Friday, October 14, 2005

National Book Awards Finalists

From the New York Times:

October 13, 2005
NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS NAMES FINALISTS
By Edward Wyatt
Historical novels and first-time nominees dominate the list of finalists announced yesterday for the National Book Awards.

As always, sprinkled among the new names are a few giants of American letters, like E. L. Doctorow, whose sweeping fictional account of Sherman's march to the sea, "The March," published by Random House, is perhaps the best selling of the group of fiction finalists. Mr. Doctorow, who won the award in 1986 for "World's Fair," is the only previous winner among the fiction finalists.

The National Book Awards, for books written by an American citizen and published from December 2004 through November of this year, will be announced on Nov. 16. Awards for lifetime contributions to American literature and the literary community will also be awarded at that time to Normal Mailer and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a founder of City Lights Books in San Francisco.

The National Book Awards is no longer the only show in town, of course; the number of new awards is growing only slightly more slowly than the number of books published each year. Two more recent entries relied on different approaches to reach much the same result: the Quill Book Awards, which relied on summer voting, and The Book Standard Honors, which used sales data to pick winners. Both named "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (Scholastic) as their book of the year. J. K. Rowling, the British author of the Potter series, is not eligible for a National Book Award.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company



THE 2005 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALISTS

FICTION
• "The March," by E. L. Doctorow
• "Veronica," by Mary Gaitskill
• "Trance," by Christopher Sorrentino
• "Holy Skirts," by Renè Steinke
• "Europe Central," by William T. Vollmann

NONFICTION
• "Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion," Alan Burdick
• "Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius," by Leo Damrosch
• "The Year of Magical Thinking," by Joan Didion
• "102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers,"
by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn
• "Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves,"
by Adam Hochschild

POETRY
• "Where Shall I Wander," by John Ashbery
• "Star Dust: Poems," by Frank Bidart
• "Habitat: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2005," by Brendan Galvin
• "Migration: New and Selected Poems," by W. S. Merwin
• "The Moment's Equation," by Vern Rutsala

YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE
• "The Penderwicks," by Jeanne Birdsall
• "Where I Want to Be," by Adele Griffin
• "Inexcusable," by Chris Lynch
• "Autobiography of My Dead Brother," by Walter Dean Myers
• "Each Little Bird That Sings," by Deborah Wiles

Monday, September 26, 2005

Distributed Proofreaders, Erasmus and Zadie

For a couple of weeks I've been spending lots way more than is healthy or wise time proofreading for Distributed Proofreaders, a fun-loving, imaginative, creative, pirate-obsessed and generally obsessive-compulsive community of literate folk who believe in the greater purpose of Project Gutenberg. Should you receive a message from me within the DP site, you'd find it tagged with this quote:

"Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation, as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

-- Joseph Addison"

Presumptuous? Possibly. But a mission is a mission, and this is one that plenty of people believe in and I'm proud to be part of the project.

Besides, I love to read, and this is just plain enjoyable. I was very relieved to find that even if someone else picks up the next page of an adventure that you've been following letter by letter, you can still read it, don't have to miss a thing. It was vital that I was clear on this before beginning that first beginner's project. Crucial.

And so a couple of days ago I was happily working on my first real project, Volume III, June to November 1851 of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. I was so intent on the beauty of the language and writing of the period that I nearly missed the larger message of the following passage:

The emperor, the King of France, and Cardinal Ximenes are alle striving which shall have Erasmus, and alle in vayn. He hath refused a professor's chayr at Louvain, and a Sicilian bishoprick. E'en thus it was with him when he was here this spring---the Queen w^d have had him for her preceptor, the King and Cardinall prest on him a royall apartment and salarie, Oxford and Cambridge contended for him, but his saying was, "Alle these I value less than my libertie, my studdies, and my literarie toyls." How much greater is he than those who woulde confer on him greatness! Noe man of letters hath equall reputation or is soe much courted.

Do you see it? Do you see it!? This might be how Zadie Smith views herself! Is it not possible that her wrathful and demeaning comments towards those who admire her are simply due to her belief that she is so much greater than those would confer on her greatness? It could be possible that she appears noble and lofty to herself, and is saying "All of these awards I value less than what I have now." Is this the message she's been waiting for us to understand?


