Shiny Happy Granta

Nice piece in today's Grauniad by Ed Pilkington about a few of the bright young things on Granta's new best young American novelist list.

The list, announced about a month ago and published in Granta 97 on the 10th of May, has a few folk you know - Jonathan Safron Foer and ZZ Packer - and some you probably don't have a scoobie about - Rattawut Lapcharoensap, anyone?

Weighing in on lists is a bit of a mug's game. The only reason content providers produce them is to generate comment from other content providers - some sort of action/reaction Newtonian Law of the Media (and I am of course referring to Newton Minow). But, I'm a bit of a mug. One thing I'll say is that a couple of the people haven't yet published a novel - and I'll remind you, dear reader, that it is the Best American Young Novelist list. Still good on Granta for taking a punt on some young gunslinger. A bit like Sven Goran Ericson taking a chance with Theo Walcott. And that worked out well.

But the thing that struck me the most about Pilkington's article was the photos. And how happy they all looked. Grinning with their ca-ching American teeth, all just dee-freekin'-lighted to be there. OK, so they have a reason to be smiling. They're on the damn list after all and not, presumably, struggling along in the unheated windowless garrett.

Book Boy doesn't like his writers happy. He wants them depressed, with some sort of substance problem. On the verge, just a bad review away from the barbituate overdose.

Just the sign of the times, really. The suicidal author has been replaced by the well-adjusted one (you can't really be morose if you have to spend some time on Richard and Judy's couch), the garret by student accomodation at the Univ of East Anglia creative writing school.