A Word About Awards

CLOUDSPLITTER by Russell Banks   Nominations: NY Times Finalist 1998, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1999, Pulitzer Finalist 1999   Date Read: December 30, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “An inordinately ambitious portrayal of the life and mission of abolitionist John Brown, from the veteran novelist whose previous fictional forays into American history include The New Worm (1978) and The Relation of My Imprisonment (not reviewed). Banks's story takes the form of a series of lengthy letters written, 40 years after Brown's execution, by his surviving son Owen in response to the request of a professor (himself a descendant of William Lloyd Garrison) who is planning a biography of the antislavery martyr. Owen's elaborate tale, frequently interrupted by digressive analyses of his own conflicted feelings about his family's enlistment in their father's cause, traces a pattern of family losses and business failings that seemed only to heighten ""the Old Man's""...

THE BRIGHT FOREVER by Lee Martin   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2007, Pulitzer Finalist 2006   Date Read: October 15, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “Few things cause as much distress as the abduction of a little girl; second-novelist Martin ( Quakertown,  2001) milks that situation for all it’s worth in a multiply narrated story.   Katie Mackey is nine and lives with older brother Gilley and her parents in the small town of Tower Hill, Ind. The Mackeys own a glassworks, the town’s largest business, and Katie is a child of love and privilege, aglow with innocence. On the other side of the tracks is Henry Dees, a lonely bachelor and math teacher, who is Katie’s private tutor this summer of 1972. His neighbor is the equally lonely widow, Clare Mains, who has taken up with the self-styled Raymond R., a new arrival and, like Dees, victim of a grim childhood. Ray is not well liked for his know-it-all ways and synthetic folksiness, but Clare, all heart and no brains, is ...

BIRDY by William Wharton   Award: National Book Winner 1980   Nomination: Pulitzer Finalist 1980   Date Read: July 27, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “ Some books—some of the best—defy description. But we'll try. On one level, this is a novel about a boy named Birdy, who with his friend Al Ambrogio grows up in a Philadelphia suburb before World War II, and is fascinated by pigeons. High school deflects Al's attention toward girls, but Birdy moves from pigeons to canaries, eventually raising an entire aviary. Level number two: Birdy's fascination with canaries—their habits, songs, and, above all, their flight—completely captures his imagination: "I know I want to fly at least as much as any canary. I don't have to fly anything as well as a canary; gliding down from high places with arm control might be enough." Level number three: this is a book about a boy who becomes a bird in every way but physically. To fly like, act like, be like a bird becomes less and less ...

MR. IVES’ CHRISTMAS by Oscar Hijuelos   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1997, Pulitzer Finalist 1996   Date Read: January 1, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “ Pulitzer-winning Hijuelos's fourth sails close to the shoals of sentiment but remains an honest, moving account of a man, his family, and the changing city they live in. Edward Ives was orphaned at two (in 1924), entered a foundling home in Brooklyn, and was adopted by a kindly man named Ives, himself a foundling who now gave his own adoptive son a name and home. From this Dickensian start (Hijuelos gives little nods to Dickens throughout) unfolds a story of belief, loss, hope, and reemergent faith: a seeming recipe for treacle that in Hijuelos's hands somehow stays flavored with a robustness of life. Ives's religious faith, gained from his adoptive father, doesn't deny him a believable depth as his life proceeds: work as an adolescent in his father's print shop; study at the Art Students' League in the late 1940...

ALL SOULS by Christine Schutt   Nomination: Pulitzer Finalist 2009   Date Read: November 20, 2021   All Souls provides a glimpse into the privileged world of a Manhattan all girls private school. The fictitious Siddons School is an elite experience for Kinders through 12 th  grade, however, all the advantages the Siddons School provides still cannot shelter these girls from the problems all teenage girls face.   The biggest gossip throughout the halls is about Astra Dell, a somewhat popular girl, gifted in dance who has been struck with a rare cancer and spends her entire senior year in the hospital. While she eventually grows strong enough to be discharged towards the end of the year, this experience has laid bare who her true friends are. Marlene, who wasn’t really friends with Astra prior to her illness visits nearly every day and brings her her homework. Car was a dear friend before her illness and has taken to writing to her stark letters about dying. ...

