Loose Leaves: Is it a novel or a novella? That was the quandary facing bookmaker William Hill this week as it turned away punters wanting to bet on Ian McEwan winning the Man Booker prize with his latest offering, On Chesil Beach, published by Jonathan Cape, because, if submitted, it might not be eligible.
The rules of the Man Booker Prize are clear enough. "Any full-length novel, written by a citizen of the Commonwealth, the Republic of Ireland or Zimbabwe is eligible. Such a book must be a unified and substantial work. Neither a book of short stories nor a novella is eligible." The thing is, who decides what constitutes a novella? The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Termsdefines the form as a "fictional tale in prose, intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel, and usually concentrating on a single event or chain of events, with a surprising turning point", and gives Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness(1902) as a spot-on example. And it's on definition that the question could be decided: a Man Booker spokesperson said it was up to the judges what constituted a novella, as no word count is specified.
"McEwan's books are always prominent contenders for the Man Booker Prize, and I was all set to make On Chesil Beachthe 4/1 favourite to win when doubts were raised about its eligibility," said Graham Sharpe of William Hill. "In a quarter of a century of betting on the Booker I cannot remember a similar problem cropping up." McEwan previously won the Booker, in 1998, with Amsterdam.
Given that the main focus of the 166-page long On Chesil Beachis the fateful honeymoon night of the madly-in-love but sexually inexperienced Florence and Edward, it could be said to fit Oxford's "single event" definition for a novella. But on IanMcEwan.com it's described as a novel. It certainly has the book - already in the bestseller lists - in the spotlight and follows the furore at the beginning of the week about whether McEwan was in the doghouse after admitting he'd taken handfuls of pebbles from the world heritage site Chesil Beach in Dorset for research purposes. The London Independenteven helpfully published a double page spread of the beach, to which Florence instinctively runs on the night of her ill-starred nuptials. By the week's end McEwan had returned the pebbles. But the best thing about this new book is that it constitutes a brilliant return to vintage McEwan after the competent Saturday, famously criticised by John Banville in the New York Review of Books.
Durcan papers acquired
The papers of poet, writer and broadcaster Paul Durcan this week became the latest literary acquisition of the National Library of Ireland. Correspondence to and from Durcan with writers John Banville, Maeve Binchy, Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney, Fergal Keane, Brendan Kennelly, Edna Longley, Nuala O'Faolain, Colm Tóibín, John McGahern, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Francis Stuart is included. Durcan has edited several periodicals in his day, including (in 1980) issues of the Cork Reviewand a box of papers from then contains his notebooks with ideas for issues, guidelines for (and fees paid to) contributors.
The collection won't be available to the public until it has been sorted and catalogued. Correspondents trying to remember what they said in their various missives may also be relieved that, according to the library, "certain parts of the Paul Durcan material on deposit may be withheld from public access for a period yet to be decided."
RTÉ short story winners
First prize, worth €3,000, in RTÉ Radio 1's 21st Francis MacManus Short Story Competition for 2006 has been won by Hester Casey from Greystones, Co Wicklow, for her story, A Thing of Beauty, the tale of Nora, who lives out a loveless marriage to Jim on an Irish farm, her life of desperation punctuated only by bouts of violence. From the 20 shortlisted stories - all of which will be broadcast over the summer - Geraldine Mills from Rosscahill, Co Galway came second with The Weight of Feathers, and Dubliner Gavin Corbett third for his story For Scrap. Judges Seamus Hosey, Joseph O'Connor, Anne Enright and John Boland noted that many of this year's stories - there were almost 700 entries - reflected the influence of outside forces on contemporary Ireland, as the country rushes to embrace or strains to accommodate new immigrant populations from eastern Europe, Africa and Asia: "Several stories explore the enduring human experiences of love and pain and death which cannot be obliterated, not even by the new prosperity or by the changing social profile of the country."