Tom McArdle
The author of a Booker Prize-winning novel has been accused of copying the rags-to-riches plot of a Stanley Kubrick film.
David Szalay’s Flesh was praised for its originality last year after judges said they had “never read anything quite like it”.
However, critics have since pointed out striking similarities between his book and Kubrick’s 1975 film Barry Lyndon.
Kubrick’s period drama is an adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s The Luck of Barry Lyndon, which is now regarded as a classic.
But those who have seen the film and read Szalay’s book have questioned why the author has not acknowledged the extent of their similar plot lines.
Flesh is the story of a working-class Hungarian, István, who gains and then loses extraordinary wealth.
Roddy Doyle, the chairman of judges, said the book “homes in on a working-class man – [who] ordinarily doesn’t get much of a look in”.
In Kubrick’s work, Lyndon is also from an impoverished background in Ireland.
Both István and Lyndon become soldiers, marry wealthy women, lose sons, fight with mistrusting stepsons whose lives they eventually spare, before falling into financial ruin and ending where they started.
As a result, writer Aled Maclean-Jones described Flesh as an “almost” retelling of the film.
Despite this, Szalay is set to downplay the connection in an upcoming episode of BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life, according to The Times.
In the episode, which airs on Thursday, he is asked whether the film is a “direct reference”, to which he replies: “No, I wouldn’t go that far.”
The author reportedly then adds that Kubrick “wasn’t really at the front of my mind, I don’t think”.
Pressed on the matter, Szalay conceded that the film had made “quite a strong impression” on him, but rejected the idea that it was a direct tribute.
Examples of similarities in the works are shown by both main characters reacting to paintings, stating that they like the use of the colour blue.
Meanwhile, there is a scene in both the book and film where the protagonist’s mother warns him about the dangers of newfound wealth.
Despite this, David Sexton, the critic, said Szalay had done nothing wrong in taking inspiration from another work but found his evasiveness hard to understand.
The former literary editor of the Evening Standard told The Times: “I don’t understand why, at this stage, he will not own up to it more.
“I – and everybody else who has noticed it – haven’t found anything wrong in it. It is not plagiarism; it is completely legitimate to adapt something, and I have always admired his writing.
Anthony Cummins, another critic, claimed that references to Barry Lyndon were more likely to be “Easter eggs” in films, hidden messages for fans to spot.
Szalay became the first Hungarian-British author to win the Booker Prize last year and the £50,000 ($95,000) prize money that accompanied it.
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