World War II that unfolded in conflicts behind Washington’s closed doors. Poetry Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Last Post’ marking the deaths of WWI veterans Henry Allingham and Harry Patch establishes that poetry can be moving even in the year of 2009 – when among other things, hope has also become obsolete with the darkening world crises of economy, peace and climate. When she became poet laureate some doubted whether ‘public poetry’ was possible any more. Last Post proves otherwise. Funniest Book ‘Seasonal Suicide Notes’ by Roger Lewis is so dark and realistically outrageous, it tickles one to insanity. It is a good substitute for those who are hit by the climate, economy and wars on Earth, and want to drown their worries - but not in alchohol. Awards 2009 Awards are not what they used to be. With so many awards honouring so many people, the excitement has seeped out a little, and people have started questioning the merit of an awarded work. Though debatable, but the merit of writers cannot be outrightly denied, and this is why awards and honours count. Herta Muller (Romanian) won the Nobel Prize for literature this year for her ‘concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, (that) depicts the landscape of the dispossessed . Hilary Mantel (British) bagged the Booker for her historical book ‘Wolf Hall’. Lynn Nottage won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for work . The 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction, which is awarded to celebrate and promote’ fiction written by women, went to Marilynne Robinson. Sanskrit poet Satya Vrat Shastri got the Jnanpith Award this year. Journalist Najam Sethi was presented the `Gold Pen of Freedom’. ‘Let the Great World Spin’, a novel about daring, luck and mortality in 1970s New York by Colum McCann became Amazon`s book of the year. Noteworthy Stephanie Meyer has become the second woman to rise to an almost occult fan following of readers after her ‘Twilight’ series. The vampire-human love story has become a rage and the movies based on these novels are becoming outrageous hits. Another one to become a famous and best-selling woman author is Sarah Palin after her autobiography ‘Going Rogue’ (written in four months straight!) became an overnight bestseller. Karl Stig-Erland Larsson died five years ago, but his books are being published posthumously, winning awards and making great waves. The Millenium series is a crime thriller. A rare first edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s was auctioned for a whopping $662k. Also, 160 years after he was hastily buried after his death, a grand funeral was held in his honour where bagpipes were played and eulogies were read to properly bury the poet at Westminster Hall. Orhan Pamuk`s `The Museum of Innocence` continued to dominate the bestseller list this year. Last year’s top best-selling author Khaled Hosseini is tagging just a wee bit behind. Dan Brown’s latest ‘The Lost Symbol’ is not good enough for critics, but certainly is for eager readers. Last year Osama was rumoured to have come out with his memoirs. He did not - much to the relief of bestselling authors – but his first wife Najwa and son Omar did it this time. Najwa neither defends nor attacks her husband in ‘Growing Up bin Laden’. She comes around as a serious woman in the book. Walmart and Amazon fought to come out with the cheapest online books, and caused a wave of anticipatory anxiety full of hope and dread at the future of publishing trade. Their efforts died down after making a lot of buyers very happy. Delhi hosted a hugely successful annual Book Fair. Around this time Jaswant Singh came out with his controversial and meandering biography on Jinnah. The book became a fashion accessory with a large number of people who found it attractive enough to buy and flaunt but not read. Early in the year the Jaipur Literary Fest saw a teeming convergence of authors, publishers and bibliophiles with the atmosphere on a high with the sheer density of cerebral people. Chetan Bhagat has defied literary critics again to become a success with his fourth spicy and simple novel ‘Two States’. Oddities in Word-World Jonathan Littell won the 17th annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award this year for comparing a sexual act to a battle with a monster in his book ‘The Kindly Ones’. Emmett Rensin and Alexander Acimen, 19-year-old sophomores, co-authored ‘Twitterature: the World`s Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less’. The 224-page book includes over 80 well-known books, including ‘War and Peace’, ‘The Da Vinci Code’, and even ‘Twilight’! Tiger Woods’ car smashed into a fire hydrant and a tree – with himself and a book inside. This has shot both Woods and the book onto unprecedented levels of fame, and ‘Get a Grip on Physics’ by Doctor John Gribbin is selling like hot cakes! A rare first edition of Darwin’s `On the Origin of Species` was found atop a bookshelf in a family`s loo! Christie’s estimates the book to fetch something above 60k pounds. Their words live on… John Updike would write no more. Other great names in Literary world who expired this year are - John Hughes, who became famous having scripted ‘Home Alone’ films; Alda Merini, an Italian poet and author; Larry Gelbart an American playwright and scriptwriter; Dominick Dunne was a crime writer; JG Ballard was a famous English writer; Stanley Middleton was a British novelist; Frank McCourt and Donald E Westlake are also no more.