Wherefore Art Thou Pulitzer?
By now you have probably heard there was no selection for the Pulitzer Prize Fiction category – maybe you saw it here on this blog. While the $10,000 prize would be a welcomed addition to any author’s inkwell and blotter fund, one benefit is increased exposure of their work. The following three titles were the finalists who did not take home the prize:
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Twelve-year-old Ava must travel into the Underworld part of the swamp in order to save her family’s dynasty of Bigtree alligator wrestling.
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
Welcome to the banal world of the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, and the host of strange people who work there, in a novel that was unfinished at the time of the author’s death.
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Robert Grainer is a day laborer in the American West at the start of the 20th century, an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime.
Another prizeworthy read is Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, the National Book Award winner, a story of a Mississippi girl and her family facing brewing storms on the horizon.
Which book do you think should have won?
Posted by: Matthew