A Word About Awards

THE OVERSTORY by Richard Powers   Awards: Pulitzer Winner 2019   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2018, Carnegie Longlist 2019, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2019, Dublin Longlist 2020, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2019, PEN/Jean Stein Finalist 2019   Date Read: June 30, 2023   The Overstory is almost a series of short stories that interweave, all outlining the relationship these characters have with nature, specifically trees. At first glance, a reader might think: what kind of profound relationship with trees could occupy over 500 pages of text? The answer is simple. Richard Powers. His “powers,” if you will, should never be underestimated.   Nicholas Hoel is an artist descended from a long line of Iowan farmers. Their property includes one remaining chestnut that has been photographed every month for about 20 years. Nicholas has inherited these photographs and his art is inspired by them. When he connects with Olivia, he has been living in near hibernation after losing...

THE EDGE OF SADNESS by Edwin O’Connor   Award: Pulitzer Winner 1962   Date Read: December 18, 2022   Father Kennedy is a priest at Saint Paul’s, an impoverished and run-down parish in the Catholic diocese. He has fallen from grace, having spent many years as an alcoholic and in a rehab of sorts, losing his favored position of priest at Saint Raymond’s, a wealthy and well-regarded church.    Father Kennedy, in his younger years was very close to Helen and John, two of the five children of Charlie Carmody. Charlie is a wealthy man and manages his various real estate holdings in Boston, which are mostly comprised of tenements. Charlie is a very odd man, altering reality to suit himself, often passing off lies to make himself look better but without the malice of intending to lie. Overall, his personality evokes a narcissist. I know that word is thrown around quite a bit lately, but when the shoe fits…   John, now known as Father Carmody, also joined the church...

THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE MCPHEETERS by Robert Lewis Taylor   Award: Pulitzer Winner 1959   Date Read: February 6, 2022   The Travels Of Jaimie McPheeters is a fabulous adventure story of the McPheeter father and son making their way west to join the California Gold Rush. The father, Sardius McPheeters, is a well-intentioned doctor, but a dreamer, an adventurer and a ne’er-do-well in the best sense. Jaimie is allowed to accompany his father on his journey at the age of 13 and as a curious and fearless teenager, finds himself in many precarious situations that would cow any adult.   In a nutshell: Jaimie falls overboard on a ferry but manages to hang onto a gold pouch of a man who had died on the ferry. He stumbles onto a farmhouse where the occupants plot to sell him as an indentured servant. He is then found by a terrifying trio of highwaymen, with a kidnapped girl in tow. When commenting on Jennie’s sour mood, one of the men reply, “She’s likely got something in the ov...

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY by James Agee   Award: Pulitzer Winner 1958   Nomination: National Book Finalist 1958   Date Read: May 14, 2021 From the beginning, I believed the family member that would pass would be Jay’s father. Old and ailing, Jay’s drunk brother Ralph calls in the middle of the night to announce that their father is at death’s door. Jay, of course, responds by heading to his parent’s home. After determining that their father will live through the night, Jay heads home and perishes in a car accident. No one else was involved. Jay’s wife, Mary, receives the dreaded middle of the night call informing her that her husband has been involved in serious accident and a male relative needs to come immediately. In her bewildered state, Mary fails to ask whether Jay is dead or alive and the business of waiting commences. Agee is very skilled in conveying the absolute agony of living in limbo, not knowing if someone you love is dead or alive. Mary is fully cognizant of th...

AMERICAN PASTORAL by Philip Roth   Award: Pulitzer Winner 1998   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1999, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1997   Dates Read: May 5, 2009 & May 2, 2021   By far, out of all the Roth I’ve read so far, this is my favorite and perhaps the most difficult. And I’ve read a bit of Roth – The Anatomy Lesson, The Counterlife, The Ghost Writer, My Life As A Man, Sabbath’s Theater – and I still have quite a few to go. American Pastoral focuses on the Swede, a high school hero that writer Nathan Zuckerman is beguiled by and blatantly missing from a high school reunion. At the reunion, not only does Zuckerman learn that the Swede has died but that his daughter was responsible for several domestic terrorism bombings in protest of the Vietnam War.    Zuckerman begins imagining what may have transpired in the Swede’s life leading up to his daughter’s murders, as well as the messy aftermath and how an “all American” family would recover. T...

TINKERS by Paul Harding   Award: Pulitzer Winner 2010 Nomination: LA Times Finalist 2009   Dates Read: June 24, 2010 & April 10, 2021   Tinkers is a beautiful, whisper of a book so good that I have read it twice. I find it even more enchanting the second time around. To me, at this stage in my life, Tinkers is about the beauty of the natural world and the humility of living every day with integrity, knowing full well the limits and vastness of the human experience.   So many quiet moments of grace abound here. Two generations of men, Howard already deceased and his son, George, on his death bed with mere hours to live. George experiences moments from his life and his story is interwoven with those of his father. Both are tinkers in a sense, Howard in a horse-drawn cart selling household items door-to-door is a capable tinker and makes minor repairs for the housewives he encounters. George tinkers with clocks, appreciating their reliability and complex moving part...

