Who Cares About The Miles Franklin?
SUNDAY AGE
Saturday May 23, 1992
On Tuesday, the winner of one of Australia's most prestigious literary awards will be announced. Jane Freeman looks at the contenders and what winning means to authors, publishers and the reading public.
THE most striking thing about the short- list for the 1992 Miles Franklin literary award, to be announced on Tuesday in Sydney, is that there has been little fuss about the books that were excluded.
Unlike England's Booker Prize, which each year generates a furious debate about the merits of the books nominated and neglected, this year's Miles Franklin choices have not sparked literary passions.
Out of 46 entries, five novels, all written by men, have been chosen. It is a predictable list and the fact that few people dispute it reflects another lacklustre year in recession-time publishing.
The editor of the `Australian Book Review', Ms Rosemary Sorensen, says the judges chose from a year (closing 31 January 1992) that was ``much of muchness, good books but nothing leapt out".
The Miles Franklin Award, which last year went to David Malouf for `The Great World', is still regarded by many as the country's most prestigious literary award, as well as one of its oldest. Still the only major award given specifically to a novel, this year the prizemoney will be $25,000.
The presenter of Radio National's `Books and Writing', Mr Robert Dessaix, believes the prize is holding its own, despite the fact that there are now younger and more flexible awards like the Premier's awards and the Banjos.
``The Miles Franklin is still the supreme accolade in Australia, even if it does not have the glamor of the Booker Prize in England," Mr Dessaix says.
The five short-listed books for 1992 garner only a momentary frisson of controversy because there are no women writers represented. The final decision is between Brian Castro for his clever novel `Double-Wolf'; Robert Drewe for `Our Sunshine', a compelling version of the Ned Kelly story; Alan Gould with the family drama `To The Burning City'; Rodney Hall for his convict story `The Second Bridegroom', and Tim Winton for his best-seller `Cloudstreet'.
Mr Dessaix describes them as ``good novels and safe choices". Ms Sorensen says it is a fairly dull list.
``I expect the judges were trying to get a bit of everything, but many of them are just good little books, like Robert Drewe and Rodney Hall _ good little books that are enjoyable to read but not the kind of books you give prizes to.
``I don't mean to sound patronising but they are just OK and interesting and that is all that can be said." No one is arguing that the Great Novel of the Year has been overlooked. Freelance book reviewer Ms Helen Daniel mentions Peter Carey's `The Tax Inspector' (UQP) and David Foster's `Mates of Mars' (Penguin) but does not believe either should have replaced any of the short-listed books.
Ms Sorensen makes half-hearted mutterings about Carey and `Revival House' by Julian Davies but does find it ``unforgivable" that Foster has been omitted.
Miles Franklin, best known for her classic `My Brilliant Career', set up the eponymous prize in her will in 1954. She wanted the prize to go to ``the author of a novel or play, which the judges deem each year to be of the highest literary merit" and which must ``present Australian life in any of its phases".
The first award went to Patrick White's `Voss'. Since then, winners have included Thea Astley, Thomas Keneally, Xavier Herbert and Elizabeth Jolley. The Miles Franklin has gone only twice to a first-time novelist _ in 1981 to Peter Carey for `Bliss' and in 1990 to Tom Flood, the 35-year-old son of Dorothy Hewett, for `Oceana Fine'.
The award is unique in having a consistent panel of judges. The original team was nominated by Franklin in her will and one of those judges remains today, the great 83-year-old publishing editor Beatrice Davis. (Another original, Professor Colin Roderick, 79, resigned after 34 years' service as a protest when Nicholas Jose's novel `Avenue of Eternal Peace' was short-listed in 1990. Roderick believed the novel ``flouted" the original intention of the award because it was set in China rather than Australia.) Still very Sydney-oriented, the judging panel now consists of Alison Crook (NSW State Librarian), Beatrice Davis, Professor Harry Heseltine (Professor of English at the Australian Defence Force Academy), Professor Dame Leonie Kramer (Chancellor of Sydney University) and Professor Adrian Mitchell (Professor in the English Department at the University of Sydney).
