US National Book Awards 2008

[Stewart]

The finalists for the 2008 US National Book Award have been announced. They are:

FICTION

• Home, Marilynne Robinson
• The Lazarus Project, Aleksandar Hemon
• Telex From Cuba, Rachel Kushner
• Shadow Country, Peter Matthiessen
• The End, Salvatore Scibona

NON-FICTION

• This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Drew Gilpin Faust
• The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, Annette Gordon-Reed
• The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, Jane Mayer
• Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives, Jim Sheeler
• The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order, Joan Wickersham

POETRY

• Watching the Spring Festival, Frank Bidart
• Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, Mark Doty
• Creatures of a Day, Reginald Gibbons
• Without Saying, Richard Howard
• Blood Dazzler, Patricia Smith

YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE

• Chains, Laurie Halse Anderson
• The Underneath, Kathi Appelt
• What I Saw and How I Lied, Judy Blundell
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart
• The Spectacular Now, Tim Tharp

The winners will be announced on November 19th, 2008.

And some stats, for those interested:

In 2008, over 200 publishers submitted 1,258 books for the 2008 National Book Awards, an increase of six percent from 2007.

The total number of books by genre:

• Fiction, 271
• Nonfiction, 540
• Poetry, 175
• Young People's Lit., 274

[fausto]

I have the Hemon, not read it yet though. The last couple of years, I read all fiction finalists but sadly I won't be able to do so this time. The NBA is my fav literary prize, actually.

[Stewart]

It's not an award I've ever really paid attention to but, looking over the list of fiction winners, I see plenty of names that I intend on sampling at some point, like John Cheever, Saul Bellow, William Maxwell, and John O'Hara. The only one I've read is Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus.

Saying that, I've tried Saul Bellow and failed to get anywhere, and likewise Thomas Pynchon. I remember being about sixty pages into Gravity's Rainbow and realising that, other than a mention of a ladder, I had followed nothing. Even The Crying Of Lot 49, for its brevity, beat me.

One other name there, I note, is William Vollman. Someone in one of my local Waterstone's branches must like him, as its the only store I've ever seen his books in. I had a flick through The Rifles and Argall. I couldn't imagine reading the latter at all.

I do remember the controversy in 2003 when Stephen King won the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

[nnyhav]

I've read about a third of the fiction list up thru 2000, which was about their hit rate (though not the same third); mostly safe choices, not nec the author's best work, oft recognition of past achievement.

Hemon would be a worthy choice this year. I put the odds at one outta three ...

(The bigger controversy in 2003 was Edward P. Jones not getting the NBA; he got the NBCC [their list], better hit rate IMHO)

[fausto]

I don't agree with you there at all. The NBA has had some lean years, especially during the 90's, but overall their list is a quality one. The last three winners are fantastic. On the other hand, the NBCC fiction award has mostly gone to books that were not really great (Junot Diaz, Kiran Desai, Doctorow's The March, to take the last three). Obvious choices. Now NBA doesn't necessarily takes risk but Diaz or Johnson? Desai or Powers? The March or Europe Central? What the NBCC seem to do good is the criticism prize -- quite logical, in a way.

[Beth]

Originally Posted by fausto

The last three winners are fantastic.

So I shouldn't have given up on Tree of Smoke? I read almost 300 pages and became impatient, something which rarely happens. I was enjoying the developing story and the writing was first rate.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by fausto

I don't agree with you there at all. The NBA has had some lean years, especially during the 90's, but overall their list is a quality one. The last three winners are fantastic. On the other hand, the NBCC fiction award has mostly gone to books that were not really great (Junot Diaz, Kiran Desai, Doctorow's The March, to take the last three). Obvious choices. Now NBA doesn't necessarily takes risk but Diaz or Johnson? Desai or Powers? The March or Europe Central? What the NBCC seem to do good is the criticism prize -- quite logical, in a way.

honestly. "not really great" equals "obvious choices" for you? or did I misread you. I thought the "March" a really really good novel. Considerably better than Europe Central which I've yet to finish, but which is so far, nicely written, but dull and almost unbearably boring. Maybe itÄs just the surprise, but I'd just discovered Vollman through his magnificent Rainbow Stories and then...that. Doctorow is an excellent writer, and "The March" is one of his best novels, at least as far as I've read them. Oh, and "The Corrections"...an inspired choice

I'm not too happy about their poetry choices either. In a year with a new Bidart and a new Ashbery they award fuckin Merwin?

PLus, looking through these lists tells me I know way too little about contemporary American Fiction. The only one from 2004 I know is Bynum. None from 2002. And so on.

[fausto]

No, obvious choices was just because I was moving to the "obvious" thing Nnyhav said about NBA. Powers or Vollmann (esp. Vollmann) are all but obvious. The finalists feature year in year out great books you won't find on any other shortlist. As for The March, it's a failed bad book, really. Doctorow is a good writer although only Ragtime really did it for me, but "The March" is one big cliché, especially in the characterization. Each character is a stereotype -- they don't breathe, they don't live, they are postcards. I really expected a lot and found out this was a huge let down. I do agree with you: it's one of the best of his that I'(ve read, which I guess spaeks volume on my opinion on his other works. "Europe Central" boring is a first, but then again one man's snooze fest is another's.... I found it exceptionally moving and, well, Vollmann's writing works much better for me than Doctorow's (not to say one is better than the other per se).

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by fausto

No, obvious choices was just because I was moving to the "obvious" thing Nnyhav said about NBA. Powers or Vollmann (esp. Vollmann) are all but obvious. The finalists feature year in year out great books you won't find on any other shortlist. As for The March, it's a failed bad book, really. Doctorow is a good writer although only Ragtime really did it for me, but "The March" is one big cliché, especially in the characterization. Each character is a stereotype -- they don't breathe, they don't live, they are postcards. I really expected a lot and found out this was a huge let down. I do agree with you: it's one of the best of his that I'(ve read, which I guess spaeks volume on my opinion on his other works. "Europe Central" boring is a first, but then again one man's snooze fest is another's.... I found it exceptionally moving and, well, Vollmann's writing works much better for me than Doctorow's (not to say one is better than the other per se).

Funny. Ragtime is the Doctorow novel I like least, by a very wide margin. Wow. That and the Vollman...the disagreements just pile up...

[fausto]

Then it's for the best that I'm leaving for a few weeks before it comes to blows... ;-)

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by fausto

Then it's for the best that I'm leaving for a few weeks before it comes to blows... ;-)

awww what are we going to do without you?

[fausto]

Talk about how your childhood encounter with a barking dog made you hate all books with a barking dog?

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by fausto

Talk about how your childhood encounter with a barking dog made you hate all books with a barking dog?