I’ve read a lot of fiction over the years, but apparently, I am not a reader of good literature. How do I know this? The National Book Foundation is celebrating the 60th year of the National Award for Fiction. They’ve selected 77 books over the past 59 years (there were a number of years where they couldn't decide - 1980 alone had 8 winners). Anyway, these 77 books represent the best of American fiction. I’ve read 2 of them.I’m not sure how I feel about this. I’ve been pretty happy with my reading choices to date but after spending some time reviewing the list of prior winners, I can allow for the possibility that I’ve missed some good books.
This year the NBF is making a special award for Fiction. In addition to the Fiction Award for 2009, they are also awarding The Best of the National Book Awards for Fiction. They polled a group of 140 American writers who were asked to vote for their favorite award winner from the past 59 years. This narrowed the list down to 6 finalists and now the NBF is asking the general public to pick the winner. The 6 finalists are:
1951 Collected Stories – William Faulkner
1953 Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
1972 The Complete Stories – Flannery O’Connor
1974 Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon
1981 The Stories of John Cheever – John Cheever
1983 The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty – Eudora Welty
You have until October 21st to vote for your favorite here. I won’t be voting – the 2 books that I read didn’t make it to the finals.
3 comments:
Laura - Well I did a little better with 9 of the 77 - Note that Cormac McCarthy - All The Pretty Horses - is listed - My son turned me on to him and I have read 4 of his books - an amazing wordsmith with unconventional combinations - most all of his books are set in the West - hence the Montana connection from my son - Am constantly looking for something new and interesting to read - trust you have read the Girl with The Dragon Tatoo books? Maybe you should set up a forum / Laura's book club kind of thing where we can post interesting books - Your contributions to this blog serve as a very nice yin / yang balance to Trey's laser focus on politics. Regards - Christopher
Christopher - I haven't read any Cormac McCarthy, for some reason I thought he wrote 'westerns' which I am not all that fond of. I checked out the review from the NBA site and the reviewer also mentions McCarthy's prose - I will add him to my reading list. Is 'All the Pretty Horses' your favorite or is there another I should start with?
If you're a fan of great prose, you should read Mark Helprin - 'Winter's Tale' is my favorite but I also love 'A Soldier of the Great War', 'Refiner's Fire' and 'Memoir from an Antproof Case'. They are just beautiful to read.
And I haven't read the Dragon Tattoo books either but I did a quick google search and they look interesting.
Thanks for the suggestions - and I'll think about the book forum idea - I am always looking for reading suggestions.
Hi Laura - All The Pretty Horses is where you would start - The first of the "trilogy" - but these are set in the West in mid / early 20th century - kind of grim with no happy endings - He wrote No Country For Old Men which they made into a movie - Violent / Grim / No Happy Ending - But it won an Oscar! - so maybe this is not your cup of tea - Thanks for the reading list - Regards - Christopher
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