THE ECHO MAKER by Richard Powers   Award: National Book Winner 2006   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2008, Pulitzer Finalist 2007   Date Read: May 4, 2021   The brain is a majestic and complicated instrument, completely ruling how we perceive ourselves, others and the world around us. In essence, the body is simply a life support for the brain. When that brain goes awry, every perception we believe to be valid and real can be called into question, absolutely disrupting our relationships and lives.   And so it goes with Mark, a man who one night gets into a serious accident and suffers brain trauma. He spends the better part of two years attempting to manage the fallout. His greatest support system is his sister, who he doesn’t believe is actually his real sister but an imposter part of a larger scheme to get Mark out of the way.   This intense look at the brain and its functioning clearly took a great deal of research and understanding on the part of Powers a...

IMAGINE ME GONE by Adam Haslett   Award: LA Times Winner 2016   Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2017, Kirkus Finalist 2016, National Book Longlist 2016, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2016, Pulitzer Finalist 2017   Date Read: April 25, 2021   Imagine Me Gone is a brilliant delve into the world of mental illness that runs in a family. From the very beginnings of the parent’s, John and Margaret, meeting and courtship in England, to Margaret’s discovery of John’s undiagnosed mental illness, abandoning their relationship seemed never to occur to Margaret. She loves John and their marriage seems inevitable.   Fast forward to their times in the States, a future they never envisioned for themselves seemingly preferring England, their three children, Michael, Celia and Alec, grow into adolescence. Yet, for the kindness and openness this family seems to inhabit, there still seems something missing: warmth and tenderness. Celia and Alec form a close bond as Michael,...

THE DUTCH HOUSE by Ann Patchett   Nominations: BookTube Longlist 2020, Carnegie Longlist 2020, Pulitzer Finalist 2020, Women's Prize Longlist 2020   Date Read: April 22, 2021   Some kids go from rags to riches but the Conroy kids, Maeve and Danny, go from riches to rags and then kind of back to riches again. With their mother having abandoned them years ago and a father largely absent and aloof, the Conroy siblings have learned to rely on one another, filling the gaps that their parents have left behind.   The Conroys live in the Dutch House, an impressive and historic mansion that their father purchased, toothbrushes, dishes and all. They literally moved into someone else’s life. Prior to this, Cyril and his wife Elna were living in a postage stamp apartment, eating beans to save money. Elna had no idea that Cyril had the money to purchase a home like the Dutch House. To add insult to injury, he never showed it to her before purchasing it, choosing instead to “surpr...

MAO II by Don DeLillo   Award: PEN/Faulkner Winner 1992   Nomination: Pulitzer Finalist 1992   Date Read: April 5 2021   Trapped by an unfinished novel and an ambivalent love triangle, reclusive writer Bill Gray finds a way to escape his circumstances and confront his own individuality, shortcomings and the fate he has stumbled into. Through this vehicle, DeLillo explores the legacy of Mao, the violence in the Middle East, the fate of the writer and how it infiltrates the mind of the reader and what, exactly, can serve as a catalyst for change.   The unfinished novel Gray has been plugging away at for decades is like a ghost haunting and plaguing him, offering no respite. Gray becomes obsessed with not only the language but the idea that this novel, instead of inspiring the reader, will haunt them just like it has the author. This husk of a novel has become a curse, a little albatross around Gray’s neck. The only option he has is to abandon it but it’s seeped in...

AFTER THIS by Alice McDermott   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2008, Pulitzer Finalist 2007   Date Read: January 3, 2021   After This is a lovely novel about the Keane family – white, American, middle class. I cannot exactly pinpoint what is so compelling about this but I loved it. Four siblings, Michael, Annie, Jacob and Clare grow up in the 60’s and navigate the treacherous waters of a shifting society. Nothing extraordinary happens here except life being lived and the beauty and sadness that come with it.   While Michael and Annie explore the sexual revolution and are able to view sex and themselves through the paradigm of an increasingly liberal society, Jacob finds himself off to Vietnam never to return. Clare, being the youngest, is left behind at home and is determined to live a virtuous life until her heart is captured by a boy and she follows her heart’s and body’s desires.   What is extraordinary about this journey is McDermott’s writing. She has the abi...

