Day #1 of My Challenge to Read Every Novel that has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction #MondayBlogs #Pulitzer #ReadingChallenge
I’m starting a new project today! Although I’m sure the project will not literally kill me, it is going to be a HUGE challenge. What, exactly, am I talking about? Well, I’ve decided to read every single one of the novels that has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction since the inception of the prize in 1918. *Gulp*
[image error]Why am I doing this? Have I lost my freaking mind? Probably. To be totally honest, I feel as if my knowledge of American literature is lacking. I remember a class in law school about Henry Miller. I had absolutely no clue who he was! *Blushes* I can’t entirely blame the US educational system on my lack of knowledge. I only spent half of my high school years in the US, and I was obsessed with all things foreign at the time. (I always knew I would leave the US and live abroad.) I spent one year reading all the works of Shakespeare and another semester obsessed with Russian literature. Then came college, which I finished in three years. In order to accomplish that feat, while working full-time mind you, I didn’t have any time for electives. I plowed through the requirements to get a Bachelor’s degree in history. It’s not too surprising that the course work did not include any classes in American literature.
Now, the time has arrived for me to rectify this embarrassing lack of knowledge. After all, you can’t be a writer without being a reader. But why the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction? Honestly, I wanted to read the top 100 American novels, but the top 100 according to whom? There are tons and tons of lists. How to choose? There just wasn’t a way to choose the best list, so I went with a well-known and well-respected prize instead a.k.a. The Pulitzer.
Here’s the list of the novels I’ll be reading:
Year
Novel
Author
2018
Less
Andrew Sean Greer
2017
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead
2016
The Sympathizer
Viet Thang Nguyen
2015
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doeer
2014
The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt
2013
The Orphan Master’s Son
Adam Johnson
2012
No Award Given
2011
A Visit From the Goon Squad
Jennifer Egan
2010
Tinkers
Paul Harding
2009
Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout
2008
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díaz
2007
The Road
Cormac McCarthy
2006
March
Geraldine Brooks
2005
Gilead
Marilynne Robinson
2004
The Known World
Edward P. Jones
2003
Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides
2002
Empire Falls
Richard Russo
2001
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Michael Chabon
2000
Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri
1999
The Hours
Michael Cunningham
1998
American Pastoral
Philip Roth
1997
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
Steven Millhauser
1996
Independence Day
Richard Ford
1995
The Stone Diaries
Carol Shields
1994
The Shipping News
E. Annie Proulx
1993
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
Robert Olen Butler
1992
A Thousand Acres
Jane Smiley
1991
Rabbit at Rest
John Updike
1990
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
Oscar Hijuelos
1989
Breathing Lessons
Anne Tyler
1988
Beloved
Toni Morrison
1987
A Summons to Memphis
Peter Taylor
1986
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry
1985
Foreign Affairs
Alison Lurie
1984
Ironweed
William Kennedy
1983
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
1982
Rabbit Is Rich
John Updike
1981
A Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole
1980
The Executioner’s Song
Norman Mailer
1979
The Stories of John Cheever
John Cheever
1978
Elbow Room
James Alan McPherson
1977
No award given
1976
Humboldt’s Gift
Saul Bellow
1975
The Killer Angels
Michael Shaara
1974
No award given
1973
The Optimist’s Daughter
Eudora Welty
1972
Angle of Repose
Wallace Stegner
1971
No award given
1970
The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford
Jean Stafford
1969
House Made of Dawn
N. Scott Momaday
1968
The Confessions of Nat Turner
William Styron
1967
The Fixer
Bernard Malamud
1966
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter
1965
The Keepers of the House
Shirley Ann Grau
1964
No award given
1963
The Reivers
William Faulkner
1962
The Edge of Sadness
Edwin O’Connor
1961
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
1960
Advise and Consent
Allen Drury
1959
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
Robert Lewis Taylor
1958
A Death in the Family
James Agee
1957
No award given
1956
Andersonville
MacKinlay Kantor
1955
A Fable
William Faulkner
1954
No award given
1953
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway
1952
The Caine Mutiny
Herman Wouk
1951
The Town
Conrad Richter
1950
The Way West
A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
1949
Guard of Honor
James Gould Cozzens
1948
Tales of the South Pacific
James A. Michener
1947
All the King’s Men
Robert Penn Warren
1946
no award given
1945
A Bell for Adano
John Hersey
1944
Journey in the Dark
Martin Flavin
1943
Dragon’s Teeth
Upton Sinclair
1942
In This Our Life
Ellen Glasgow
1941
no award given
1940
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
1939
The Yearling
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1938
The Late George Apley
John Phillips Marquand
1937
Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell
1936
Honey in the Horn
Harold L. Davis
1935
Now in November
Josephine Winslow Johnson
1934
Lamb in His Bosom
Caroline Miller
1933
The Store
Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1932
The Good Earth
Pearl S. Buck
1931
Years of Grace
Margaret Ayer Barnes
1930
Laughing Boy
Oliver La Farge
1929
Scarlet Sister Mary
Julia Peterkin
1928
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Thornton Wilder
1927
Early Autumn
Louis Bromfield
1926
Arrowsmith
Sinclair Lewis
1925
So Big
Edna Ferber
1924
The Able McLaughlins
Margaret Wilson
1923
One of Ours
Willa Cather
1922
Alice Adams
Booth Tarkington
1921
The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton
1920
No award given
1919
The Magnificent Ambersons
Booth Tarkington
1918
His Family
Ernest Poole
Full disclosure: Please don’t expect me to finish one book a week. I’m not that crazy! But I will keep you up to date on my progress each Monday, so watch this space.
