Home by Marilynne Robinson - hardcover - 325 pages - $32.97 at fishpond.com.au
Marilynne Robinson’s Home has just been awarded the Orange Prize for Literature.
It is however well worth having a squiz at the announcement over at the Guardian Books website as the response to the news raises some interesting questions about whether the awarding of special prizes for women writers adds much needed focus and attention or instead just patronizes and marginalizes their efforts.
Semi-Literati suspects the intention behind the bestowal of such trophies has much more to do with marketing and selling of books than with political or social engineering per-se, and you cannot argue that £30,000 would hinder the writerly urge, either in the auther herself or the many aspirant young female wordsmiths struggling for inspiration or the will to persevere.
Of course the debate itself adds profile to the sponsor and to the award itself, but also to the book in question, the author, literature and literacy itself, so it may in that light be seen as curmudgeonly to criticise. Need we consider the world without the Orange Prize for literature? Does it just mean there’s less money going round to support female writers?
Yes all writers should be celebrated on their own merits, regardless of gender, class or ethnicity, and being an art form it’s hard to do otherwise, but does it really do so much harm to be labelled as a female writer? Should one rail against The System upon receipt of an award for Science Fiction writing if one regards one’s work as better suited to another genre: Futurism perhaps?
If some parts of the world want to celebrate you for One Aspect of who you are, does it mean that all your other aspects are substandard? We’d like to think not:
Wow, I just love your shoes!
You bastard – that means you hate my hat, doesn’t it?
Commercial intent and public perception are frequently at odds, but where there is genuine advantage and encouragement to be taken from leaving one’s cynicism behind, we say bring it on.
Congratulations to Marilynne Robinson – we haven’t read the book yet but we’re very much looking forward to doing so :-)
Check out the debate for yourselves and let us know what you think.
If you’d like to know more about Home and about Marilynne Robinson as an author you can listen here to an interview with the velvet-voiced Valerie Jackson on WABE Public Radio conducted on March 19th 2009 (29 mins).
home-marilynne-robinson-WABE.mp3
The discussion covers Marilynne’s use of the notion of the Prodigal Son, her understanding of forgiveness and grace and some interesting insights into the characters in the book. Given that the book is not a suspense thriller there’s not too much danger of spoilers in the interview.
Update: Monday 15th June 2009
Another pertinent interview has recently come to our attention from The Guardian Books Podcast in which Claire Armistead selects Home as her book of the week and interviews Marilynne Robinson.
The discussion is a little shorter and sharper than the WABE one above but keeps very much to the point. They discuss why the book has been described as:
the saddest book I have ever read
The interview again covers the relationship between Home and it’s companion book Gilead, touches on the centrality of religious scriptural debate in the book as manifested in questions of causality and the unfolding of time and the seeming conflict and unities between religion and scientific thought. It’s an engaging interview and we strongly recommend it (16mins)
Marilynne-Robinson-on-Home-on-Guardian-Books.mp3
