Was The Secret Scripture really the book of the year?
The news that has won the Costa Book of the Year Award comes as no surprise. Missing out on the Mann Booker Prize despite being the favourite to win, it always looked likely that The Secret Scripture would take the Costa Prize. I have mixed feeling about Barry's win. He is a writer with a very distinctive voice who produces beautiful, incisive prose. If the term poetic prose didn't immediately make one think of rambling tosh this would be a good way to describe the author's combination of unusual imagery and emotional immediacy. He also engages with aspects of Ireland's past that are new to many, and has woven the stories of recurring characters together through a number of different novels and plays.
Paperback edition of The Secret Scripture, published by Faber & Faber
While this impulse to connect things up adds a richness to some of the works, in the case of The Secret Scripture, however, it leads to a twist that to me felt laboured and unconvincing. It seems that this was also the feeling of some on the Costa judging panel. According to the , "The feeling of many of the judges with The Secret Scripture was that there was a lot wrong with it and it was flawed in many ways". The judges are to be applauded for their honesty, but I can't help but wonder whether there is another book of the year. I hesitate to suggest a title, not being sure if anything contemporary I've read this year would deserve such a plaudit, but I'd be interested to know if you have any thoughts.
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