Gay novel wins Booker Prize

[Can Do (Phil 4:13)]

Gay novel wins Booker Prize

British author Alan Hollinghurst has won the Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards, for his critically acclaimed gay novel The Line of Beauty.

The chairman of the judges, Chris Smith, says the decision was "incredibly difficult and close".

This year was the second time 50-year-old Hollinghurst had been shortlisted for the Booker.

Organisers have confirmed this is the first time in the 36-year history of the Booker that a gay novel has won the prize.

The novel tells the tale of young Nick Guest, an Oxford University graduate living in the London house of a high-flying Conservative parliamentarian at the height of Margaret Thatcher's power.

In the boom years of the 1980s, Guest has a passionate affair with a black council worker before falling in love with a cocaine-addicted millionaire.

In the book's most memorable scene, the hero dances with Thatcher at a party while he is drugged up the eyeballs.

Mr Smith, Britain's first openly gay cabinet minister, says the panel's decision "resulted in a winning novel that is exciting, brilliantly written and gets under the skin of the Thatcherite Eighties".

"The search for love, sex and beauty is rarely this exquisitely done," Mr Smith said of Hollinghurst, who was first short-listed for the prize 10 years ago.

The $124,000 prize bestows instant literary fame on the winner, who can look forward to hitting bestseller lists around the world.

Fellow British writer David Mitchell had been the hottest favourite in the history of the Booker to land the coveted prize for his complex time machine novel Cloud Atlas.

The judges decided after more than two hours of heated debate to go instead for Hollinghurst, who had been consistently quoted by bookmakers as second favourite.

The Booker rewards the best novel of the last 12 months by a British, Irish or Commonwealth writer.

Won over the years by such renowned authors as Salman Rushdie and JM Coetzee, it can lead to lucrative film and television contracts as well as instant literary stardom.

Critics have in the past attacked the Booker judges for picking obscure winners who may dazzle academics but fail to attract general readers.

The last two winners before Hollinghurst, Canadian Yann Martel's Life of Pi and DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little proved to be popular page-turners that attracted a wide audience.

-- Reuters

[Born Again]

oh barf...

[papasangel]

Hands Born a barf bag and pats on the back. There there its gonna be ok bro.

[soulwinner]

I'm afraid to see what society will be like when my two son's are older. It's sad to see how far we have fallen! :x:

[georgesbluegirl]

Have you actually READ it? Unless you've read the book...don't criticize. Besides, Life of Pi is one of my favorite books of all time, so the Booker people obviously know what's what.

[ted]

There there its gonna be ok bro.

Sorry, this is too good!

Born Again is a sister, papasangel!

(we think.... )

t.

[amor]

I'm afraid to see what society will be like when my two son's are older. It's sad to see how far we have fallen! :x:

Book wins prize in literary competition. Is this really such a big deal? Strange how Booker winners seem to rile close-minded people of faith, who haven't even bothered to read the book in question, this was also seen in the case of Salman Rushdie. Why not read it, read it, decide if you approve of it or not and then write a sensible critique. You owe it to your kids to be a little more willling to engage in sensible arguements about books such as this!

[Guest shiloh357]

No amor, we owe it to our children to raise them in the fear of God and teach them that the homosexual lifestyle is not to admired, galmorized or justified. I would not even line a birdcage with this tripe. BTW, we can afford to be "closed-minded" when we are right!

[georgesbluegirl]

Why not read it, read it, decide if you approve of it or not and then write a sensible critique.

Amen!

[CarolineS]

I don't need to read this book to critique it. Let's just look at the brief description of the story line.

A gay man, his affairs, and a lover that is addicted to cocaine. Does this sound like a search for love and beauty? Do the Booker people have any idea what love, beauty, honor are? I would say they have no values and no God.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--is anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Phil. 4:8.

Above all else, gaurd your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs4:23.

In Chirst,

CarolineS :il: