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Fiction: A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
Poetry: One with Others: [a little book of her days], by C.D. Writght
Biography: How to Live: Or, A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
Nonfiction: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson
Criticism: Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West, by Clare Cavanagh
Autobiography: Half a Life, by Darin Strauss
For a list of all finalists, click here.
My apologies. I first reported that Grossman’s novel won.
My grandma actually keeps recommending the Grossman! I guess she has good taste. I have also heard very good things about Strauss.
Jennifer Egan won for fiction?
http://bookcritics.org/awards
Hurrah for Jennifer Egan!
Weird! Egan did win, though last night the NBCC webpage listed Grossman as the winner. I did double check a few times just so I wouldn’t misreport here. Today I see their page has changed, and I must change mine too!
How do you feel about the results? Worthy recipients across the board?
I’d read 165 pages of the Grossman and set it aside, deciding I would only read the remaining 400 if it won the NBCC. It is a very frustrating (and for me, boring) book, so in that sense I am happy with the result.
You and I do part ways on the Egan — I guess one reader’s brilliant innovation is another reader’s gimmickry, and both can be right. I do note from the ToB commentary and comments that “writers” tend to find a lot to like in Egan. Since engaging with language tends to be one of less favorite aspects of reading, I suspect that may help explain my lack of enthusiasm. Juries obviously like the book.
I was certain that if there was any justice in the world Egan would win. Her book was structurally innovative and fit with the overall themes that the novel grappled with (alienation, the information age, etc). Goon Squad will stand the test of time.
Lee, the only winner I’ve read was A Visit from the Goon Squad, and, I don’t care was KFC and John say, I loved it! I’m afraid I don’t know whether the other winners are worthy, and I’m not sure if I’ll find out any time soon.
Happy for others to let us know, though.
I am so glad that the Visit to the Goon Squad won!! Though I haven’t read it, I for one cannot wait…