UNDERWORLD by Don DeLillo   Nominations: National Book Finalist 1997, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1997, Pulitzer Finalist 1998   Date Read: December 27, 2020   Underworld begins with an interesting and well-written vignette about a baseball game where the Giants win the pennant and advance to the World Series. The roar of the crowd, the paper floating down from the tiers above, the tussle for the game-winning ball that landed in the stands indicate a pretty good beginning, even though I am not a baseball fan. And in addition to a lot of pages, Underworld also has a lot of baseball.   A quarter of the way through, I believe this entire novel is a bloviated meditation on the past and how we experience nostalgia. For Nick, a character revisited more than any other, what baseball games meant back in the day, visiting his former love and experiencing the pangs of lost romance, reminiscing with his Mom and tapping her memory to fill gaps in his own.   In a b...

JOHN HENRY DAYS by Colson Whitehead Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2003, LA Times Finalist 2001, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2001, NY Times Finalist 2001, Pulitzer Finalist 2002   Date Read: November 29, 2020   Through multiple perspectives, Whitehead delves into the fact that all history is subjective. By telling the story of John Henry through varying times and attitudes, the reader gains glimpses of the legend of John Henry in anecdotes, songs, oral history and imagination. Only through these shifting aspects does the John Henry myth become a living, breathing slice of truth.   J. Sutter, whose first name we never know, lives a nomadic lifestyle as a junketeer – a rare breed of journalist that hops from one event to the next, selling the write-ups of these events to various newspapers, magazines and online publications. Sutter’s fellow junketeers are loud, obnoxious and somewhat slovenly. Their common bond is the uniqueness of their occupation as they stumble a...

WAR TRASH by Ha Jin   Award: PEN/Faulkner Winner 2005   Nomination: Pulitzer Finalist 2005   Date Read: November 3, 2004   Because of the title, I of course expected this to be a war novel, which I generally do not like. But having recently read The Narrow Road To The Deep North and enjoying that novel, I had hoped to enjoy this one as well. Alas, it was not to be.   War Trash is a rather tedious fight over Chinese POWs during the Korean War. The war captives are in the impossible position of deciding their own fate once released from Korean prisoner camps. If they choose the Nationalists, prisoners will be sent to Taiwan to start a new life. If they choose, the Communists, prisoners will be sent back to mainland China to be reunited with their families, although they will forever bear the label of cowards because they did not die for their country but had the audacity to allow themselves to be captured.   All of these prisoners experience abuse so continua...

THE GHOST WRITER By Philip Roth   Nominations: National Book Finalist 1980, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1979, NY Times Finalist 1979, Pulitzer Finalist 1980   Date Read: August 16, 2020   The Ghost Writer is one of the most interesting pieces by Roth that I have read to date. A young writer, Zuckerman, enamored and in awe of his idol, E.I. Lonoff, is invited to Lonoff’s home for an evening of discussion and food. Due to bad weather, Zuckerman is forced to stay overnight and the additional time allows him to see his mentor, Lonoff’s wife, Hope, and the young woman staying with them in an intimate and uncomfortable entente. Add in Zuckerman’s remarkable imagination and this innocent pilgrimage becomes an evening not easily forgotten.   Zuckerman is taken with the young student, Amy, and imagines many ways in which to put the two of them in closer proximity throughout the evening and morning. After overhearing a conversation between Amy and Lonoff, Zuckerman’s...

TRAIN DREAMS  by Denis Johnson Nomination: Pulitzer 2012 Date Read: July 12, 2020 As if occurring in a dream, Robert Grainier is a salt-of-the-earth, hard-working man who wants nothing more from life than a quiet existence. And if there is any word that can sum up this short novel, it is the word quiet. Grainier goes about the loss of his family and the hard work of re-establishing his life after a terrible fire in a quiet way, requiring no companionship and with no expectations of the future. The beauty of this novel is Denis Johnson's ability to condense what could have been an epic novel into a mere 125 pages. He creates a world where daily life moves slow but the advances of technology move quickly. Grainier is merely an observer to these sweeping changes, taking each in stride and allowing the drastic change they imply simply rush past him. Although some in his world choose to trade in their horse and carriage for a Model T, Grainier sticks with his trusty horse...

