Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, a novel in stories about life in small-town Maine, has won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In its Jacket Copy blog, the Los Angeles Times breaks the story, noting that Strout edged out Louise Erdrich’s Plague of Doves and Christine Schutt’s All Souls, the other two finalists. Earlier in the year, Strout discussed the book in a talk recorded by WGBH.
Reviews: Ann Cummins, San Francisco Chronicle; Molly Gross, Washington Post; J. A. Kaszuba Locke, BookLoons; Valerie Ryan, Seattle Times; Lizzie Skurnick, Critical Mass; Louisa Thomas, New York Times; Jessica Treadway, Boston Globe.
I have never read the book, never before heard of Strout, hadn’t even realized Olive Kitteridge was nominated. Just goes to show. What? I am not sure.
From your recent post:
ReplyDelete'You heard it here first. The winner will be Louise Erdrich’s Plague of Doves.'
This illustrates something of what I mean by your tone. Nothing wrong with being wrong, nothing wrong with assertions based on years of experience. And yet ... and yet, it's hard to ignore overtones.
I was wrong about the Erdrich. But at least it came in second. And I was pretty confident that Home would not be selected. Aside from the fact that Gilead had won the Pulitzer and the jury did not want to make it look as if the prize were hers for the taking any time Robinson published a novel, Home has not won a single award. There is something about it that puts off the literary establishment.
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