counter, original, spare, strange - the montana fiction lists

It's Monday July 27, so it must be Montana NZ Book Awards Day. A year ago today, I was nervous about a. how The Blue would do in the Awards b. what to wear. By the end of the night, I was a. clutching two bottles of wine [one for each award] b. making buzzing noises in my excitement c. still dressed in something. A fabulous night.

Meanwhile, I am pleased to say that I have met my own TEA COSY CHALLENGE posed a little while back on this blog - reading five of the seven books in the fiction/new fiction lists. I meant to read all of them but children, family sickness, school holidays, and those relentless paying jobs mean I still have two left to read.

It's seems sexist of me, but they are the only two novels by men: Bernard Beckett's Acid Song and Mo Zhi Hong's The Year of the Shanghai Shark. I left them to last because, well, the others appealed more on the book shop shelves: the Perkins, Catton, De Goldi, Randall and Van der Zijpp novels.

At this point, I am thrilled with what I've encountered in Montana fiction so far. The novels are [in the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins] 'counter, original, spare, strange'.

Add to that: fresh, accomplished and compelling.

Add to that: some of the best writing I have read this year.

The novels vary widely in what they write about and where - they are set in London and Fiji, Greece, New Zealand and Shanghai. They are set in family homes, B & Bs, a girls' school/drama school, a retirement village by the beach, and places unknown [to me] in Shanghai. They involve a sex scandal, a damaged woman living with a down-at-heel screenwriter, a woman's disappearance, a woman seeking revenge for a broken love affair and - apparently - scientists and street boys. I'm not doing the male writers justice here, and my apologies for this.

Suffice to say, none of these novels shout out 'Kia ora/Gidday listen to me, I am an important NZ novel.' They're singular pieces of writing that could stand up anywhere. My Tea Cosy Fiction Challenge was well worth every cent and minute I spent on it.

And so far, unless I hear otherwise from blog-readers sometime during today, I have won my own challenge. My naked teapot will, finally, have something to wear when we sit down tonight to find out who won the Montana NZ Book Awards 2009. I'm ignoring the premature announcement by Next magazine, by the way, taking on face value their declaration of a mistake.

My teaspoons will be crossed for....

A Tea Cosy Fiction Challenge

What to do on these freezing days? So cold even the teapot needs to wear a hat? Bank up the fire, brew a pot of tea, put up your feet and r-e-a-d. Bliss. And what better to read than the fiction category of the Montana NZ Book Awards? The first book of fiction , too, of course - [oh those tropical waters where The Blue was swimming only a year ago...]

I am rather proud of the fact that I am exactly half way through the joint fiction lists already [total of seven books and I've read 3 1/2: see full lists below]. I've read Crocus Hour, and 10 PM Question in the fiction list and am now in the middle of the snappy blackly-humorous London world of Novel about my Wife. In the First Book category I've read Misconduct only.

If you need encouragement, here it is:

A TEA COSY FICTION CHALLENGE.
Read all seven novels, email me [marymac21ATgmailDOTcom] with a scan of the docket from the purchase of at least one of the books dated from today onwards [July 6], answer a quick quiz to show you have indeed read the books, and ....

YOU WIN a gorgeous tea cosy like the one at the start of my post made by my friend Audrey Shearer. Note, you can't be associated with the Montana NZ Book Awards in any way. Just a virgin reader with a cosy-less teapot....

LATE CHANGE: Given the fact that the Montana Awards are announced in just over a fortnight [July 27] and cold weather clearly makes people sluggish, I will accept any FIVE novels from the list of Fiction finalists and Best First Book of Fiction as entries in this competition. Btw - I have finished Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins and it is a seriously wonderful read. Do not miss it. The Rehearsal calls....

And a recent update on my progress with the Tea Cosy Fiction Challenge here.

Now here are all the books. Good luck.