The criticism most often levelled at the Miles Franklin is that the judges are too conservative, because of their age group, backgrounds and consistent tenure. They have a tendency to award establishment writers more than once. Thomas Keneally, Thea Astley, David Ireland, Jessica Anderson and Peter Carey have all won the prize a number of times (Patrick White, after winning twice, decided not to enter his novels again).
The judges have, however, made some subversive decisions in the past, selecting ground-breaking novels like White's `Voss', Peter Mather's `Trap', Jessica Anderson's `Tirra Lirra by the River' and Tom Flood's ``difficult" first novel.
Ms Sorensen says that this year's safe choices show that a panel of judges usually come down to predictable choices unless they are deliberately trying to choose something daring and different.
``The Miles Franklin judges," she says, ``do stay within conservative realms; perhaps David Foster's book was left out because he was too interesting and challenging for the judges to consider. But their conservatism is not necessarily a bad thing. All the book prizes can't be avant garde." Win or lose, does the Miles Franklin Award still matter ?
Writer Ms Thea Astley, who has won the award three times, says the prize used to be important to writers when it was the only award available but its significance has diminished now that it is just one in the crowd. She admits it still has a remnant of mystique.
The chairman of the Literature Board, Mr Brian Matthews, says this, like any prize, could improve a writer's chance to get a grant or to interest a publisher in her or his next manuscript.
But the publishers themselves are most interested in the ringing of bookshop tills and that is where the Miles Franklin fails to register.
One prominent Australian writer who has won the award has even been known to say that it is ``the kiss of death because of its stuffy literary reputation".
The Children's Book Council Awards short-list is watched with hawk-like attention by anxious parents and librarians, and even a nomination can generate up to 10,000 extra sales. However, winning a Miles Franklin nomination does not make a scrap of difference, according to Marketing Manager for Penguin Books, Ms Jo Bramble (Penguin publishes `The Second Bridegroom' and `Cloudstreet' under the McPhee Gribble imprint).
``If a book wins the award, it has a lot of perceived prestige and gives a book considerable cachet but the sales are not significant. If a book is only short-listed, it is truly not significant," Ms Bramble says.
The marketing director for William Heinemann, Adrian Collette, says that if the Heinemann nominee, Alan Gould, wins the prize, it would mean a modest increase in sales. He is not sure of the figures but believes the sales might run into some further thousands.
Publishers say the Miles Franklin would do the whole industry a favor if the administrators, Arts Management, could increase its prestige with the public, along the lines of the Booker Prize.
Mr Collette says they should invest energy in marketing the award so that it means something to the general readership.
``Thea Astley sells but not because she has won the Miles Franklin three times. The Miles Franklin people need to find a way to ensure that the quality of the nominations can be translanted into book sales." THE TIPS Rosemary Sorensen: editor `The Australian Book Review'. She tips ``the competition will come down to Tim Winton and Brian Castro. Castro is in there because the book looks ambitious but I think the prize will go to Winton because `Cloudstreet' is big and substantial and ambitious and pompous. But I have to add who knows?".
Brian Matthews: writer and chair of the Australia Council's Literature Board. ``Speaking personally, they are all great books but I would go for `Our Sunshine' because I think it is an extraordinarily dynamic and passionate treatment of a topic you would have thought had been exhausted." Craig Munro: publishing manager for the University of Queensland Press. He tips Rodney Hall to win ``purely on the basis, that the judges have a history of awarding the same writer several times and that Rodney Hall is a novelist of stature who has only won once. My tip is Hall one, Winton two".
Robert Dessaix: presenter of `Books and Writing', Radio National, says he could not possibly tip as he does not know the judging criteria but would like to see Rodney Hall win.
Helen Daniel: book reviewer, `The Age', hopes the final choice will come down to Brian Castro, Robert Drewe or Rodney Hall. ``If it is a question of tipping, Winton would be the most predictable choice. But if it's a matter of wishing, I hope it will be Castro, Drewe or Hall and it would be nightmarish to have to choose between them." THE CONTENDERS Brian Castro, `Double-Wolf' (Allen and Unwin) Thea Astley, thrice winner of the Miles Franklin award, describes Brian Castro's third novel `Double-Wolf' as a ``brilliant knock-out".
