Pulitzer Prize 2010

[learna]

A debut novel published by a tiny independent not-for-profit press has won the Pulitzer prize for fiction.

Pulitzer prize goes to 'little book from a little publisher' | Books | guardian.co.uk

[Refus de Sejour]

from the link:

Tinkers follows the last days of a man dying from cancer and kidney failure. Lying in his room, he sees the walls around him begin to collapse and the clouds and sky plummet down on top of him as he hallucinates, until he is released from the "constraints of time and memory" to rejoin his father, an impoverished pedlar in the backwoods of Maine.

Well, it's hard to tell much from this kind of summary, but it sounds interesting.

Has anyone read it?

(BTW, I wonder if Bubba hates hallucinations in novels as much as he hates dreams?)

[Refus de Sejour]

The first paragraph:

George Washington Crosby began to hallucinate eight days before he died. From the rented hospital bed, place in the middle of his own living room, he saw insects running in and out of imaginary cracks in the ceiling plaster. The panes in the windows, once snugly pointed and glazed, stood loose in their sashes. The next stiff breeze would topple them all and they would flop onto the heads of his family, who sat on the couch and the love seat and the kitchen chairs his wife had brought in to accommodate everyone. The torrent of panes would drive everyone from the room, his grandchildren in from Kansas and Atlanta and Seattle, his sister in from Florida, and he would be marooned on his bed in a moat of shattered glass. Pollen and sparrows, rain and the intrepid squirrels he spent half of his life keeping out of the bird feeders would breach the house.

"Flop" is an odd way of describing falling panes of glass, but otherwise, I like it.

[learna]

This is the longer quote:

Extract from Tinkers by Paul Harding

If somebody adds a little we will get the whole novel.

[Richard Sheehan]

I'm listening to the audio and I'm enjoying it a lot.

The richness and depth of his narrative reminds me of Cormac McCarthy while there's a little of Roth about his descriptions of the trade of the horologist.

Half-way through, I'm impressed.

[learna]

I'm listening to the audio and I'm enjoying it a lot.

The richness and depth of his narrative reminds me of Cormac McCarthy while there's a little of Roth about his descriptions of the trade of the horologist.

Half-way through, I'm impressed.

Richard Sheehan, it will be interesting to know your thoughts after your listening the novel. Maybe it is worth its own thread.

[anchomal]

Haven't read the book or even heard of Paul Harding but I love the idea of a small press book winning such a prestigious prize. At a time when media hype seems to dictate what we are supposed to like and dislike, it's nice to see that the little guy can still make a loud noise now and then if he has got something worthwhile to say...

[learna]

Yes, the fact is interesting on its own and if the novel is equal the readers' hopes it is an ideal prize .