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TOP OF THE lEAGllE
Jaunty, jovial, jocular NICK HORNBY writing about suicide? Well, yes he is. But Allan Radcliffe finds that humour is still the author’s secret weapon.
ove him or loathe him (and. judging by his status as an international unit shifter. there are plenty who fall into the former category) you have to give Nick Hornby due credit for having invented a modern literary sub-genre. His books. from the autobiographical. Arsenal-obsessive's diary l’vi'vr Pfil'li to the London-centred comic novels High Fidelity and About a Boy.
epitomise generous. often bittersweet tales of
bewildered men in early middle age and their various shortcomings.
In some quarters Hornby has been sniffin dubbed the ‘Richard Curtis of English fiction‘. indeed. he is that rare breed of popular British writer whose work translates into lucrative films starring Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. Yet. while the music-obsessed author says of his own literary ambitions: ‘I want to be the Beatles. 1 don’t want to be Ornette Coleman.‘ his work is darker and more problematic than that of successful contemporaries Helen Fielding and Tony Parsons. This characteristic blend of sadness and humour is to the fore in his latest novel. A Long Way Down. which brings together four disparate characters on
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New Year‘s Eve at a well-known suicide point nicknamed Topper’s House. Having made a pact to postpone their appointment with death until Valentine's Day. the characters' individual voices alternate as the failed rock star. disgraced television presenter. despairing single mother and wayward politician‘s daughter attempt to make sense of their feelings and predicament.
‘This book is an expression of self in that l naturally tend to look for the melancholic and add humour.‘ says Hornby. 'The starting point was an article i read about someone jumping off Beachy Head. and seeing it described as a “popular suicide spot". That got me wondering whether people ever bumped into each other when they were there. As l started writing it. I realised it was something l’d wanted to do for a while. to explore different speaking voices. and the story lent itself to a certain tone and humour.‘ As Hornby famously suffers from spells of depression it‘s tempting to identify the author with these characters. most obviously Maureen. exhausted single mother to a severely disabled child (Hornby has a son with autism).
‘Yes. Maureen is the soul of the book.‘ Hornby admits. ‘She's the only one who hasn’t asked for her lot. But there are aspects of me in all the characters. particularly J]. the failed musician.‘ Despite the gloomy premise. Hornby's novel is bound to strike chords with his fans at home and abroad. In particular. Hornby believes his success Stateside stems from having plugged a gap in that market. ‘The kind of tone you get in my books doesn‘t really exist in America: that combination of the depressive. melancholic aspects with humour. it‘s one thing or the other over there.‘
While the author is aware of snooty responses to his work back home. he‘s candid about his no- nonsense approach to the craft. ‘My books have been described as “lilmic” and I've never been sure what that means. although I suspect it‘s because my novels have characters and a plot. I‘m less interested in the language I’m using than the world I‘m describing. I use language as the glass through which I see the world. I hate reading description and I hate writing it.‘
A Long Way Down is out now published by Viking.
THE BOOKER MAN
He has beaten off competition from Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Muriel Spark to win the inaugural Man Booker International Prize. Allan Radcliffe wonders just who is Ismail Kadare?
If the Man Booker Prize is the Academy Awards of the literary world, the Man Booker International Prize is the Lifetime Achievement honour. Of course. cynics argue that the Booker traditionally confers its plaudits for no more noble achievement than being alive rather than the Creation of a single meritorious volume.
Whether or not the International Prize — which will be awarded every other year — was established to confound such criticisms. its stated intention is to recognise outstanding achievement by an author whose work is available in English. The shortlist of 18 authors, announced in February, featured such literary giants as Atwood. Muriel Spark and Saul Bellow and included ten writers in translation, from GUnter Grass to Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
‘These 18 authors remind us irresistibly of the joy of reading,“ said John Carey, chair of the judging panel. lf eyebrows were set a-twitching in 1993 when Salman Rushdie's Midnight’s Children was declared the ‘Booker of Bookers', there are bound to be sharper intakes of breath at the news that lsmail Kadare is the International Awards inaugural winner. Despite being the only Albanian writer to enjoy international renown, Kadare is still woefully neglected outside of his native land.
He was born in Gjirokastra in 1936. and the Albania of his childhood was characterised by perpetual occupation. by fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. His innovative poetry. collected in My Century and What Are These Mountains Thinking About. offers scathing ponrayals of life in austere communist Albania.
Kadare turned to prose in the 1960s Over the next 30 years, novels such as The Castle and The Three Arched Bridge subtly attacked totalitarianism and influenced a generation enduring the Enver Hoxha dictatorship. Ironically, Kadare left the country two months before the collapse of that regime in late 1990. Now, his work will be brought to an even wider audience.
I Ismail Kadare will receive his award on Mon 27 Jun. A public event with the judges takes place on that day at the Playfair Library, Edinburgh, 12.30pm. Free tickets are available from the Hub, 0137 473 2000.
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