The winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was announced yesterday. I did a terrible job of predicting the winner – failing to mention any of the finalists. I blame this on the fact that I haven’t even heard of any of them!
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 2010
Finalists
Love in Infant Monkeys by Lydia Millet and In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
I am trying to read all the Pulitzer winners, so will read Tinkers at some point.
Have you read Tinkers?
Have you heard of these books?
38 replies on “Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2010”
You’re not the only one who’s surprised! All I’ve seen are posts on how no one knew about these books.
Iris, Sorry for the repitition – I knew lots of other people would have a similar post, but hope that those will be able to skim over this one.
Oh, I’m sorry if you thought that I was saying you were being repetitive. If I was that’d be stupid, because bookblogging surely means many people share their thoughts on the same books or events. I didn’t mean to imply that at all!
Iris, Don’t worry – I knew what you meant, but was also apologising for the inevitable!
Whoa, I´ve never of of this book before. Actually the only one I´ve heard of is In Other Rooms, Other Wonders.
Bina, Well that is one more than me! I hadn’t heard of any of them.
None of them, which is odd really because I’m often in the bookshop and a big deal is made of new releases. The cover of the third is most appealing to me, so while I won’t look at all three I will that one.
Charlie, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of these in book shops now!
Tinkers was at least on my radar. An online bookgroup I follow read it, and the reaction was positive overall. Have never even heard of the others…
JoAnn, It is nice to hear that a bookgroup had a positive reaction to it. Hopefully I’ll get hold of a copy soon.
No I hadn’t heard of any of them (a common theme) So there are very few reviews about them when I tried to find some.
Jessica, There were no reviews on Amazon UK when I went to look this morning (although one appeared a bit later) There isn’t a copy in my library. – I’m sure there will be lots of reviews in the coming weeks though!
I don’t think anyone has heard of this book. Crazy! Hmmm. I guess I’ll have to google it to find out more about it. Thanks for the news!
Nadia, I think it is quite nice that the award is highlighting a lesser known book – especially if it deserves it. I look forward to hearing all about it.
I still intend to read Lark and Termite so thank you for bringing it to my attention, even if it didn’t win!
I only know of Tinkers because after your post I had a look at the Pulitzer website to see what others were suggesting would win and it was one that came up a few times.
Claire, I still hope to read Lark and Termite at some point too. It is good that the Pulitzer website was at least creating a little buzz around it – I look forward to reading Tinkers at some point in the future too.
I was flabbergasted at these results. How idiotic do I feel that I have never heard of any of them? It seems that I am not the only one though. Good grief. Well, on the bright side, we get introduced to new stuff, right?
Sandy, At least we can take comfort in the fact that we are not alone! I like the fact that an unknown book has won – let’s hope it is wonderful!
Can I just repeat exactly what Sandy said? I guess I’m totally out of it.
Beth, Don’t worry – I don’t think anyone would have predicted this – you aren’t out of it!
I’ve never heard of any of them either! I never mind having a new book brought to my attention though – I’m sure we’ll get plenty of opinions soon.
Meghan, I’m sure it won’t be long! I can’t decide whether to buy a copy or wait until my library gets hold of a copy. I have a lot to read at the moment, so think I’ll delay the decision!
Never even heard of these books, but then I am interested in a different genre, so it’s no wonder! Happy reading to you and I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts on these books, should you decide to share them with us.
Andreea, I think I’ll only read Tinkers – not sure how long it will be before I get round to it though.
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The only one I knew of was In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. But ours here has a different cover.
Claire, Perhaps I’d recognise the other cover – I’ll keep an eye out for it on blogs today.
Question: How do the candidates for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-Shortlist (and longlist- as I assume there is one) get publicised and marketed to the book reading public? Perhaps the answer to that question would speak to our lack if knowledge of the candidates!
Just a thought as I haven’t heard a word about these lists.
Kim, The Pulitzer prize does not publish a long/short list – hence the reason why we have no idea what will win!
The book is published by Bellevue Literary press (yes it is outfitted in the old mental institution in New York) a really small company. So maybe they are not able to advertise as well as the big companies (especially to other countries) but I think it is great that the small presses are putting out books that are getting recognized. Love in Infant Monkeys is also published by a small company. Good for them!
Heidi, I’ve just been reading about Bellevue Press – can’t believe they only publish 2 novels a year (+6 non fiction) that is a small publishing house – congratulations to them!
There is a lovely article about it here: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/04/13/tinkers-how-a-tiny-press-published-a-pulitzer-prize-winning-novel/
I just featured Tinkers on my Friday Finds, as it really does sound like an amazing little read. I’m happy to hear this.
I’ve never heard of these before. Although the one by Millet looks really interesting. I never seem to get around to the prize winners because my TBR list is already so long… A book on your list of just completed novels, though, looks fun: Nights at the Circus. I’ll be sure to come back for the review!
-Lydia 🙂
OK .. I thought maybe it was just me. I hadn’t heard of any of them .. and I thought I was “somewhat” informed on the big books out there.
I’ve heard of the books especially Tinkers because of a friend online who swore by it last year.
I haven’t read any of the books that won, but being from Seattle, I can verify that the reporting of the police officers shooting by The Seattle Times was truly wonderful. It was up to date and readily available. This was a tragic occurrence in the Seattle area (basically, a guy on parole went into a coffee shop and shot four on-duty police officers for no apparent reason). There was subsequently a manhunt and they did a great job getting accurate news out fast.
When the Booker prize longlist was announced I did a post about how I don’t seem to be reading those books that seem to be award-winning material. I feel somewhat better now, because at least I had heard of some of those books! I hadn’t heard of any of these!
I’m really intrigued by Tinkers. Love to think that such an underdog book won such a huge prize.