Odd because it's not quite the same in other creative disciplines. Poker Face by Lady Gaga (last year's biggest selling single in the UK) is generally recognised as a brilliant, inventive song. This summer's must-see, most popular film - Inception - was also garlanded with praise by the critics.
Perhaps it's because literary fiction is quite literally a different genre to the multimillion selling epics Ken Follett writes - like comparing classical with rock'n'roll. And only rarely (on the Mercury Prize shortlist) do classical and rock'n'roll end up competing with one another. Last time they did, the late composer Nicholas Maw was up against Badly Drawn Boy. No, um, prizes for guessing who won that one.
Having said all that... linked below are my thoughts on that Booker shortlist. Andrea Levy is the only author on this shortlist who can say she's truly a popular author as well - and for that reason she is a rarity, and I hope she doesn't win. Because surely the Booker Prize's true function is to shine a light on excellence that might otherwise go widely un-noticed. Tom McCarthy's C is by no means a rollicking story. Piecing the narrative together is hard work. But like a record which suddenly reveals its glories ten or 20 listens in, it's worth it because he aims for something completely original. OK, so that also makes it maddening. But it's the ambition which is so important if we're not to stumble into an age of bland, repetitive art.
Although admittedly, last week McCarthy said "all art is repetition". True. But then, he also said "if the novel is a car, then the engine is poetry". I rather like that.
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