booktrade.info - Opinion - Only Unenjoyable Books Win Literary Prizes

Monday 13th February

Only Unenjoyable Books Win Literary Prizes

Posted at 7:07AM Monday 07 Jun 2010

"There was a great fashion in the last century, and it's still with us, of the unenjoyable novel," Martin Amis said during Hay festival.

"And these are the novels which win prizes, because the committee thinks, 'Well it's not at all enjoyable, and it isn't funny, therefore it must be very serious.'"

He said such an approach was wrong because literature should reflect life's humour.

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Only Unenjoyable Books Win Literary Prizes

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