Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Those bastards would never give it to me!

Moi and MR went to a Julian Barnes reading at the Newbury Library yester evening. Yes, yes, he is quite good-looking but a good 20 years too old if you know what I mean. The reading went so-so. He picked a safe passage to read - where Arthur means Jean. Not surprising, as I thought that the book itself took a very safe route while it could have been much more.

Mean Moi couldn't resist asking him as he was signing my copy whether he expected to win the Booker. I was waiting for some modest reply like "yes, it was a strong year" or something like that to which I would make some remark about how McEwan was the one who should have won it etc etc. but he happened to be as mean as moi!

"No", he answered "I did not expect to win it at all. Because I knew who the judges were. I knew they would never have given it to me."

Hmm. Sour grapes, you think?

2 comments:

Veena said...

Well, Barnes must be what? 55?

35 works for me dudette! At my age, you will begin to see it too, trust me. :)

Falstaff said...

Actually he's 60. And Barnes?! Really? I think I'll stick to Zadie Smith, thanks.

I don't think you're mean enough, btw. The right come back to that answer is - "you mean the same way that the jury was inherently biased against you the - what was it? - last four times you didn't win the Booker?"