Comments on: National Book Award

By: tolmsted

tolmsted — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:46:15 +0000

Hi Trevor -
I’m a little behind in reading the comments, so if I repeat what someone else has already mentioned apologies.
I saw that you were interested in reading Shadow County but the length seemed like it might be more of a commitment than you wanted to make. It’s actually divided into 3 books – so you can easily break between books. In fact, Shadow Country was originally a trilogy. Matthiessen was unhappy with it and edited it all into 1 huge book – which then won the National Book Award. The original first book was called “Killing Mr. Watson” and you may want to just read that. The second book is pretty terrible – even in its edited Shadow Country form. It’s very reminiscent of Quentin Compson in “Absalom, Absalom!”, just not as good. Book 2 was painfully slow to get through, so I haven’t gone back for book 3 yet.
Other than Remarkable Creatures by Sean B. Carroll I haven’t read any of this year’s pick. To be honest, none stuck out enough for me to go looking for copies.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:30:11 +0000

Then it looks to be a good year because I liked Lark and Termite. Even if the other two are not that great, 3 out of 5 is a pretty good selection. I did manage to read one of the YA finalists — Stitches, a graphic novel — and its review will go up on Wednesday.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:18:18 +0000

I only read two of the finalists this year — Let The Great World Spin and In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (must say, I liked them both better than any of last year’s finalists). If one of the other three wins, I’ll probably give it a go but for now my choice is In Other Rooms, Other Wonders.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:27:19 +0000

I did read that story as well and had a somewhat similar response. I’m thinking I’ll give the new novel a try once I can create some reading time. Thanks for the prompt response.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:38:23 +0000

The only Lorrie Moore I've read was her recent short story "Childcare" in The New Yorker. I am actually doing a Year-in-Review of The New Yorker's short fiction, to be published in December. Here's a peak at what I wrote after reading "Childcare":

I've been interested in reading something by Lorrie Moore because some of my friends get very anxious whenever something by her is put out there. They were really excited when this piece was published. When I began the piece, here's what I was thinking: This is excellent stuff! She really does have a natural fluency in her writing! Then because of some distraction I put the magazine down and didn't feel the need to pick it up again until two weeks later. I was ultimately pleased with the story which deals with a young woman getting a childcare job before the employer has even adopted her child. They go together to an interview with the birth mother, a sassy teen wearing an electronic bracelet. On the whole I enjoyed perspective this young employee provided on the tension between the birth mother and the hopeful adoptive mother, though I have to say that somewhere the steam ran out -- but that was probably just me and my distractions. It was definitely excellently written and made me more interested in Moore.

When the short story was published quite a few American bloggers were thrilled, calling her one of their favorites. But that was my first and so far only genuine encounter. It did make me go look up her backlist. Seems a lot of people really liked Self-Help.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:53:50 +0000

I’m not sure where to place this question, Trevor, so thought I would park it here and open this year’s discussion of the National Book Award.

Have you read any Lorrie Moore? I haven’t and her name has hit my radar over the last few months. Her new title, A Gate at the Stairs, looks interesting — although I’ll admit some personal hesitancy since I’ve found a lot of post 9/11 fiction to be disappointing. Since she hasn’t published a book in 11 years, I did figure that any reading of her that you might have done would be pre-blog. Now that I’m finished the Booker longlist, U.S. fiction is starting to draw my attention — That Old Cape Magic is definitely on my shortlist for best book of the year.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:30:11 +0000

Here's an interesting post about some of the history of the National Book Award.

By: Trevor Berrett

Trevor Berrett — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:25:06 +0000

No apologies necessary to me, Kevin. Such an interesting insight into the world of publishing. I’d love to hear some of your particular gripes about their comments!

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:15:56 +0000

I’ll admit that I was probably a bit over the top in comment 38 above — I should not have described the NAB posters as “pricks” and “jerks” and I do apologize.

Having said that, please visit the link that Stewart has provided and then ask the question: Would you want either of these letter writers, who here display their wisdom, to edit your book?

If your answer is yes, I’d sure like an explanation why. For my part, their argument illustrates why we are seeing so many badly edited books these days.

Cheers and, again, my apologies for my excess language. At least it was not in a run on sentence.

Kevin

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:17:26 +0000

Thanks for the post Stewart. As someone who actually paid to buy (and then took the time to read) the finalists, I cannot believe how pompous both these two pricks are. At great length they discuss whether the dinner should be at a “posh” or “moderate” New York hotel — this is relevant to books? I regret ever having spent a dollar on their enterprises — but then regret that, because I think authors deserve to earn a living. If only the authors did not have to deal with publishers (and I used to be one).

Is there any wonder that the American publishing industry is in absolute total disarray when jerks like this are in charge? They make the auto industry CEOs look like geniuses. And it is certainly hard to do that.