Anyone read, or even heard of, this book before yesterday? This comment by the top judge was telling: "Professor John Carey describes Vernon God Little A coruscating black comedy reflecting our alarm but also our facination with modern America." VERNON GOD LITTLE by DBC Pierre Faber & Faber Vernon Gregory Little has secrets _ but none of them, or so he assumes, has anything to do with the recent massacre of sixteen students at his high school. What he cannot see is that the quirky Texan backwater of Martirio is unable to face its role in the tragedy, and has become a deadly crucible as all eyes turn on Vernon. The media, his mother's social circle, and the increasingly prosperous townsfolk lead Vernon a merry dance of self-incrimination, as he flees to Mexico and is captured and put on trial as Texas' most notorious serial killer. Then on the afternoon of his execution, Vernon conceives a wholly modern solution to his dilemma _ one that calls for the greatest crime of all. D B C Pierre was born in June 1961 in Australia, brought up in Mexico, and has lived on both sides of the border. He has worked as a designer and is internationally published as a cartoonist. Vernon God Little won the 2003 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic writing. He currently lives in Ireland. Others short listed were: Monica Ali Brick Lane Doubleday Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake Bloomsbury Zoë Heller Notes on a Scandal Viking Penguin Clare Morrall Astonishing Splashes of Colour Tindal Street Press Damon Galgut The Good Doctor Atlantic Books
I'd never heard of him or the book. Interesting news about the guy, though: link to article "Pierre, whose real name is Peter Finlay, has his own dark past and recently admitted spending nine years in a drug-induced "haze". The writer -- whose pen name initials stand for Dirty But Clean -- has also admitted to selling a friend's house and pocketing the money."
Thanks for the link to the article. This line was interesting: "He said a controversial debate was underway about whether the Booker should be opened to US authors, but the issue was still far from settled." I can't see why they wouldn't do this. It's already ridiculously international, so it wouldn't change much, really. It certainly would immediately raise the profile of the award though, as it could then bill itself as the "Best World Novel in English." I wonder if the the PEN/Faulker and other awards folks would be miffed at such a move.
A few years ago Ha Jin won the National Book Award and the PEN-Faulkner Award as a first time novelist in his second language!