And now, no more on Ms. Smith until I have read her books.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

It's Zadie Smith!

Imagine my surprise, I opened my newly downloaded New York Times Book Review on NewsStand Reader, and there was her great big face! (She's pretty so it was ok, no open pores or sores - and it wasn't like being surprised by a tapeworm or a dustmite.) On the cover! And a glorious review of On Beauty. Is it really that good? Frank Rich and Booker think so ...

I'm still sideways over why a woman who has knowingly determinedly purposely and purposefully put herself into the forefront of publicity is so repulsed by same. She (evidently) writes peculiarly well - and in return we spend our money on her, we admire and reward her talent - and in return she demeans and condemns. How fascinating. How ill. But, on who's part?


Obviously it's a not a new thang ... Back when her second novel,
The Autograph Man, came out, Bookslut in March of 2004 reported an encounter with her. She was by turns gloriously nasty and scathingly disdainful. The "long-term game" she refers to in the last paragraph must be Kick-the-Fan.

Turn back a couple of years to her first novel,
White Teeth, and a 2002 interview with PBS; even with Masterpiece Theatrical editing she sounds superior and snide, starting with her comments on America, "There is a kind of desperate need for somebody to tell everyone what to do, which I find really peculiar in America. And then when you tell them, they're not interested, because it's also a country where everybody's opinion is their opinion, and they really don't give a damn what you think" and ending with "Email is the great channeler of disturbing people ... "

Hey!!! I have five email addresses myself! And I use them for differ ... and I ... um ... and ... ... ...
... never mind.

Back up to July 2000 and Random House'
BoldType interview with Ms. Smith, but watch yerself - she'll bite yer butt. She disses her English Lit degree - well, ok, that's a gimme. We all do that. She does come down hard on Creative Writing classes. Truth be told, my version of truth anyway, she seems more irritated than irritating. Research continues.

Are we buying her books and bestowing her with attention and honors in efforts to please, win her affection, or at least divert her from being disgusted with us? Why is she in the business if she despises it, and us? Does her talent doom her to be immersed in the very thing she reviles? Could she write just because she must write, and not publish, just keep it to herself and avoid contact with us? What compels her to belittle? Are her demeaning "observations" of culture amusing to her? Is it an enormous, very public case of passive-agressiveness, "Yes you're all trival idiots, but I'm funny so it doesn't really mean anything, but you really are"?

There is a clue in the PBS interview: she wants to be known as a "comic novelist." She says, "And if I die and someone says, 'She was a comic novelist,' I would be more than happy." Isn't that what everybody is trying to do, make her happy? But Zadie - must you DIE for us to finally accomplish it?!

Oh, glory. I just MUST know more about her.


Sunday, September 11, 2005

Booker Long and Short

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction Longlist was announced August 10, 2005
Tash Aw, The Harmony Silk Factory (Fourth Estate)
John Banville, The Sea (Picador)
Julian Barnes, Arthur & George (Jonathan Cape)
Sebastian Barry, A Long Long Way (Faber & Faber)
J.M. Coetzee, Slow Man (Secker & Warburg)
Rachel Cusk, In the Fold (Faber & Faber)

Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (Faber & Faber)
Dan Jacobson, All For Love (Hamish Hamilton)
Marina Lewycka, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Viking)
Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black (Fourth Estate)
Ian McEwan, Saturday (Jonathan Cape)

James Meek, The People’s Act of Love (Canongate)
Salman Rushdie, Shalimar The Clown (Jonathan Cape)
Ali Smith, The Accidental (Hamish Hamilton)
Zadie Smith, On Beauty (Hamish Hamilton)
Harry Thompson, This Thing Of Darkness (Headline Review)
William Wall, This Is The Country (Sceptre)

---------------

The Shortlist was announced on September 8, 2005
John Banville, The Sea (Picador)
Julian Barnes, Arthur & George (Jonathan Cape)

Sebastian Barry, A Long Long Way (Faber & Faber)
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (Faber & Faber)
Ali Smith, The Accidental (Hamish Hamilton)
Zadie Smith, On Beauty (Hamish Hamilton)

---------------


Here are some reviews of the shortlist Booker books.


