Finally I agree with the Giller jury...good on Alice Munro! I've been saving this book for France but I know it probably is the best of the nominations. And she was so gracious in her speech, not like Austin Clarke (won it in 2002 for The Polished Hoe) and was such a pompous windbag. Wayne Johnstone should have won it that year for "The Navigator of New York". And in 2003, Ann-Marie Macdonald should have won it for "The Way the Crow Flies" NOT Vassanji for "The In-between World of Vikram Lall". A great first page but in the end rather flat - too much of a polemic.
The Giller awards ceremony seems to have it right...a great party for the invitees and Mary Walsh there to make sure it doesn't get too stuffy. I liked her crack at Sheila Copps..."yes, well, you're still on about the problem women have in politics..oh yes...all the problems... putting make up on both political faces...no, dear, don't answer my questions..." And of course it wouldn't be a Can Lit event without Margaret Atwood laughing at her own jokes because no one else is. She's no comedian but I still think she should win the Nobel prize.
