Some books and films which impressed me in 2006

Films:

Borat (V funny, not least for thumbing its nose at political correctness)

Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman excellent but whole movie more than just a party piece for him)

Flags Of Our Fathers (Gritty depiction of war and some of the home front implications)

Hidden (Perplexing, though not as bloody as some of Haneke's other work: have bought DVD to scrutinise key scenes)

Kenny (Earthy homespun comedy)

Ten Canoes (Slice of traditional Aboriginal Australian life pre white contact)

Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Converging/ parallel plots on contemporary themes: similar to Amores Perros and 21 Grams, which were written by same writer)

The Squid and the Whale (Simply told tale of growing up in1980s New York)

Walk The Line (Well crafted and acted and surprisingly well sung - by the actors - country music biopic)


Novels (I didn't read many):

Theft: A love story (Peter Carey's recreation of the world he lives in and the world he has left; also notable for excellent depiction of two brothers)

Snow (Complex Orhan Pamuk exploration of aspects of late C20 Turkey)

Non-fiction books:

Frontier Justice (Eye opening depiction of how the northern Australian frontier was won: I've yet to read any criticism of the author's findings))

The Great War for Civilisation (Robert Fisk's weighty tome - in both senses of the word - which I've not yet finished).

Another literary prize

The 2006 Nobel Prize for literature has been won by Orhan Pamuk . Unlike the Booker, which is awarded to a particular book, the Nobel is awarded to a writer for the body of work which they've produced.

The brief citation on the official website refers to Pamuk as a writer "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures". More detailed "biobibliographical notes" (in English) are posted elsewhere on the Svenska Akademien website.

At the same time as his win is announced comes a report from the BBC that the French lower house has voted in support of a bill making it an offence to deny that Turkey committed genocide against Armenians in 1915. If you know anything at all about Pamuk you'll know, as I've previously posted and The New York Times states in its report of the Nobel Prize, that Pamuk has been in trouble with the Turkish authorities:

Pamuk, whose novels include ''Snow'' and ''My Name is Red,'' was charged last year for telling a Swiss newspaper in February 2005 that Turkey was unwilling to deal with two of the most painful episodes in recent Turkish history: the massacre of Armenians during World War I, which Turkey insists was not a planned genocide, and recent guerrilla fighting in Turkey's overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast.

''Thirty-thousand Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it,'' he said in the interview.
The controversy came at a particularly sensitive time for the overwhelmingly Muslim country. Turkey had recently begun membership talks with the European Union, which has harshly criticized the trial, questioning Turkey's commitment to freedom of expression. The charges against Pamuk were dropped in January, ending the high-profile trial that outraged Western observers and cast doubt on Turkey's commitment to free speech.

Apart from watching developments in the next few days and beyond, I'll also be looking to read more of Pamuk's work: earlier this year I read Snow, and I hope to try My Name is Red next.

Bookie Prize

The winner of this year's Man Booker Prize is Kiran Desai for her novel The Inheritance of Loss , which is not yet available from booksellers in Australia. Why not? Many Australians, including me, would be keen to read the winner of such a prestigious award asap; but the only way of acquiring a copy is to source it overseas. No doubt the book will be available here soon, but the delays in doing so make the local book publishing and distribution trades (or their global parents) look inept.


While I'm on the topic, my eyebrows were raised by the official official Man Booker Prize website which features a link to the "Man Booker bookie". I don't particularly mind if people want to bet on the outcome, but what would happen if bookies were allowed to advertise on, say, the websites of sporting bodies?