A Word About Awards

THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG by Norman Mailer Award: Pulitzer Winner 1980 Nominations: National Book Finalist 1980, National Book Finalist 1981, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1979, NY Times Finalist 1979 Date Read: June 16, 2008 The Executioner's Song has haunted me from the moment I cracked the cover. The story of Gary Gilmore's life and crimes were written so vividly, I felt I had met his type before. Poor, uneducated and desperate, it is almost difficult to imagine Gilmore's life turning out in any way other than it did. In a life where events seemed to "happen" to Gilmore, his decision to force his own execution saw him finally become the master of his own life and fate.  Heartbreaking and exhaustive, Mailer used interviews, transcripts and extensive research to piece together the life and impact of Gilmore's crimes. The three sections of the book focus on his early life and juvenile detention, his trial and finally, his pursuit of the d

SATURDAY by Ian McEwan   Nomination: Booker Longlist 2005   Date Read: June 6, 2008   “Saturday is a masterful novel set within a single day in February 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man — a successful neurosurgeon, happily married to a newspaper lawyer, and enjoying good relations with his children. Henry wakes to the comfort of his large home in central London on this, his day off. He is as at ease here as he is in the operating room. Outside the hospital, the world is not so easy or predictable. There is an impending war against Iraq, and a general darkening and gathering pessimism since the New York and Washington attacks two years before.   On this particular Saturday morning, Perowne's day moves through the ordinary to the extraordinary. After an unusual sighting in the early morning sky, he makes his way to his regular squash game with his anaesthetist, trying to avoid the hundreds of thousands of marchers filling the streets of London, protesting against the war. A min

THE REIVERS by William Faulkner Awards: Nobel Prize Winner 1963, Pulitzer Winner 1963 Date Read: May 7, 2008 The Reivers was my first introduction to Faulkner and I have to admit, I am not a fan. I find his writing style esoteric and difficult to follow and his sentence structure is mind boggling.  The Reivers is the story of three car from Mississippi. Young Lucius Priest is persuaded to steal his grandfather's car by Boon Hogganbeck, who is one of the family's servants and their black coachman Ned McCaslin steals away. Off they go and mayhem ensues - including horse smuggling, trainmen, sheriffs' deputies and jail. Although this is considered one of his "comic masterpieces," I found it convoluted and just barely made it through. This was not a piece I read with relish and pleasure but was actually relieved when it was over. Several years would pass before I mustered the courage to read A Fable, his other Pulitzer winner of 1955. Would I ever try rea

THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy Award: Pulitzer Winner 2007 Nomination: National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2006 Date Read: April 17, 2008 This is the first work I had ever read by Cormac McCarthy and oh, boy, was I in for a treat. I have to wonder what soul-crushing experiences have to occur to someone to come up with the ideas for his novels.  The Road is by far the most despairing and bereft of the three novels I have read by McCarthy. This novel is the story of a father and son, notably unnamed, and their journey through a ravaged world that has befallen some unknown disaster. The father and son are everything to each other - "each the other's world entire." The Road is a heartbreaking exploration of the best and worst that humanity has to offer. The one take-away that has always haunted me about this novel is the  mother's surrender to despair. She is unwilling and unable to see through the commitment she has to her husband and son. While I read this

THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER by John Cheever Award: National Book Winner 1981, National Book Critics Circle Winner 1978, Pulitzer Winner 1979 Nomination: National Book Finalist 1979 Date Read: October 20, 2007 I will admit to not being a huge fan of short story collections and tend to avoid them like the plague (more on why in a future post). I committed to reading this collection, however, because of my commitment to reading all the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners. Hence, this found it's way into my sweaty hands.  These 61 stories turned me into a believer of Cheever's ability to look deeply into the human psyche and the suffering, desire and yearning of the American suburbanite. He is a master storyteller and I am eagerly anticipating reading The Wapshot Chronicle, the 1958 National Book Award winner. Looking Forward: Falconer, The Wapshot Chronicle

FROM THE TERRACE by John O'Hara Nomination: National Book Finalist 1959 Date Read: April 28, 2006 From The Terrace was a delicious novel and I cherished every page. Harking back to the gilded age, this novel focuses on how events influence a person's character and, conversely, how a person's character influences events. The main character, Alfred, is a man of high ideals and integrity yet, as with all human beings, incredibly flawed. For as much plot as there is in these 912 pages, I cannot help but conclude that this novel serves to chronicle the America O'Hara witnessed in his early years - from eastern Pennsylvania and New York, to the Hollywood scene in California. Each character is so richly drawn that you cannot help but feel you have known someone exactly like each of these at some point in your life. While some may feel familiar with this tome through the movie adaptation, the movie tells less than half of the true story O'Hara intended. For the

THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2000, NY Times Finalist 1998, Oprah Book Club 2000, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1999, Pulitzer Finalist 1999,  Women's Prize Finalist 1999 Date Read: October 29, 2005 The Poisonwood Bible tells the story of the missionary Price family, a husband and wife plus 4 daughters, from Georgia who move to a village in the Congo. Only upon arriving in the Congo do they realize how vastly different their American culture is from the African culture they are now immersed in. The family is further challenged in winning over converts to Christianity, the locals being suspicious of the customs and rituals of this foreign religion. In the end, the Price family makes the ultimate sacrifice for their convictions when they lose one of their daughters to snake bite. The mother, riddled with guilt, takes her 3 remaining daughters and returns to Georgia, leaving the father to continue his single-minded obsession. While excell

THE LOVELY BONES by Alice Sebold   Nomination: Dublin Longlist 2004, Women's Prize Longlist 2003   Date Read: June 11, 2005   "My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."   So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.   I find it shocking how many people did not appreciate this book but found it poorly written and the subject matter dark. I am sure writing this book was cathartic in a way as Sebold was raped by a stranger in a park while she was in college. I cannot imagine the healing required to c

THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER by Amy Tan   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2003, Women's Prize Longlist 2001   Date Read: June 4, 2004   I’m not gonna lie – I love Amy Tan dearly. I find her novels a beautiful and often difficult view into the Chinese culture. The Bonesetter’s Daughter is no different.   Ruth Young and her widowed mother, LuLing, have always had a tumultuous relationship. Now, before she succumbs to forgetfulness, LuLing gives Ruth some of her writings, which reveal a side of LuLing that Ruth has never known.    In a remote mountain village where ghosts and tradition rule, LuLing grows up in the care of her mute Precious Auntie as the family endures a curse laid upon a relative known as the bonesetter. When headstrong LuLing rejects the marriage proposal of the coffin-maker, a shocking series of events are set in motion – all of which lead back to Ruth and LuLing in modern San Francisco. The truth that Ruth learns from her mother’s past will forever change her perception

ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand Nomination: National Book Finalist 1958 Date Read: March 18, 2004 Rand is clearly a gifted storyteller and I truly enjoy her books, if not her politics. This was her the fourth and final novel she wrote and considered it her crowning achievement. Atlas Shrugged depicts a future U.S. where privately held businesses struggle under increasingly burdensome laws and regulations, causing capitalists to defend themselves against "looters" who want to exploit their productivity. John Galt, the main character, stands up to this exploitation and encourages the capitalists to abandon their companies in protest and gather to form a new capitalist society.  The problem with this is these individuals are not necessarily productive in their own right but simply hold the capital required to form a company. The workers are the ones that make the company productive. In my mind, Rand's proposal here is simply a tantrum, asserting that the capitalists

THE HUNDRED SECRET SENSES by Amy Tan   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1997, Women's Prize Finalist 1996   Date Read: August 1, 2003   The Hundred Secret Senses is an exultant novel about China and America, love and loyalty, the identities we invent and the true selves we discover along the way. Olivia Laguni is half-Chinese, but typically American in her uneasiness with her patchwork family. And no one in Olivia's family is more embarrassing to her than her half-sister, Kwan Li. For Kwan speaks mangled English, is cheerfully deaf to Olivia's sarcasm, and sees the dead with her "yin eyes."   Even as Olivia details the particulars of her decades-long grudge against her sister (who, among other things, is a source of infuriatingly good advice), Kwan Li is telling her own story, one that sweeps us into the splendor, squalor, and violence of Manchu China. And out of the friction between her narrators, Amy Tan creates a work that illuminates both the present and the past

THE MAP OF LOVE by Ahdaf Soueif Nomination: Booker Finalist 1999 Date Read: March 14, 2003 The Map Of Love follows two women, both of whom travel to Egypt a hundred years apart and fall in love with "outsiders." Narrated in the form of journal entries and letters, the main narrator lives in Egypt circa 1990 and narrates her own story, as well as the love story of an early 1900's English widow who falls in love with a wealthy Egyptian man in British occupied Egypt. The occupation of Egypt is a central theme, exploring the impact colonialism had on a country with thousands of years of culture and history. The modern love story continues this, exploring the aftermath of that period, the continued interference from the West in Middle East politics and the rise of Islamist extremism.  The Map Of Love is unique in that it deftly explores complex history of a fragile country, while distracting readers with rich romantic entanglements. Soueif further conveys how the

SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut Award: National Book 1970 Date Read: March 9, 2002 Just thinking about Kurt Vonnegut makes me all tingly. He is singularly unique, with an unparalleled style. You simply cannot compare him to any other writer. Full stop. Slaughterhouse Five reads like science fiction that follows the protagonist Billy Pilgrim through WWII, traveling through time as he survives the Dresden bombing and becomes a prisoner of war. Vonnegut was also a prisoner of war and I am confident that through this writing, he was trying to come to terms with his own experience. The most notable aspect of this anti-war novel is the style in which it is written. From the beginning, the narrator warns that Pilgrim does not experience his life linearly, but discontinuously, traveling through his birth, death and everything in between in seemingly random order. Vonnegut even inserts himself in the novel in the form of his alter-ego, Kilgore Trout. Throughout Slaughterhouse

THE JOY LUCK CLUB by Amy Tan Nominations: LA Times Finalist 1989, National Book Finalist 1989, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1989 Date Read: December 19, 2001 The Joy Luck Club follows four Chinese families who have immigrated to the US and form a mahjong club known as The Joy Luck Club. The novel unfolds similar to a mahjong game, with four parts divided into four sections, creating sixteen chapters. The emphasis here is on mothers and daughters and how they relate to one another. The mothers have sacrificed so much of themselves to be where they are now, keeping much of their past secret in order that their daughters do not have to suffer the same way they have. These complicated relationships show how mothers and daughters love each other, hurt each other, yet ultimately forgive each other. The Joy Luck Club has been widely criticized for perpetuating racist stereotypes about Asian culture, yet others have focused on how skillfully Tan has presented the dynamic and e

EAST OF EDEN by John Steinbeck Award: Nobel Prize Winner 1953 Nomination: National Book Finalist 1953, Oprah Book Club 2003 Date Read: March 24, 2001 John Steinbeck may have been one of my first loves. Although I never took to Call Of The Wild, Cannery Row began the obsession and East Of Eden sealed the deal. Also being a Californian, I love reading novels from an author that describes the area I grew up. East Of Eden is set in the Salinas Valley and details the experiences of two families, the Trasks and Hamiltons. This novel has it all, love and lust, depravity, murder, forgiveness, cruelty and redemption. Steinbeck considers this novel his magnum opus and asserted, "It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years," and mused that all his previous work had been "...practice for this." Steinbeck largely modeled East of Eden from Genesis, particularly the story of Cain and Abel, deriving the title from Chapte

A SEPARATE PEACE by John Knowles Nomination: National Book Finalist 1961 Date Read: September 21, 1999 I randomly picked up a copy of this novel in a bookstore one day and it was one of those novels that you stumble upon and cherish. This coming of age novel finds Gene Forrester visiting his old prep school to confront two experiences that have haunted him for 15 years. Gene and his best friend Finny are roommates at Devon, vying to outdo each other in every facet of their lives. In a moment of teenage stupidity, Gene shakes a tree branch as Finny is about to jump into a river, thereby shattering his leg, causing him a permanent limp and ending his ability to play meaningfully in any sports, which are Finny's ultimate passion. Later, at a gathering of their secret club, Finny leaves during a mock trial meant to indict Gene for his actions. The two friends are able to face each other and confront what really happened: a childish prank, not an act of anger. They are able to f

LILA by Robert Pirsig Nomination: Pulitzer Finalist 1992 Date Read: November 15, 1998 I had read Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance (twice in fact) and was eager for another helping of Pirsig. His novels read more to me as philosophy, rather than fiction, but far be it for me to question the judges.  The main character, Phaedrus, is sailing his boat along the Hudson when he encounters a very complex woman named Lila, clearly nearing a nervous breakdown.  Pirsig uses this construct to continue his previous explorations of the true meaning of "quality" and further distills this abstract concept into the Static and Dynamic, arguing that the universe can be divided into four Static qualities: inorganic, biological, social and intellectual.  Pirsig also uses this novel to critique the field of anthropology and the difficulties anthropology poses to objectivity. Through his musings, he very interestingly concludes that "...modern American culture is the resul

THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood Award: LA Times Winner 1986 Nominations: Booker Finalist 1986, NY Times Finalist 1986 Date Read: September 6, 1988 The Handmaid's Tale has recently become popular again due to the series created by Hulu. With the discourse regarding women's rights happening right now, the timing couldn't be better. And allegedly, Atwood is working on a sequel named The Testaments that should be published sometime this year (fingers crossed). The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel set in the undefinable future and follows Offred's life, her name being that of the male master she serves - in this case, Of Fred. The novel jumps from the past to the present and back again, describing how women lost their rights and how they secretively struggle for individualism and independence. Women do not control their own bodies, fates or desires but are completely at the whim of men.  The Handmaid's Tale is not only masterfully written but p