Australian writer Peter Carey, twice winner of the Booker prize, has criticised the decision to open up the award to Americans for the first time, claiming that the old Commonwealth-only version had a “particular cultural flavour” that would now be lost.
The winner of the 2014 Man Booker prize will be unveiled in London on Tuesday night (early Wednesday for India). Two American authors have made the shortlist: Karen Joy Fowler for We are All Completely Beside Ourselves and Joshua Ferris with To Rise Again at a Decent Hour .
In an interview with the Guardian , Mr. Carey said he was unenthused by the move to expand Britain’s richest literary prize across the Atlantic.
Asked if this was a mistake, he replied: “Let me answer this in a slightly perverse sort of a way. I find it unimaginable that the Pulitzer or the National Book award people in the United States would ever open their prizes to Brits and Australians. They wouldn’t.” He stressed: “There was and there is a real Commonwealth culture. It’s different. America doesn’t really feel to be a part of that.”
Mr. Carey’s remarks carry considerable literary weight. He is one of only three novelists to have >won the Booker twice .
— © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2014