The book, crammed with witty word play, was inspired by one of Freud's more famous patients, a Russian aristocrat who consulted the master about his childhood wolf nightmare. Mr Castro was intrigued to discover that the ``Wolf-Man" had lived another 60 years, dying in 1979, and that he had wanted to be a writer, opening up the possibility that he had dared to invent himself on that august couch.
Hong Kong-born, with Portuguese and Chinese/English parents, Castro has lived most of his life in Australia, teaching English and journalism. He now lives in the Blue Mountains and writes full-time.
His first novel `Birds of Passage' was joint winner of the 1982 Australian Vogel Award. His second novel, `Pomeroy', failed to get critical recognition.
Robert Drewe, `Our Sunshine' (Picador) Robert Drewe says he was moved to write his own version of the Ned Kelly story by Sidney Nolan, Karl Jung and a poignant photo of the corpse of Joe Byrne, propped up against a door for the benefit of souvenir photographers. Literary reviewer and writer Thomas Shapcott says the resulting book is a tour de force.
Drewe, 49, is a Walkley Award-winning journalist who has also been literary editor of `The Australian', contributing editor to `The Bulletin' and recipient of several senior fellowships from the Literature Board.
His first novel, `The Savage Crows', was published in 1976, followed by `A Cry in the Jungle Bar' and his collection of short stories, `The Bodysurfers', which has been adapted for stage, television, radio and film.
`Our Sunshine' reanimates the legendary figure of Kelly as a gallant youth, bubbling over with glorious defiance as he makes his last stand at Glenrowan.
Alan Gould, `To the Burning City' (William Heinemann) Alan Gould, a little-known author who has written a novel about the legacy of war, is the dark horse. The book focuses on the relationship between two half-brothers, one obsessed by his father's role in World War II, the other idolising his troubled sibling.
Reviews praised the book as ``written in a finely observed, gritty realist style" and as ``a polished and quietly confronting work" (`The Age').
Gould, 43, was an army child who followed his English/Icelandic parents to England, Northern Ireland, Germany and Singapore before coming to Australia in 1966.
His various jobs, ranging from nuclear physics technician to agricultural labor, have also included writing poetry and fiction (full-time since 1975).
He won a NSW Premier's Prize for Poetry for `Astral Sea' (1981) and a Foundation of Australian Studies Award for Best book of the Year for his first novel, `The Man who Stayed Below' (1985).
Rodney Hall, `The Second Bridegroom' (McPhee Gribble) Hall is one of the two short-listed authors to have won the Miles Franklin. He won in 1982 for his novel `Just Relations'.
His novel, `The Second Bridegroom', is the second part of a trilogy which started with `Captivity Captive' (which won the Premier's Award in 1989). Hall is now working on a middle volume, titled `The Grisly Wife'.
`The Second Bridegroom' follows the escape of a myopic 19-year-old apprentice printer into the Australian bush and an Aboriginal world. Helen Daniel, in `The Age', described the book as a ``work of such compelling beauty _ beauty of landscape, word, vision and movement".
Hall, 57, started work as a radio actor and musician but from 1967 to 1978 was poetry editor of `The Australian'. Now also chairman of the Australia Council, he has published 11 poetry volumes, two biographies and five previous novels.
Tim Winton, `Cloudstreet' (Penguin) Not only has Tim Winton already won the Miles Franklin (`Shallows', 1984), his long hair and Western Australian origins inspired the 1990 winner, Tom Flood.
Winton, 32, is nominated again for `Cloudstreet', a book which is a bestseller and which won the prestigious British Deo Gloria Award (although it did not make it to the short list for the Booker).
`Cloudstreet' is the story of Samual Manifold Pickles and family, living in Western Australia in the 1940s. The review in `The Age' hailed it as a ``big rollicking, ambitious work that moves along with a joy and exuberance sometimes matching the force of his beloved ocean".
Winton's previous work includes `An Open Swimmer', `Scission', `A Minimum of Two', `That Eye the Sky' and `In the Winter Dark', as well as books for children and teenagers.
© 1992 SUNDAY AGE
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