Bookie takes on the Booker

Even wackier than the fact that oddsmakers in Britain are opining on who will take this year’s Man Booker Prize is that the prize’s official site is chatting it the handicapping up. The favorite, by a mile, according to one oddsmaker: Ian McEwan’s "On Chesil Beach" at 3- to 1.

"Despite the initial controversy over whether this is a novel or novella, I was always confident that it would be long-listed, and I believe it is a worthy favourite and probably one of the best Booker contenders of recent years," said Graham Sharpe, of the bookmaking house William Hill, in a press release cited on the Booker site. (Sharpe has been assessing the Booker field for a quarter-century.) Sharpe has been compiling Booker odds for more than 25 years and calls the rest of the list "the most difficult" he’s ever had to assess.

If literary wagering isn’t your thing, a perusal of the William Hill site has offers to bet on football (you know, Beckham-style), greyhound racing, cricket, darts (really), even U.S. baseball. (By the way, it’s Hillary Clinton as the 4-5 favorite to win the presidential election, with Rudolph Giuiliani at 5- to 1 and Fred Thompson (unannounced), Al Gore (very unannounced) and Barack Obama all tied for third at 6- to 1.)

If only the Pulitzers drew such interest!
Orli Low