THERE THERE by Tommy Orange Awards: Center For Fiction Winner 2018, National Book Critics Circle Winner 2018, PEN/Hemingway Winner 2019 Nominations: Aspen Words Finalist 2019, BookTube Finalist 2019, Carnegie Finalist 2019, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2019, Dublin Finalist 2020, LA Times Finalist 2018, National Book Longlist 2018, NY Times Finalist 2018, Pulitzer Finalist 2019, Rathbones Folio Finalist 2019 Date Read: June 27, 2020 While I've read some Native American history and have always been appalled, Orange's opening history, while only a snapshot, puts into stark relief how egregious the treatment of Native American's has been. And it's not as if all that is in the past. We are still trying to rape the land that we sequestered them to, thinking it worthless, only to discover it rich in oil. History continues to repeat itself. There There follows a wide cast of Native American characters living in Oakland. Their stories, their experiences, are all interconnecte...

SO LONG, SEE YOU TOMORROW by William Maxwell Award: National Book 1982 Nominations: National Book Critics Circle 1980, Pulitzer 1981 Date Read: June 14, 2020 If I had to sum up So Long, See You Tomorrow in one word, it would be regret. The narrator (do we ever learn his name?) is haunted by a childhood friend, Cletus, who he ignored in the halls of school after his father was accused of killing another man. That denial of friendship, a moment that only lasted seconds, follows him into adulthood and the remainder of his days. I can completely relate as I too had a moment in middle school that I regret to this day. The mom dies, leaving three children behind - a son in college, the narrator and a baby. The murder of Lloyd Wilson by Clarence Smith was tragic in its beginnings and its end. The two families were incredibly close and helped each other in their work and their play. Until one day, Lloyd realizes he is enraptured by Clarence's wife, Fern. She reciprocates his feelings and a...

THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai Awards: Carnegie Winner 2019, LA Times Winner 2018 Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2020, National Book Finalist 2018, NY Times Finalist 2018, Pulitzer Finalist 2019 Date Read: June 7, 2020 The Great Believers is a novel about the early AIDS epidemic in Chicago, following a gay community that is largely wiped out due to the disease. These men already carry the prejudices of society on their shoulders and the AIDS crisis almost seems to reinforce that shame. While society has progressed significantly with acceptance, there is still a long way to go, particularly with the trans and non-binary communities. As Yale, Charlie and the intimate community that surrounds them try to come to terms with a terrifying virus that, at the time, meant a death sentence, their suspicions about the early tests sound so similar to the antivax sentiment today. Further on, as AZT is presented as an early medication, the discussions about affording it ar...

BLACK WATER by Joyce Carol Oates Nominations: National Book Critics Circle 1992, Pulitzer 1993 Date Read: May 16, 2020 I have to be honest and say that in my unwise youth, I have gotten in the car with a man who I probably shouldn't have, who had probably drank more than prudent and with an uncertain destination. Kelly made a choice that so many of us make when we're young, lured by an instant connection, a feeling of being wanted for more than your body, undeniable heat and the ages-old draw of power. Oates captures so exquisitely that lure, that although you know whatever is happening isn't forever, no lasting relationship at the end, but you can't say no either. Lust mingling with the knowledge that your youth is at an apex of perfection, a sense of the forbidden and Oates serves up a recipe for disaster. Stealing away with The Senator, brilliantly never named because his name is truly irrelevant, with a cocktail in hand and an extra "for the road,...

THE CORRECTIONS by Jonathan Franzen Award: James Tait Black Winner 2002, National Book Winner 2001 Nominations: Dublin Finalist 2003, LA Times Finalist 2001, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2001, NY Times Finalist 2001, Oprah Book Club 2001, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2002, Pulitzer Finalist 2002 Dates Read: May 28, 2006 & February 17, 2020 The Corrections is a difficult read for me because Franzen so skillfully lays bare the brutal details of the human existence. I don't find much about the human experience to celebrate here. I am left to watch a very flawed family muddle through the intricacies of life, making poor decisions along the way and culminating in a disastrous Christmas reunion that collides each of these imperfect humans' needs. On the positive side, Franzen is a master narrator of the nuances of relationships, behavior and inner turmoil that just about anyone can relate to and simultaneously made me absolutely terrified of growing old. Well done, ...