---------------


Booker Facts and News (gleaned mostly from the Booker website but also the New York Times and the canada.com network with a couple of personal comments thrown in so don't take it all too seriously) -

HOW MANY FOLKS CAN ONE WOMAN TICK OFF?


* From CanWest News Service 2005: Controversial young British writer Zadie Smith may have ruined her chances of winning ...
In the interview published in New York magazine, the glamorous 30-year-old trashed her homeland, describing it as "disgusting" and "vulgar," and claimed that the England she knew is no more.
"When I talk about England now, I just think of the England that I loved, and it's gone," Smith complained. "It's terrifying.
"It's the way people look at each other on the train; just general stupidity, madness, vulgarity, stupid TV shows, aspirational assholes, money everywhere."

* Again from CanWest News Service 2005: Smith disliked the kind of
celebrity treatment she was getting from the British media and fled England in 2004 to study at Harvard. She only recently returned. * Also from CanWest News Service 2005: She told New York she had trouble dealing with fame. "I want to get on the Tube. I want to have a life. I'm not interested in being stared at."
She said America gave her the anonymity she craved, but also noted that "in America only a few weirdos read."
Smith also admitted she wasn't that impressed with novel writing as a profession.
"Writing a novel is quite stupid work. In a novel, you're never wrong. Novelists aren't intellectuals. They're just intuitive if they're lucky."

* And finally, from CanWest News Service 2005: This year's finalists surprised a lot of Booker
watchers because of the failure of three favorites -- Ian McEwan's Saturday, Salmon Rushdie's Shalimar The Clown and Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee's Slow Man -- to make the short list.

... and don't it just make my head goes sideways ...

From The New York Times:

* The early favorite, according to Ladbrokes, the British oddsmaker, is Mr. Barnes's book, at 6 to 4, followed by Mr. Barry's, at 4 to 1.

* The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (Picador) won the Man Booker Prize in 2004.

(Bookies were betting the 2004 Booker winner would be David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas.)
From The Man Booker Prize Website

* The Man Booker Prize for Fiction represents the very best in contemporary fiction. One of the world’s most prestigious awards, and one of incomparable influence, it continues to be the pinnacle of ambition for every fiction writer.

* The winner of the Man Booker Prize was chosen from 109 entries. 101 books were submitted and 8 books were called-in.


* The winner of the Man Booker Prize receives £50,000. The six shortlisted authors each receive a cheque for £2,500, bringing the total prize value to £65,000.

* Every year publishers are allowed to submit two books for the Man Booker Prize. Every former Booker Prize winner and any author who has appeared on the shortlist in the last ten years is also eligible.

I liked hearing about this extended eligibility, rather than who's NOT eligible.
Makes for such positive reading and a happier, healthier mood.

* The Booker Prize for Fiction was originally set up by Booker plc in 1969 to reward merit, raise the stature of the author in the eyes of the public and encourage an interest in contemporary quality fiction. In April 2002, it was announced that the Man Group had been chosen by the Booker Prize Foundation as the new sponsor of the Booker Prize. The sponsorship will run until 2006 during which time the prize will be known as the Man Booker
Prize.

*
Man Group plc is a leading global provider of alternative investment products and solutions as well as one of the world's largest futures brokers. The Group employs over 2,800 people in 15 countries, with
key centres in London, Pfäffikon (Switzerland), Chicago, New York, Paris, Singapore and Sydney. Man Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EMG.L) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

* Booker is part of the Baugur Group of companies. Booker is the UK's leading wholesaler with over 170 branches nationwide. It serves over 350,000 independent businesses.

Hmm. Without knowing anything else about Booker-the-Company,
I'd say it sounds like WalMart.
Now, after looking up some more info on Booker-the-Company,
it still sounds like WalMart.

* Monday October 10 - This year’s winner will be announced at an awards dinner at Guildhall and will be broadcast live on BBC TWO and BBC FOUR.

* The 2005 judges are chaired by John Sutherland who is joined by
fiction editor of the Times Literary Supplement, Lindsay Duguid; writer and antiquarian book dealer, Rick Gekoski; novelist, Josephine Hart; and literary editor of The Evening Standard, David Sexton.

