| Harold Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature last week, to the surprise of most everybody. The 75-year-old Pinter himself was caught off guard when the committee called him to announce their decision, echoing the sentiments felt by the literary community.
Not that Pinter hasn’t left his mark on the theatre – he’s among the group of playwrights, including Ionesco, Beckett and Albee, who created a popular genre of postmodern absurdist drama. Of this group, the only other laureate is Beckett – who, frankly, is the strongest and most influential of them (and will be remembered for his fiction as well as his plays). You can bet that Pinter’s outspoken stance against the war in Iraq and his leftist politics in general would have gone a long way towards influencing the award, for which political activism seems to be a requirement (and may explain why past writers who should have won – like Jorge Luis Borges – didn’t). Pinter won out over perennial favourites Philip Roth, John Updike, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood, although pundits also put Joyce Carol Oates and Turkish author Orhan Pamuk in the running. Generally the guesses are wrong, and it’s made even more difficult by the fact that the list of nominees isn’t made public for 50 years.
Pinter, whose plays include The Caretaker and The Birthday Party, will receive the award’s 10 million Swedish kronor (roughly $1.3 million) on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
Scholar J. Richard Middleton will present this year’s Peter Craigie Memorial Lecture at the University of Calgary on Tuesday, November 1. The lecture, named after the late professor of Biblical studies, is entitled "Does God Come to Praise Job or to Bury Him?" and deals with the implications of the Book of Job, which has been used by philosophers and the faithful alike to discuss morality and the big question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" It takes place in the U of C’s Rozsa Centre at 7:30 p.m. and is free to the public.
As a post-festival treat, WordFest is presenting a reading by Vikram Seth. The author whose poetic narrative The Golden Gate and enormous A Suitable Boy caused such a splash now turns to non-fiction with his new work, Two Lives, a biography of his Jewish aunt and Indian uncle and their post-Second World War life in England. The event is Wednesday, November 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the W.R. Castell Central Library. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
Think you have a book in you? The Write Stuff contest might give you the opportunity to bring it forth. The contest, touted as finding "the next big bestselling book idea," offers the winner a publishing contract with Insomniac Press. There aren’t any restrictions on genre or style, just the push for the "best book idea." Not too sure what that means, but if you think you do, visit www.findingthewritestuff.com. The deadline for submissions is November 10.
The Calgary Chinese Community Service Association is hosting Paul Yee and his new book, Chinatown: An illustrated history of the Chinese Communities of Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax. This illustrated work traces the history of those eight Chinese-Canadian communities, and the way in which they’ve maintained their heritage in the face of changing landscapes and hostility. Hear the author on Thursday, October 27 at 7 p.m. at the Chinese United Church (124 - 2 Ave. S.W.).
Bestsellers for October 16 to 22 at Pages on Kensington
Fiction and Poetry
1. The Penelopiad
by Margaret Atwood
2. The Lizard Cage
by Karen Connelly
3. A Short History of Indians in Canada
by Thomas King
4. Worthy of His Fall
by Richard Harrison
5. A Map of Glass
by Jane Urquhart
6. Dancing in the Dark
by Caryl Phillips
7. Whetstone
by Lorna Crozier
8. Blackfly Season
by Giles Blunt
9. Kuraj
by Silvia Di Natale
10. The Turning
by Tim Winton
Non-fiction
1. Ghosting
by Jennie Erdal
2. A Crack in the Edge of the World
by Simon Winchester
3. A Bed of Red Flowers
by Nelofer Pazira
4. Race Against Time
by Stephen Lewis
5. Hitching Rides with Buddha
by Will Ferguson
6. A Short History of Myth
by Karen Armstrong
7. The Game
by Neil Strauss
8. Against the Grain
by Catherine Ford
9. Dolphin's Tooth
by Bruce Kirkby
10. Two Lives
by Vikram Seth |
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