A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN by Robert Olen Butler   Award: Pulitzer Winner 1993   Nomination: PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1993   Dates Read: September 6, 2012 & January 27, 2021   From the get-go, I’m not sure how comfortable I am with a white man assuming a Vietnamese refugee’s voice. Some things are better left to the people who experienced them first-hand. But, I have to admit he did an amazing job.   Open Arms The narrator is a Buddhist and served as an interpreter for the Australians during the war. Open Arms refers to accepting Viet Cong into the Australian army. The narrator is tasked with interviewing a recent convert, Thap. While the narrator does not trust that he has fully rejected the Communists, a film shown in high spirits ultimately shows that everything Thap was told to believe about the West was fundamentally true.   Mr. Green Mr. Green refers to the narrator’s grandfather’s parrot. In Vietnamese culture, worshipping one’s ancestors ...

A THOUSAND ACRES by Jane Smiley   Awards: National Book Critics Circle Winner 1991, Pulitzer Winner 1992 Nomination: LA Times Finalist 1992   Dates Read: May 13, 2007 & January 25, 2021   For the first time, my tongue is tied and I don’t know what I can write about this novel that hasn’t been written before. My own personal opinions cannot add to or detract from the general consensus already shared.    Reading this for a second time is an experience, rather than an action. Being dragged through the spectacular implosion of a family who lives a well-ordered life to having it all crash and burn around them. It is brutal. It is honest. It is personally resonating.   I will cherish this book forever as a treasure that I want to keep close and whisper to myself about when alone. I am overcome.   Looking Forward: Moo, Some Luck, Ten Days In The Hills

ANDERSONVILLE by MacKinley Kantor   Award: Pulitzer Winner 1956   Nomination: National Book Finalist 1956   Date Read: January 22, 2021   Andersonville took my breath away. Don’t get me wrong. It was gruesome, bleak and, at times, tedious. But the overall magnitude and scope Kantor presents here is awe-inspiring. That’s saying a lot since I am not a war book kind of girl, especially the Civil War.   This tome begins with the Claffey plantation and ends there as well. The first 100 pages or so paint a somewhat idyllic picture of wartime life in the South. The plantation is struggling with wartime deprivations, but not direly so. All the slaves are treated well. The Claffey family is slowly coming apart as they lose one son after another to the war. Yet, Veronica, Ira’s wife, and Lucy, their daughter, remain.   As they are made aware of their last son dying in the war, Veronica slowly goes mad and ultimately takes her own life. Her grief proves too impossible...

ADVISE & CONSENT by Allen Drury   Award: Pulitzer Winner 1960   Date Read: January 8, 2021   Bob Munson’s Book “… it would always come, renewed again and again to infinity, the same conviction that he was somehow personally responsible for the well-being of it all, that some overriding trust and obligation had been placed upon him to see that it was kept safe and its people protected.”    I find it terribly interesting that for all the maneuvering and deals being made, the distinction of party affiliation is completely missing. In present politics, it seems your party identity is the end-all be-all of politics. Party affiliation can almost immediately allow someone to be sized up in their beliefs and intellect.    I also find it fascinating that not much has changed in politics in the last 60 years since this book was written. The same posturing and maneuvering still occurs, although it has become much more brutal.   Seab Cooley’s Book Seab is...

INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri   Award: PEN/Hemingway Winner 2000, Pulitzer Winner 2000 Nomination: LA Times Finalist 1999   Date Read: May 27, 2008 & December 16, 2020   A Temporary Matter A couple confronts the loss of their unborn child, stillborn at 8 months. What I saw as them trying to heal and draw closer to one another is actually their coming apart.   When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine A family from India living in the U.S. adopts a visiting professor into their family. Mr. Pirzada joins them every evening for dinner and to watch the news. Hailing from Pakistan, they watch night after night the developing conflict between India and Pakistan as they sit helpless in front of their TV. Mr. Pirzada has a wife and seven daughters that remain behind. He is eventually reunited with them when he returns home and is grateful to the family that took him in.   Interpreter Of Maladies An Indian-American family go to India to visit their relatives and sight...

LESS by Andrew Sean Greer   Award: Pulitzer Winner 2018   Nomination: Carnegie Longlist 2018   Date Read: November 12, 2020   Billed as an entertaining and satirical novel, I was not prepared for how beautiful and heartbreaking this novel was. In a masterful attempt at distracting his true heart, Arthur Less embarks on a world trip where small and large challenges await. He is confronted with his shortcomings (his rejected novel), aging (he turns 50) and, of course, denying the man who he loves and who loves him in return.   Hitting most of the hallmarks of gay culture, including wardrobe choices (his beautiful blue suit with pink lining that I could picture in my head), cheating, and the insularity of the San Francisco gay community, including the Russian River where my family has spent considerable time and I always marvel at the seamless mingling between local toughs and the gay community.   In the end, the heart wants what it wants and the ending did no...