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JUST two months after scooping the Best of the Bookers prize, Salman Rushdie was recently judged to have written a new novel that was "not enough of a page turner" to even make it on to the award’s shortlist. Rushdie’s latest novel, The Enchantress of Florence, had been the bookmakers’ early favourite to win this year’s Man Booker prize, along with the post-September 11 drama Netherland by Joseph O’Neill. Among the selected six writers was Linda Grant, 57, a former recipient of the Orange prize who was longlisted for the Booker in 2002. Her book, The Clothes on their Backs, tells the poignant story of the daughter of timid Hungarian immigrants who is brought up in London. The judges, who include the former Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo, the novelist Louise Doughty, the founder of Ottaker’s bookshop, James Heneage, the editor of Granta, Alex Clark, and the broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli, commended the six selected writers for their readability as well as literary excellence. When asked why Rushdie had failed to make the list, the answer was short and simple. The book was not enough of a page turner, according to Ms Doughty, who added: "If you take the whole of its literary qualities, it is not as good as the six we have chosen." His oeuvre was pretty "patchy", said Kohli. "There are some good books and some not so good books," he added. By arrangement with The Independent
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