Reading 98 books like a 'hurricane' for Scotiabank Giller Prize jurors

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by: Sheri Block
Date: 10/5/2010 3:22:00 PM ET

Narrowing 98 books down to five in just a few short months was nothing short of daunting, according to the jurors who were charged with the very task.

“I’m probably never going to read a book again in my entire life,” jokes Michael Enright, following the announcement of the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist in Toronto Tuesday morning.

The finalists chosen were: “The Matter With Morris,” a novel by David Bergen; “Light Lifting,” a short story collection by Alexander MacLeod; “This Cake is for the Party,” a short story collection by Sarah Selecky; “The Sentimentalists,” a novel by Johanna Skibsrud and “ Annabel,” a novel by  Kathleen Winter. The winning author will receive $50,000, with $5,000 going to each of the finalists.

Long-time Canadian broadcaster, Enright, along with jury members Claire Messud, an American writer and professor, and Ali Smith, an award-winning UK author, started receiving the boxes of books in the spring and found themselves immersed in a book every spare minute they had.

“My youngest son couldn’t recognize me after the first few months. I read books (at 5 in the morning), I read books at night. I read books (on vacation) in Newfoundland, in Ireland. When I went on a motorcycle trip I took a bag of books. I read on the subway. I was reading all the time,” says Enright.

Messud, who resides in Cambridge, Mass., but grew up partly in Toronto, compares the process to a hurricane.

“You knew the boxes were going to start coming and then one came, and there was enough time to read the books, and then another came, and then all of a sudden around May they started coming once a week and they started to pile up faster than you could read them.”

Messud, whose most recent book “The Emperor’s Children” was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, says she found herself having to re-read some of the books she read early on.

“If you really love something that you read in February or March, you hold it in your mind, but by the time you get to August and September you have to go back and read it again because if you’re me, your memory’s so crappy,” she says with a laugh. “It’s a fascinating process.”

Enright says to help him narrow down the choices, he developed four criteria on which to score the books: plot, character, writing style and “reach” (how much the book grabbed his attention). He gave the books a score in each of the categories and the ones that added up to 20 were set aside.

The shortlist the jury chose contains two short story collections and selections from both up and coming and veteran writers, but Enright says that didn’t factor into their decision.

“I think (a book of short stories) make as much intimate connection with the reader as a novel does, they just do it faster … I didn’t differentiate that. I wanted the writing to knock me out and say, ‘Holy crap look at that.’”

It speaks to the mandate founder Jack Rabinovitch set out with the late author Mordecai Richler 17 years ago when the award was established, which was “pick the best book,” while disregarding everything else.

Enright, Messud and Smith (who wasn’t in attendance at the press conference), spoke on the phone regularly over the past few months to come to a decision and now in between re-reading the five books, they will be in contact even more as they try and choose a winner. 

“It’s been very amicable so far, which means it could be bloody from here on in,” says Enright with a laugh.

The winner will be announced Nov. 9 at Toronto’s Four Seasons Hotel during a black tie dinner and awards ceremony, hosted by CTV’s Seamus O’Regan. It will be broadcast live on Bravo! and online at CTV.ca, with an encore broadcast the following day on CTV.