The shortlist for the Man Booker International Prize has just been announced. I don't envy the judges having to make the final decision. To stick just with the shortlisted writers whose work I know, a choice has to be made between David Malouf, Marilynne Robinson, Philip Roth and Anne Tyler. Oy! But I will not shirk the task. If I were a judge...
Well, the Man Booker International Prize 'recognises one writer for his or her achievement in fiction'. Further:
... it highlights one writer's overall contribution to fiction on the world stage. In seeking out literary excellence, the judges consider a writer's body of work rather than a single novel.
I'm eliminating David Malouf first. Good as he is, I feel he's a shade below the other three. Marilynne Robinson's Gilead and Home are both stunning works, and Housekeeping isn't far behind, but if it's 'body of work' that is being judged then both Roth and Tyler have produced fiction of sustained quality over so much greater a number of books that they have to edge Robinson out.
So it comes down, for me, to Roth versus Tyler. That's a tough decision to have to make. But I'm going for Roth - on the following basis. Anne Tyler has been more consistent; there are fewer troughs - just one dud, in my own view, in 18 books, whereas Roth has several. However, I also think that, with Roth, the peaks have been higher. My vote goes to the author of Portnoy's Complaint, The Ghost Writer, Zuckerman Unbound, Patrimony, American Pastoral, I Married A Communist, The Human Stain, The Plot Against America, Everyman, Indignation and Nemesis. What a literary record!