Robert Oppenheimer's favorite type of hat.
Saturday 16 October 2010
Tuesday 12 October 2010
Howard Jacobson wins Man Booker Prize
Writer and broadcaster Howard Jacobson Photo: ANDREW CROWLEY
The writer and broadcaster won the £50,000 award for The Finkler Question despite being the 10/1 rank outsider. He won
with his 11th novel and said he was “truly flabbergasted”. “I was beginning to look like I was the novelist that never, ever won
the Booker Prize,” said Jacobson, 68, who refers to himself as “the Jewish Jane Austen”. “I’m so sick of being described as
'the underrated Howard Jacobson’. So the thought that this judging panel has got rid of that forever is wonderful.
“I’ve waited a long time for this. There has been a little bit of bitterness, I would be a fool to pretend otherwise. But the
bitterness has gone now. I’ve been discovered. I’ve been around for nearly 30 years, but at least they’re discovering me. “My
new novel is about a writer enjoying no success whatsoever. So I’m in a bit of schtuck with that one.
Jacobson has promised to spend the money on a handbag for his wife, Jenny. The whole £50,000? He rolled his eyes.
“Have you seen the price of handbags? It was all very different from a 2001 interview in which Jacobson was quoted as
saying the Booker Prize was “an absolute abomination – the same dreary books year after year”.
Jacobson is the oldest winner since William Golding in 1980 and he beat favourites Tom McCarthy and Emma Donoghue. It
has been a long road to literary glory – a teacher at his Manchester primary school identified him as a future novelist aged
just seven, but Jacobson became a lecturer at Wolverhampton Polytechnic and was 40 before he published his first book.
Although longlisted twice before – for Kalooki Nights in 2006 and Who’s Sorry Now? in 2002 – he has never been
shortlisted before.
Sir Andrew Motion, chairman of the judges, said: “There is a particular pleasure in seeing somebody who is this good finally
getting his just desserts.” The book follows the misadventures of Julian Treslove, a failed BBC producer who is
fiercely jealous of his successful old schoolfriend, Sam Finkler, and yearns to be Jewish like him. It is the first comic novel in
the 42-year history of the prize, but also a meditation on identity, friendship and loss.
“It’s either a very funny book with very sad bits in it, or a very sad book with very funny bits in it,” Sir Andrew said. “It is a
book about Jewishness but it is so much more than that. It is a profound, wise book and a very entertaining one. It would be
a bit over-the-top to say it’s Shakespearean, but he certainly knows something that Shakespeare knew – that the tragic and
the funny are intimately linked.”
It was a narrow win – the judging process came down to a 3-2 decision in favour of Jacobson – but Sir Andrew said The
Finkler Question was “a completely worthy winner”. The prize was presented in a ceremony at London’s Guildhall.
Jacobson can now look forward to a hefty increase in book sales on the back of his win. Janine Cook, fiction buyer for
Waterstone’s, said: “Jacobson may have been low in the odds but there was always a sense that this might be his year. He
is a consistently entertaining writer and this is one of his best.”
There was intrigue last week when Ladbrokes suspended the betting on Tom McCarthy’s C following a flurry of wagers from
within the literary world – £15,000 in the space of one morning. However, Sir Andrew dismissed the conspiracy theories as
“utterly ”.
See also:
Sunday 10 October 2010
Thursday 7 October 2010
The winner: Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa has been awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, it was announced Thursday morning in the Grand Hall at the Swedish Academy. The 74 year old Peruvian novelist, essayist and playwright has been active in the political life of his home country. In announcing the award, the Nobel committee cited "his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat."
Photo: Mario Vargas Llosa speaking in Mexico in September 2010. Credit: Mario Guzman / EPA
Wednesday 6 October 2010
Jewish New Media Innovation Fund Launches
The Jim Joseph, Righteous Persons and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family foundations have announced the launch of the Jewish New Media Innovation Fund, a collaborative program offering a total of $500,000 in grants for digital media projects.
The Jewish New Media Innovation Fund (Fund) is seeking proposals for projects that leverage new media tools – including video, digital communications, social networks and more – to empower Jews to interact with, share, build and explore Jewish life. The Fund is looking to better understand how digital media can help preserve Jewish history, renew Jewish traditions and revitalize Jewish institutions. Additionally, this collaborative initiative of three independent foundations, is the only effort of its kind in the Jewish philanthropic community with plans to share what they learn with the broader Jewish community and philanthropic world.
The partnership between the three foundations is built on the shared belief that new media innovations represent a tremendous opportunity to help maintain and strengthen Jewish identity, inspire new kinds of activity in Jewish life, spark conversations that invite new participants and create forums that facilitate new Jewish ventures.
In this pilot year, the Fund is offering grants to individuals, non-profits, social enterprises and for-profit groups. Funding is available for both start-ups and established projects, where the grant will ensure the launch of an existing concept or take an established project to the next level.
“By partnering with these two highly accomplished and respected foundations, we believe we can leverage the power of philanthropy, technology and social networking to engage young people in leading richer, more meaningful Jewish lives,” said Sandy Cardin, president of the Schusterman Family Foundation.
An Advisory Board, consisting of experts in the fields of digital media, Jewish life and youth engagement will select the winning proposals. Interested parties must apply online.
Proposals are due November 22, 2010 with the announcement of awardees expected in February 2011.
For more information on the Jewish New Media Innovation Fund visit jewishmedia.org.
Monday 4 October 2010
Eat and go...finding another book
Usually, I avoid reading books everybody is talking about. A bit of time after, I am interested to read them because trying to read the mentalities across the waves of popularity: why were these books so famous ? What kind of answers are tempting to offer? What is the public waiting for?
In the case of Eat, Pray, Love, I was in a kind of rush and started to read while the movie was already on the screens. My verdict: a lame mixture of second-hand advices for women over 30, offering cheap solutions. Chicklit, maybe, but I can heartly recomend a book from the "Shopaholic" series, simply because talking about something. While here...nice trips looking for "the truth". It asked what part I liked, it will be for sure the "Eating" part, while Liz, in Italy, is discovering the Italian food, while practising her Italian and discovering the country. The worse: the paramedic experience in Indonesia. The seriosity of looking for her own way, at more than 30, forbid any open smile and humour, more than necessary in many of the situations presented: again, the episode of "Love" is offering plenty of reasons, apparently ignored, because Love beats it all.
Back to my serious books.
"Whisky"!
And smile. The picture is ready. But who are the characters of the picture? What is the relation between them? I was extremely impressed by the inertia of the protagonists of this Uruguayan movie I was tempted to see at least twice in the last five years, but never had the proper incentive to do so.
I had several times during watching the temptation to behave as people might behave at a soccer game: go, do it, or at least do something, it is about time. It is about failed human relationships before starting to be relationships. And you don't know what is the reason of this opacity: you say "whisky", you smile, the picture is ready, that's all. A situation I encountered many times with people unable to express nothing themselves out of a routine - including one of feelings/or rather lack of - they were accepting being unable to behave socially.
The references to a local Jewish life are very discrete and could passed unobserved: the two brothers meet again on the occasion of the mazewa ceremony and there at least once a menorah is appearing in the images describing the house interior.
Saturday 2 October 2010
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