---------------

I'm ashamed to say it, but I've read only one from the short list.
Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go was fantastically haunting.



Saturday, September 10, 2005

Nevius and Napoleon

Some time back (January 4, 2005 to be exact) I had the most wonderful experience when I came as close to celebrity as I'm likely to get. CW Nevius writes for the San Francisco Chronicle with the online version called SF Gate being found here and what follows is our merry and embarrassingly personal exchange.

From: Me
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 7:29 PM

To: Nevius, CW

Subject: Napoleon Dynamite

I came across your on-line article of today, 'Dynamite' insight into teenage life, while perusing Jim Romenesko's Obscure Store and Reading Room site which I linked to from The New York Times on the Web article by Andy Wang entitled Online Digests Help Readers Cope With Information Avalanche that had references to Dave Pell's Davenetics as well as quotes by Dave himself and I do admit to getting some sort of a kick out of at least 55% of the things that he claims to say but I'd have never even heard of him if I hadn't sought to edit my MyYahoo page.

I have never denied being out of the loop, so far out that I do not even posit to be a "pop poseur," the pre-supposition of which would be preposterous. In the last nineteen years I have miserably failed every pop culture pop quiz I could muster guts to take ... with one exception.

I knew the answer to your one-question quizlet regarding Vote for Pedro before even reading the multiple choices. Mr. Nevius, I cannot put into words the feeling of accomplishment, the satisfaction, the warmth of hope deep inside that maybe, in this the back-half of my forty-sixth year, I may be creeping ever-so-slowly - but at least forwardly - upon the pop culture that has existed so elusively beyond my grasp for oh so long.

Not only did I know the answer, I enjoyed the movie. I understood the movie. I've lived the movie. And I will watch it again. And maybe again. I thank you, Mr. Nevius, for bringing me up from the day-to-day struggles of supporting my family on a part-time salary, for diverting my attention from a cheating boyfriend, for allowing me respite from the emotional roller-coaster of my little dog's pregnancy, for showing me a glimmer of that pop light, of pop life. I feel. So. American.

Gosh.


Subject: RE: Napoleon Dynamite
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 20:32:27 -0800

Thread-Topic: Napoleon Dynamite

From: "Nevius, CW"
To: "Me"

What a great note. Deftly written and with a beginning, middle, and a very nice end. Good stuff. Thanks. CWN



I mean, REALLY!!! Have you EVER? I positively glow every time I read his words! Thank you, Mr. Nevius; even though it's taken me lo these many months, I have been inspired to begin writing my own article.

Yes, it truly has taken some time to work myself up to this, even with his kindly encouraging missive to back me up. I am rarely as impulsive as I was on the occasion of writing to Mr. Nevius. I need a lot of time to plan and assure myself that this is, yes indeedy-doody, really and fer sher, what I want to spend at least a squidgeon of my time doing.

It's not like I agree 100% wholeheartedly with everything Mr. Nevius writes. But I do enjoy his writing as a craft, and he's practically world-famous to boot.

Which reminds me, in the letter I wrote to him, I said some things that don't make sense to me now - I wonder if they did at the time? For example, when I said "getting some sort of kick out of at least 55% of the things he claims to say" ... what was it Dave had said that made me think he was only laying claim to them? And why did I get a kick out of only 55% of it? I've been a regular reader of
Dave's site for months and I rarely DON'T get a kick out of Dave Pell. I've also enjoyed reading about his family and I regularly check out his darling wife's uber-cool website Splendora ... As some friends and family members may recall, I have even used Pell's website as my Status Message on Yahoo IM. The point is, what the heck was I saying Dave was saying or not saying? Must investigate.

Oh, hey, and now Dave Pell is part of a really useful (and mysterious) website which is in the Beta stage (I am so flipping excited to be a part of it myself). I'll talk more about it later because it's still a secret and this was supposed to be about Nevius and Napoleon.

So I'll part now with assurances that you should check out this site:
Napoleon Dynamite Quotes
and offer you these final words of affection:
Tina, you fat lard, come get some DINNER!