• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • 1
    CommentGo Back
Download
 
When Pynchon Won the Booker International Prize (the readers choice at least, well, almost …).
By Abhay Vohra (2006)
It was in Spring of 2005, that I visited the Man Booker International Awards website [1], to see theofficial nominations for the then newly established awards. I was not surprised to see, among thecontenders, the names of Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, John Updike - all heavyweights of mainstreamAmerican Fiction.But to me, the contenders list seemed incomplete without the names of Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLilloand Kurt Vonnegut, whose achievements in 20th century fiction are comparable to, if not exceed, theheavyweights mentioned above.Hence a bit disappointed, I moved to the People’s Choice section of the website to check what thegeneral public had to say of the list of official nominees. And there at number two on the people’schoice list was Thomas Pynchon! 
 
It was even more elevating to see were the readers’ comments from all over the world.“Thomas Pynchon is the Son of God… Gravity’s Rainbow is the religious text of the post-modernworld”, wrote one Indian fan from Calcutta“Pynchon is a true representative of the literature post mordernita. He doesn’t have interest in publicity, but deserves to be recognized as one of the big geniuses”, wrote another fan from Panama.And the long list of comments continued in similar vain:
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
02 / 10 / 2011This doucment made it onto the Rising List!
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...