As conveyed in my original listing of the “Booker Dozen” that actually comprises 13 books, I’m baffled by the UK’s ability to generate attention and debate over a list of non-nominees for the Booker prize (or any other award). Longlists are no measure of distinction and are never remembered so it’s hard to imagine how they can “mean” anything, even as the UK press ascribes all kinds of attributes to the books selected (and not). And they’re designed to give judges cover to experiment and provoke–in the long term, how can you be irate over a book that was closely […]