Month: April 2010

Who is going to win the Pulitzer Prize 2010?

Post author By Jackie
Post date April 6, 2010
35 Comments on Who is going to win the Pulitzer Prize 2010?

The winner of the 2010 Pulitzer prize is going to be revealed on Monday 12th April. I am looking forward to seeing who will win, but as I’m not American I find it very hard to predict.

If I was going to give an award to the best book published by an American author in 2009 I’d give it to Jonathan Littell. It is amazing that he was able to create such an outstanding work in a second language and I am very impressed by the book’s scope and emotional power.

Unfortunately I don’t think books in translation are eligible and the Pulitzer prize for fiction is awarded for:

distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.

The Kindly Ones is set in Europe during WWII, so it doesn’t meet the ideal Pulitzer requirements of a truly American novel.

The best qualifying books I’ve read this year are:

I loved The Help and it deals with issues that the Pulitzer judges will love, but although it was included on the Orange long list I don’t think that it contains enough literary elements for a Pulitzer win.

The Great Perhaps is the best American book I’ve read this year, but I haven’t heard anyone else mention it. I would love to see it win, but I haven’t read that many American novels this year – perhaps there is a better one lurking in my stacks?

Thanks to the wonderful world of blogging I have quite a few potential Pulitzer winners in my TBR pile. The praise these books have received leads me to think that the Pulitzer winner is somewhere amongst them.

If I was forced to choose then I’d put my money on Lark and Termite, as it has received impressive praise:

….a true work of art, literature that makes other contemporary novels seem flat by contrast… San Francisco Chronicle

…. an electrifying novel…. National Book Critics Circle

….reverberates with echoes of Faulkner, Woolf, Kerouac, McCullers and Michael Herr’s war reporting… New York Times

Have you read Lark and Termite? Do you think it will win the Pulitzer?

Who do you think will win the Pulitzer prize this year?

2009 2010

The Great Perhaps – Joe Meno

Post author By Jackie
Post date April 5, 2010
46 Comments on The Great Perhaps – Joe Meno

The Great Perhaps has one of the best first lines I’ve read:

Anything resembling a cloud will cause Jonathan Casper to faint.

The premise of this book is fantastically original. The central character, Jonathan, suffers from a rare form of epilepsy which causes him to have a seizure if he sees a cloud. To avoid clouds Jonathan becomes a palaeontologist, searching for prehistoric squid in the depths of the ocean.

Jonathan’s wife, Madeline, is studying the violence of pigeons; his daughter Amelia is making bombs in her bedroom and Thisbe, the youngest member of the family, is discovering Christianity. The book also follows their grandfather, Henry, who is dying and decides to utter one word less each day.

This book is a fantastic study of an American family. I was impressed by the way each person had their own unique voice, realistically capturing the thoughts and behaviour of their age group. The book is narrated by each character in turn, with a different writing style being used for each person. Some people may think the styles are gimmicky, especially Madeline’s which consists of 26 different thoughts each ordered by the letters of the alphabet, but I loved it! The continual change of pace and style kept me gripped and allowed there to be humor as well as deeper moments in which the complex relationships within a family could be observed.

The plot itself is quite simple, but I was desperate to know whether one of Amelia’s bombs would go off or if Jonathan would ever find his squid. It was easy to read, yet covered many important themes.

I don’t think I’ve read a better book about an American family – I’d vote for it to win the Pulitzer prize this year.

Highly recommended.

Tags America, Family

Blog Improvement Project Other

Who would you like me to profile?

Post author By Jackie
Post date April 3, 2010
15 Comments on Who would you like me to profile?

This month’s blog improvement task is Blog Post BINGO!

I loved trying to write all the different types of blog post last year and encourage you to participate. We’re giving away some book vouchers – does that help persuade you to try?!

This year I’m not going to try to achieve BINGO!, but I would like to attempt the three post types that I haven’t tried before.

A Profile or Case Study Post — both of these types of posts involve writing about a person or group in your niche; find out what they do, how they got there, or interesting stories then share with your readers (more details from ProBlogger)

A Post Contrasting Two Different Options – compare and contrast two similar items, let people know the pros and cons of each and ultimately decide which is the best.

A Collation Post – gather quotes or opinions on a subject and place them together in a post. Then use these opinions to draw conclusions on the topic.

I have an idea for the post contrasting two options, but would love your help on the other posts.

Is there anyone you’d like me to see profile?

Is there a topic you’d like me gather opinions on?

2010

Solar – Ian McEwan

Solar is one of the big contenders for the Booker Prize this year so I decided to see if it is good enough to beat The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet.

I have to admit that I haven’t had much success with Ian McEwan so far. I wasn’t a fan of The Comfort of Strangers or Amsterdam, but have heard that his books are very different from each other and so was prepared to give him another try.

Solar centres on Michael Beard, a physicist who has won the Nobel Prize. He is an unlikable man who has had numerous affairs and seems to enjoy manipulating people more than engaging with them. Beard travels the world talking at conferences and reluctantly leads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming.

Solar is the best McEwan I’ve read so far, but I had a lot of problems with it. The book is packed with physics:

Quantum mechanics. What a repository, a dump, of human aspiration it was, the borderland where mathematical rigour defeated common sense, and reason and fantasy irrationally merged.

I did a course on quantum mechanics at university so understood the ridiculously long scientific passages (as much as anyone can claim to really understand quantum mechanics!) but I’m not sure why the science was needed – it wasn’t an integral part of the plot and I don’t think it added anything. It will go over the heads of most readers and the fact that everything needed explanation meant that the passages weren’t realistic portrayals of scientists. To illustrate this point I’ve invented two conversations.

Which conversation do you think is more likely to occur?

Baker 1: I’m just putting 20 loaves of bread into the oven.

Baker 2: I hope that you added some yeast to make them all rise.

Baker 1: Yes, it amazing to think that it was only in 1857 that Louis Pasteur discovered that yeast was a living organism whose activity caused fermentation.

Baker 2: Did you add some sugar for the yeast to feed on?

Baker 1: Yes, the yeast and the sugar produced carbon dioxide that will make the bread light and fluffy.

Baker 1: I’m just putting 20 loaves of bread into the oven.

Baker 2: Thanks. I’ll have my lot ready to go in soon.

This over-explanation of everything annoyed me and some of the science felt stilted; there were also a few sections that didn’t quite ring true. If we ignore the physics then there is a reasonable story buried in this book. I actually enjoyed reading the middle section, the small glimpses of plot in other areas and I thought the ending was very appropriate too.

Several sections were quite amusing, but I’m not a big fan of satire and so the ridicule was wasted on me.

I think that fans of McEwan will love this new one, but I’m hoping the Booker judges decide that The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is the better book.