The Booker: Airs on a G-word string

Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty is “the first book with a strong gay theme” to win the Booker; gay novelist wins the Booker; gay fiction beats the hot favourite to win; tale ofgay life in Britain wins Booker etc.

All done. Now can we get past the sexual orientation thing, please? Maybe not, suggests this article by the BBC:

“Admired in literary circles, his books have a strong gay following, but they are about to fall into new hands.

But Hollinghurst hopes that his new audience will not fall into the trap of thinking of him as a “gay writer” penning “gay novels”.

“I can’t dispute the terms in a way. But I get depressed when people use them, as if to suggest that is the principle or only thing of interest about the books.

I have always tried to write books from a gay viewpoint and with their gayness as given. And I use that to write about all sorts of things in life.

I’m afraid the gay issue, the gay sex thing, crowds out other things in people’s notice.”

The Man Booker blog carried a minute-by-minute update of the Booker ceremony. (Link via Tingle Alley.)