Poll

These match ups are increasingly tough. Two books I have rated 5* on goodreads having read several years back but I have judged it on which I would be keenest to re-read. Both would be worthy to progress though.

I need to do some more research on Wizard of the Crow, because I haven't read it but think I'd love it. For now, I'm gonna go with Possession, because I love it!

It's a great read - feel free to read my review. As paul pointed out in an earlier round it also has the huge advantage of being translated by its author. I would describe it as Midnights Children crossed with the accessibility of African storytelling.

Possession is a wonderful book also though.

Possibly a little unfair but I am not going to vote against Possession until it comes up against something I know and love.

Not unfair at all! That's what I'm doing here too!

Easy solution to that for both of you Trevor and Hugh. Read Wizard of the Crow before the vote ends and you can switch to it :-)

Actually I am happy for either novel but I think I nominated WoTC in the first place so have to back it.

I will read it eventually, but there is no way I can read it in the next three days. I have no qualms about voting for Possession, as Byatt is one of my favourite writers and it is one of the best Booker winners.

Am interesting relatively recent interview with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

http://sunnewsonline.com/ngugi-wa-thi...

It includes comment on why it is so important for him to write in Gikuyu even if he might more naturally, as an English literature professor, write in English.

Although it does highlight the validity of one criticism I have heard: that he publicly shares the widespread view that he is long overdue the Nobel Prize!

Hugh wrote: "I will read it eventually, but there is no way I can read it in the next three days. I have no qualms about voting for Possession, as Byatt is one of my favourite writers and it is one of the best ..."

Fair enough.

Gumble's Yard wrote: "I would describe it as Midnights Children crossed with the accessibility of African storytelling"

Sold!

Someone asking on the Booker speculation thread re Margaret Drabble's latest reminded me that a couple of rounds back I said I'd dig out the James Ormond-Stevie Waugh sledge for when it might be needed to stop AS Byatt:

http://www.cricketsledges.com/mark-wa...

Ha!

I've never read Drabble, so I don't know if this is true or not. Indeed, the little I know of Drabble is that she was married to Clive Swift for a time, and I could never reconcile that kind of literary life with the character of Richard Bucket.

I have read a few Drabbles and for me Byatt is the better of the two by some distance, though they are both worth reading...

In the early days of their respective careers I think Drabble was regarded as the more accomplished author. That was changed largely by Possession ... hmm that isn't really helping my case is it?!

The Waugh twins of course get on whereas Byatt and Drabble....

Margaret Drabble was certainly held in higher regard pre-Possession. Books like The Ice Age were very well thought of back in the day but Drabble's stock has massively plummeted as Byatt's has risen.

Well Margaret can point out that she has written two better novels in the last 5 years than her sister has managed.

Has Byatt actually stopped writing novels - I've been waiting for a long time since The Children's Book (don't really count the Canongate Myth series one).

Perhaps if she loses out to WoTC it will spur her back to writing another masterpiece?

Trevor wrote: "the little I know of Drabble is that she was married to Clive Swift for a time, and I could never reconcile that kind of literary life with the character of Richard Bucket."

(Read this post earlier today - been looking and looking for it to reply to, thought it was on the Booker thread as Drabble was also discussed there.)

I don't think I ever knew that - but definitely didn't know Keeping Up Appearances was popular in the US!

I don't find it an incongruous pairing (maybe there are more of these over here from different fields/levels of seriousness - and I'd say it's got nothing on Joanna Newsom + Andy Samberg) but the idea of Drabble being, as it were, the real Mrs. Bucket... That must have required a long-suffering sense of humour.

The Drabble/Byatt career comparisons are interesting - it is certainly true that by the time Byatt got into her stride (for me that means The Virgin in the Garden so mid 80s), Drabble was already long established, but between then and 2001 Byatt produced her best work - since then she has been very quiet. I have only read three of Drabble's books so I hope some of the others will prove me wrong, but for me all four of the Frederica novels, Possession and The Children's Book are better and moer ambitious than any of the ones I have read. Drabble definitely wins on quantity though...

What's a good Drabble to begin with? I've never even really browsed her titles.

The Millstone perhaps. The Red Queen seems the most popular on GR and has the bonus of being set in Korea, but is atypical.

To be honest Byatt is better - I just couldn't resist the sledge.

Although WoTC is much better than any book either sister has written.

A Wizard of the Crow surge when I wasn't looking!

Yes a late anti-Byatt vote from an new forum member called Mdrabble :-)

Ha ha ha!