Stranger than fiction – John Stapleton: [3 All-round Metro Edition]
The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 17 Oct 2003: 3.
Abstract
THE colourful descriptions of the life of Australia’s latest Booker Prize winner, DBC Pierre, are all true, he claims.
DBC (Dirty But Clean) Pierre, born in Australia as Peter Warren Finlay, was a surprise winner this week of the Booker Prize — one of the world’s most prestigious and, normally, stuffy literary awards — for his novel Vernon God Little.
[Pierre] left Australia when he was six years old to live in Mexico. He now lives in Ireland.
Full Text
THE colourful descriptions of the life of Australia’s latest Booker Prize winner, DBC Pierre, are all true, he claims.
He has been shot at by a neighbour in Mexico, had his face reconstructed after a serious accident and been both a drug addict and a conman.
DBC (Dirty But Clean) Pierre, born in Australia as Peter Warren Finlay, was a surprise winner this week of the Booker Prize — one of the world’s most prestigious and, normally, stuffy literary awards — for his novel Vernon God Little.
“I am not pulling your leg,” he told ABC television last night.
He said that for 42 years he had “lived very quickly” to rack up the colourful tales and that many other parts of his life had not been told.
No one walked around with a “life assessment” in their heads, he said, and he was finding it interesting to read the abridged versions of his life with all the “salty bits” left in.
Pierre said some of the energy that drove his first large work came from his own regrets and his own life story.
Pierre left Australia when he was six years old to live in Mexico. He now lives in Ireland.
He said that when he has returned to Australia, he has felt like something of an outsider.
But he also believed our present culture, which made many promises that could not be fulfilled, was producing many more young outsiders.
Vernon God Little had recently been optioned by a European film- maker, he said.