2018 TOB General

[Jan]

I'm really curious about this year's judges and their reasoning. Sing, Unburied seemed like such a shoe-in given its literary craft and relevance that I'm sad to see it overlooked by the Pulitzer committee. I haven't read Less yet, adored In the Distance, and liked The Idiot in the abstract but found it tedious in the actual reading--but all these seem awfully white and irrelevant, almost like a backlash.

[Elizabeth]

I'm also shocked that The Idiot would be considered over SUS! (Or countless others, really.)

I'm surprised about Less, but also tickled by it. That book made me happy in so many ways...Maybe the judges realized that in times like these, when the world seems to be falling apart, the most valuable books are those that make us feel better about it all.

[Jan]

Elizabeth wrote: "I'm also shocked that The Idiot would be considered over SUS! (Or countless others, really.) ... Maybe the judges realized that in times like these, when the world seems to be falling apart, the most valuable books are those that make us feel better about it all. j..."

On a personal level, I love this framing of the award as counter-programming -- comfort reading & distraction in tough times. However, I wonder if there isn't an element of white privilege here...how easy would it be for me to indulge that feeling if I were not a white, middle class person with full citizenship? :-(

[Elizabeth]

Jan wrote: "However, I wonder if there isn't an element of white privilege here...how easy would it be for me to indulge that feeling if I were not a white, middle class person with full citizenship?"

Keep in mind that Colson Whitehead and Viet Nguyen have won recently, and Junot Diaz won in the not too distant past...so I don't see it this way necessarily.

[[deleted user]]

Jan wrote :"A comic novel about a 50 year old white guy seems a bit...uh...counterintuitive."
"...I wonder if there isn't an element of white privilege here...how easy would it be for me to indulge that feeling if I were not a white, middle class person with full citizenship?"

Your comments seem a bit unfair to Greer, as if he should not be eligible for literary awards because he is a white man. Less is an unusual choice, but it is a very good novel.

[Janet]

Sometimes I feel I'm extremely lucky living in a place where readers don't pay much attention to prizes. I went to the library yesterday and there was Less languishing on the shelf. It does look very innocuous and yes, I did bring it home with me.

[Erin]

Anyone have recommendations from this year's list? I've read some of the obvious: Red Clocks, Everything Here is Beautiful, An American Marriage, The Immortalists, Call Me Zebra, and except for the latter, I liked them a ton.

[Peebee]

Sunita wrote: "But he's also a gay man who came of age during the AIDS crisis and spent a lot of his youth (and onward) confronting death and dying."

I was coming here to say this, but also, check out Greer's Twitter feed (@agreer) after he found out he won. He seems so genuinely sweet and humble. I loved that he had this to say:

all I can say is that it is about the foolishness of American myopia, the uneasiness of being gay in the world, the difficulties of love, but most of all it is about joy. A writer friend once said the hardest thing to write about is joy. I took it as a challenge.
https://twitter.com/agreer/status/986...

and gave the following shoutout:

it was an incredible year for books, and writers like Jesmyn Ward, Celeste Ng, Min Jin Lee, George Saunders, Elif Batuman and Hernan Diaz all deserve mention here, as well as dozens of other amazing books (you should really follow @pronounced_ing ).

[Amy]

Sunita wrote: "Andrew Sean Greer is definitely a white cis man, from everything I can tell, and he has all the privilege that comes with that. But he's also a gay man who came of age during the AIDS crisis and sp..."

Thanks Sunita. A great reminder. Just as with wars, once they're 'over' we don't think as much about the generational impact immediately following the crisis. One of (among many) the reasons the US flourished so noticeably after WWII was our relatively abundance of young men.
hmmm now I'm wondering if that was another reason communist countries were wont to employ females in government and business to such a degree compared to the US.

[Amy]

Peebee wrote: "and gave the following shoutout:

it was an incredible year for books, and writers like Jesmyn Ward, Celeste Ng, Min Jin Lee, George Saunders, Elif Batuman and Hernan Diaz all deserve mention here."

what a lovely response! makes me instantly want to follow him! thanks Peebee!

[Elizabeth]

:) <3

"OMG I won the Pulitzer Prize? Nobody is more surprised than I am! I was working at my job here Italy and had just persuaded a dog to let me put her into polka dot pajamas (not my dog) when I heard the news. I didn’t believe it. So I called my friend Michael Chabon, who screamed. I asked if it was true, and he said yes! And I asked what do I do now? And he said Andy, now you write whatever you want to. And then I went and drank a lot of red wine. I hope somebody put some money on me because they have surely made a fortune now."

