[Discussion] Does winning the Booker Prize change things?

[Paksoy, Hb]

Does winning the Booker Prize change things?
 =20
Robert Mason Lee =20
National Post=20


Monday, October 28, 2002
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LONDON - The story of Yann Martel can lay claim to being as inspiring =
and
unlikely as that of the fictional boy-hero in his Booker Prize-winning
novel, Life of Pi. Both stories -- that of the 16-year-old survivor, in =
the
novel, and the 39-year-old survivor, in real life -- force the question =
of
whether God exists, if only because they are both still standing. =
Martel
prefers to believe He does exist, in life and in fiction, if only =
because it
makes for "the better story."

A mere six years ago, Martel admits, he was "hungry." He was in his =
early
thirties and pretty much, in the eyes of the world, a slacker. He had =
never
lived up to the illustrious lights of his parents, the Canadian =
diplomatic
couple and cultural partisans =C9mile and Nicole Martel of Montreal. =
Although
his mother tongue is French -- the name Yann is Breton for John -- =
Martel is
equally fluent in English and writes in it. (His parents are now =
translating
Life of Pi into French.)

Martel's father received the Governor-General's Award for =
French-language
poetry in 1995, whereas Martel's first two novels received critical =
acclaim
but otherwise sunk without a trace. After considerable drifting, Martel =
fils
found himself barefoot in India, wondering where his life had lost the =
plot.

Then he read the story that ultimately changed his thinking, gave him
religion, inspired the novel and left him King of Writers. Martel has =
plenty
of time to tell it. We are crossing the south of England together on a
train, and we have privacy because I had insisted on a first-class
compartment for the interview -- they still have the old-fashioned =
private
compartments on the south-central line. "C'mon, Yann," I cajoled, "you =
can
afford it now."

Martel looked at me quizzically for a second -- I can? -- then lifted =
his
heavy Gallic brows in delight -- I can! -- and he slapped down the cash =
for
first-class tickets. His cords were clean but thin, his Rockports =
polished
but worn. He had a week to consider that he may have won the Booker, =
among
the world's most prestigious literary prizes. He had two days for =
victory to
sink in. Yet he had not spent a penny and not bothered to calculate =
that his
net worth had just jumped something like $2-million.

"Money?" he shrugs. "I don't want to buy a house and I don't want to =
exploit
some 14-year-old boy in Mexico by investing it. Look at this," he says,
waving at the compartment. "It's the frivolous side of writing, but =
here I
am on a train to I-don't-know-where, then I'll be in Hong Kong, then =
Berlin,
then Rome ... Money? For what?"

An industry source who has seen Martel's contract says Life of Pi was
advanced $20,000 by Knopf Canada. He received a further US$75,000 for =
the
U.S. rights from Harcourt. He was then turned down by five UK =
publishers
before a struggling independent based in Edinburgh, Canongate, paid =
$36,000
for the UK rights.

Now Martel, who admits that until last week no one had heard of him, is =
an
overnight success. But for four years, he reminds me, those advances =
were
his only income. "I could only do it because I don't smoke, I don't =
drink, I
don't have a car. I have roommates. I wear second-hand clothes. I have =
no
TV. I have no stereo. My only expenses are my notebooks and my =
computer."

Canongate estimates the Booker will generate an additional =A32-million =
in UK
sales. On top of his cut, Martel will also bank =A350,000, or more than
$120,000, from what is now called the Man Booker Prize. (Investment =
house
Man Group plc doubled the cash award when it took over the Booker
sponsorship.)

The Canongate imprint qualified Martel to enter the Booker competition,
becoming the third Canadian to win in a decade and inspiring talk of a
"Canadian wave" in fiction. Martel is not happy discussing matters of =
filthy
lucre, perhaps remembering Christ's admonition that one cannot serve =
two
gods at once -- in his case, art and commerce. Ah, but the Booker jury =
does
-- and some say, did.

Martel's victory ushers in a "new-era" Booker intent on casting out the =
old
regime and presenting a modern, readable, market-conscious winner, says
Robert McCrum, literary editor of The Oberver, and in Martel they have =
found
it. McCrum wrote in a recent column that Life of Pi was "everyone's =
second
choice" on the Booker jury -- he even quoted one judge as saying the =
book
"begins and ends badly, but has some terrific stuff in the middle." =
McCrum
offered his own faint praise: "It is readable, imaginative, with a nice
top-dressing of AS-level [high school] theology." In general, though, =
the
book has been given charmed reviews.

Martel never imagined such acclaim when he was struggling in India and =
came
across a review by John Updike of an obscure book by Brazilian novelist
Moacyr Scliar. The review concerned the tale of a Jew who ends up in a
lifeboat with a panther, a premise that began to obsess Martel.

The parable somehow meshed with his own emerging religious thought. In =
his
own version of the tale, he decided on a Muslim-Christian-Hindu =
castaway
named Pi, referring to the circumference of a circle divided by its
diameter. "In mathematics, pi is called an irrational number because it
never repeats, but it leads to a rational, factual conclusion. That's =
how I
think about faith -- as the irrational leading to the rational."

What emerged after four years of writing was Pi's story of survival =
adrift
at sea with only a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker for company, a =
tale
that challenges his rescuers to believe him -- and in the process, =
believe
in God's mysterious ways. Ultimately they do, because it makes for a =
"better
story" -- the same reason Martel came to his own faith.

"Look at those trees and fields rushing by," he says, casting his eyes =
out
the train window at the passing Sussex countryside. "If it makes for a
better story that I see the hand of God behind it, why not believe in =
that?
The question of 'truth' is a red herring. Why not believe in Jesus, if =
it
gives greater meaning to life?"

His convictions also drew him to volunteer work at the palliative care =
unit
of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. "I figured I had something =
to
learn from dying people," he says. "Like, that life is short and it's
beautiful. That most of our problems are created in our own heads. That
there is no room in life for irony and cynicism, because life is =
precious
and it's fragile.

"My novel is, in many ways, deeply unfashionable: It has no cynicism =
and it
has no irony. It is just dead, dumb, plain sincere."

Like me, he could have added.

=A9 Copyright  2002 National Post