A Nation Mourns (again)

Not long after suffering the devastating loss to the French in the World Cup quarter finals, New Zealand once again endures a mighty blow to its patriotic chest. We* were beaten. By the Irish. The media is, as expected, in a frenzy over this widely unexpected defeat**. It is not certain if our nation pride will recover from such a painful loss and the ramifications could be wide spread. After all a literature-loving nation such ourselves can hardly expect that we will be able to simply chalk it up to experience when we all had our hopes on Lloyd Jones bringing home the coveted Booker prize. In fact the global literary community was shock by today’s outcome. Even the Irish have admitted that they didn’t expect to win. As New Zealand literary commentator Kelsey Quinn observed, “Everyone knows we have the best authors in this country. That is part of what makes this defeat so hard to stomach. And frankly, I question the judges’ decision on this one. There was a blatant misuse of an apostrophe in the last chapter that for some reason they just didn’t pick up on.” Women’s Refuge has already reported an increase in domestic violence due to many New Zealand males lashing out at their partners and children due to their frustration at again missing out on winning this prestigious literary prize. Economists fear that the nation’s depression may also have a negative effect on our economy. At least fifty percent of the time when we have not won the Booker prize, the economy has gotten worse even when we have not even been nominated for the award. Lloyd Jones is expected to return home later this week. Talks are already afoot as to who is to blame for this national disaster and many speculate that publishers and editors jobs may be on the line as a result. It seems that the head of Penguin Books will probably be replaced by Christmas. For now we can only wait until we get our get chance at claiming the prize again and try to remind ourselves 'it's only a book'. *I use the inclusive first person pronoun because, as New Zealanders, I'm sure we all felt this painful blow to our nation's pride. ** At least a full 20 seconds on the midday news was devoted to the tragedy.