Wodehouse prize awarded to US author Gary Shteyngart

Judges praise first American writer to win accolade for ‘wild comedy’ of his novel Super Sad True Love Story Jeeves and Wooster may be as English as cream teas and Pimm’s, but the literary prize named after their creator, PG Wodehouse, has been swiped from under the noses of a gaggle of British writers by the American author Gary Shteyngart . The first American ever to win the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction, which goes to a book that “has captured the comic spirit of PG Wodehouse”, Shteyngart triumphed over the British novelists Sam Leith, Catherine O’Flynn and India Knight and the Indian author Manu Joseph. The author’s winning novel, Super Sad True Love Story , is set in a dystopian, near-future America, where the 39-year-old Russian-American Lenny Abramov is attempting to persuade the 24-year-old Korean-American Eunice Park to fall in love with him. It “leaves you wondering whether that dull ache in your stomach is from laughter or just plain sadness”, wrote Chris Cox in the Observer. Prize judge and Hay festival director Peter Florence called the book “great literature” and “wild comedy”. “Gary Shteyngart’s writing is thrilling. He’s a staggeringly clever satirist who manages to create worlds and people of perfect coherence and outrageous misfortune,” said Florence. Shteyngart wins a jeroboam of champagne and a set of Wodehouse books. The author will also be presented with a pig named after his novel. The Gloucestershire Old Spot Super Sad True Love Story joins a herd of bizarrely named swine, from Salmon Fishing in the Yemen to A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye. Organisers of the prize, won last year by Ian McEwan for Solar , pointed out that Wodehouse might be seen as quintessentially English, but the author actually became an American citizen in 1955 and set several of his Jeeves and Wooster titles in the US. Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize Fiction Awards and prizes United States Alison Flood guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 23, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.