Come on. You’re
kidding, right? The Pulitzer for fiction
is for a work by an American author, preferably touching on American themes. The three-member jury nominated three worthy novels. The Board then makes the decision that
no prize will be awarded. Their
deliberations are private. We don’t know
if they found the three works to be lacking, or if they just couldn’t agree on
a winner. So no prize, period.
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| Devalued Currency |
The jury was horrified that no prize was awarded. I haven’t read any of the three nominated
books, but they are on my list for the future.
Maybe other works should have been nominated? Dunno, but the process clearly didn’t work
very well this year.
Isn’t serious literature in enough trouble in this
country? The future of the publishing business is in question. The Pulitzer is one
way to boost sales and readership for a serious work. We complain that so few Americans are reading
serious literature for enjoyment and enlightenment. We whine when the Nobel for
literature goes to yet another obscure (to us, at least) foreign author and our
American authors are snubbed yet again. (When
will they give the Nobel to Philip Roth?
Maybe never.) But we can’t find an
American work of fiction to get the Pulitzer?
Shame on Columbia.
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