FICTION

10 PM Question - Kate De Goldi Longacre Press

Acid Song - Bernard Beckett Longacre Press

The Crocus Hour - Charlotte Randall Penguin

Novel About My Wife - Emily Perkins Bloomsbury

The Rehearsal - Eleanor Catton Victoria University Press

FIRST BOOK OF FICTION [HUBERT CHURCH PRIZE]

Misconduct - Bridget van der Zijpp Victoria University Press

The Rehearsal -- Eleanor Catton Victoria University Press

The Year of the Shanghai Shark - Mo Zhi Hong Penguin

Lit list not hit list? Meet the Montana finalists.

It's odd to have been in the boxing ring last year with The Blue and now to be watching from outside the ropes. The announcement of the Montana NZ Book Awards shortlist today certainly got arch-critic of the 2008 finalists, Beattie's Book Blog, warmed up again. The controversies which kept him busy last year - four books instead of the usual five in the fiction finalists and no shortlist for the First Book of Fiction - aren't issues this year, but his concerns are still with that pesky fiction list and what he identifies as a strong lean towards the literary.

First off, Bookman raises questions about the inclusion of Kate de Goldi's 10 PM Question. Not because it's highbrow, but because it's just won the NZ Post Children's Book Award and going for an adult prize looks like a case of mistaken identity. Personally, I like the book's chutzpah and for what it says about the highly successful but ghettoised world of children's fiction in this country. On top of this, 10 PM Question is a finely-crafted, compelling novel sold to and enjoyed, I'd guess, by more adults than children. It's topped the adult fiction list and - anecdotally - I know more adults who've loved it than children. But is it an adult novel?

Bookman links to a Paula Morris review which says 'no' mainly due to inconsistencies in Frankie's voice and a lack of distance between narrator and action. My blog opinion on 10 PM Question is here, and I stick to that, but since this morning, I've been pondering the question Bookman poses: Is it an adult novel? Judged purely on readership, and on my own excitement about it, I'd have to say 'yes'.

On it's qualities as a novel, I'll say this - a good author like Kate de Goldi allows apparent inconsistencies in voice of a first person narrator to let the reader in and uses a range of tricks to cover his/her tracks; and as far as 'distance' goes, the adult sensibility of Frankie does - I believe - create distance. Finally, 10 PM Question may not have the complexities and ironies of Charlotte Randall's shortlisted novel Crocus Hour but then Randall's novel doesn't have the rich characterisation or humour of de Goldi's. How to judge? Last year I attended a forum where the Montana judges discussed the choices they'd made ...

The quirky Crocus Hour is another novel Bookman Beattie believes isn't up to the fiction shortlist. It certainly hasn't whipped up much excitement in reviewer ranks but that doesn't always mean it's a bad book. I am a Randall fan and while I recognise her latest novel is not up there with her brilliant and award-winning The Curative, it is still an exciting read that takes some welcome risks. My blog opinion is here. For the same reasons, Bookman queries YA author Bernard Beckett's first adult novel Acid Song. Having not read it, I can't comment except to say I have talked to readers captivated by this book of ideas.

For different reasons, Bookman wonders about the inclusion of newbie novelist Ellie Catton's The Rehearsal. He's concerned about its literariness and the difficulties people have reading it. Look, I haven't read this one despite promising to, but I have heard Ellie read from it, and the intricate and intelligent loops her language took impressed me deeply. I'm guessing that's what's impressed her UK publisher Granta and the Montana judges.

Fifth on the list, and okay with the Bookman, is Emily Perkins' Novel About My Wife. It's already met with considerable success overseas and rave reviews here and is my pick for the winner. [And before I forget the short list for Best First Book of Fiction, Catton's The Rehearsal has to take this one out, but fantastic to see a fave of mine Bridget van der Zijpp's Misconduct in there.]

So is the Bookman right? Is Montana fiction this year a lit list not a hit list? I like to see challenging novels that take risks up there in the finalist ranks of our national book prize. If there's only one major prize this is what it must do, surely. It's all about that thing called the pursuit of excellence. And so yes, these sorts of novels are usually more lit than hit, although de Goldi's novel is a definite bestseller. At the same time, I agree with Bookman that it would be great to see us follow the UK model and have a parallel prize system which recognises that heart-warming necessity: a 'good read.' Sponsors step forward please...