[[deleted user]]

Sunita, Peebee, Elizabeth,

Thank you! Your posts together made me smile and laugh through tears, and they made me want to reread Less and everything Greer will ever write.

I like what Ron Charles, of the WA Post had to say about Greer's win: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

[Ellen]

Hey, all -- just wanted to report that I went to a reading/book-signing yesterday with Min Jin Lee, and she was lovely. She has an affectation of being dippy, but when she gets down to the business of addressing a question, she's clearly incredibly intelligent and incredibly well-spoken. She talked about her deliberate use of spare, simple language in the book and that it's a choice she's made at least partially because she believes -- in her bones -- that books should be accessible to everyone and that the simpler the writing is the more people it can potentially reach. She talked about a lot of stuff -- in some ways, through her answers to audience questions (I didn't get a chance to ask mine until I stood in the signing line), she was way more substantive than most authors are in those readings.

I will say that she said she was very sad about not winning the Rooster and that she tried to follow the commentariat but it also made her "too sad." Which makes some sense.

[Heather]

Ellen wrote: "Hey, all -- just wanted to report that I went to a reading/book-signing yesterday with Min Jin Lee, and she was lovely. She has an affectation of being dippy, but when she gets down to the business..."

Awwww....if you ever see her again, tell her she won the Rooster in my heart, anyway.

[Jesi]

Janet wrote: "I went to the library yesterday and there was Less languishing on the shelf. It does look very innocuous and yes, I did bring it home with me."

Ditto! I couldn't remember ever seeing it before, but 30-ish pages in, I'm already charmed.

[Jan]

I have enjoyed all the thoughtful responses here. I don't mean to take anything away from Greer, and agree his response was gracious and thoughtful. I'm just starting Less, and I bet I'll love it. My observation is more that this year's Pulitzer feels a bit old school, with the three middle-aged or older white judges choosing books that may well be fully deserving (well, except for The Idiot) but feel pretty disengaged from the national conversation. I far preferred the National Book Award judges and choices (http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2017.h...).

But it's a great reminder of the arbitrariness and lack of transparency of most awards, and why we love the TOB. :-)

[Peebee]

I absolutely adored Less. I haven't been that charmed by a book in a long time. I'm a year over 50 and instantly related to Arthur. After living in San Francisco for over a decade and being in the same age group, his angst was very familiar to me.

While there are so many things I loved about it, and I wrote a fairly long review, for purposes of discussion here, what I really liked is that while it definitely had themes beyond the literal text itself, they were so deftly interwoven that I *felt* them as the book unfolded, rather than having to step back and look at opaque metaphors to wonder if I really understood them after all. And although I had heard it was funny -- and it is -- it didn't try to bowl you over with humor....it was so poignant and sweet at the same time.

I'm curious just how autobiographical it is -- probably not so much so as The End of Eddy (thankfully!) but if so, then I love the ending even more. Whether or not, I now adore the person who wrote this book, especially given his reaction to the Pulitzer news (and there's a reference to the Pulitzer in the book that is all the more prescient.) It's the kind of book I hope will win more awards -- one that is actually a joy to read, but is still very meaningful at the same time.

[Elizabeth]

Peebee wrote: "I absolutely adored Less. I haven't been that charmed by a book in a long time. I'm a year over 50 and instantly related to Arthur. After living in San Francisco for over a decade and being in the ..."

Oh hi, book twin. I'm also (almost) that age...Your review is making me want to read it again, or at least wish I hadn't read it so that I could re-experience it. (I recommended it in the commentariat, I think when someone asked for a book that would make them happy.)

For anyone who hasn't read it already, I'd also recommend Greer's The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells

[Elizabeth]

Less was chosen as the June pick for the NYT/PBS book club. :D

Easily one of my favorites from last year...I'll be following the discussion on FB, and looking forward to the PBS interview with Greer.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/the...

[Elizabeth]

So Less was chosen for the PBS/NYT Now Read This book discussion...Today PBS News Hour interviewed Greer with a handful of reader questions and...here I am at 52:40...(They asked me a few days ago to record my question, but never told me they'd actually play it.) I feel semi-famous. Also, nerdy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qneFE...

Sidenote...Pachinko is next month's book pick.

[Jan]

Well done, @Elizabeth, and congratulations!!

[Janet]

Brava Elizabeth!

[[deleted user]]

Well done, Elizabeth! Your question surprised him, and given that he has done countless interviews about Less, that's an accomplishment!

[Elizabeth]

Tina wrote: "Well done, Elizabeth! Your question surprised him, and given that he has done countless interviews about Less, that's an accomplishment!"

Haha, he seemed taken aback! And I was cringing a little thinking he might stumble over an answer (but his answer was great.)