tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post4177885616012060041..comments2024-01-06T10:36:04.084-05:00Comments on A Commonplace Blog: Five Books of the ’oughtsD. G. Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-35995527824084380032009-08-25T16:52:40.414-04:002009-08-25T16:52:40.414-04:00Let's hear it for aesthetic evaluative critici...Let's hear it for aesthetic evaluative criticism. Thank you D.G. for this list!NigelBealehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06094387597632333192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-86674869061400819782009-08-24T17:53:13.604-04:002009-08-24T17:53:13.604-04:00Well, this puts paid to the question of Zoë Heller...Well, this puts paid to the question of Zoë Heller’s eligibility for the Pulitzer Prize: “She has not yet taken American citizenship, but ‘probably will at some point,’ ” <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3560559/Zoe-Heller-Metamorphosis.html" rel="nofollow">according</a> to the London <i>Telegraph</i>.<br /><br />Nevertheless, I am leaving <i>The Believers</i> on my list of the five best books from the first decade of the twenty-first century, because it is so American a novel—and because, according again to the <i>Telegraph</i>, Heller has become strikingly “un-English” after nearly two decades in New York. “She has the English self-deprecation, but she’s very much a New York girl,” says an old friend.D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-66123813888224228552009-08-24T11:59:15.164-04:002009-08-24T11:59:15.164-04:00Oddly enough I've just got stuck in the middle...Oddly enough I've just got stuck in the middle of the Ozick. As it's on your list I will return to it and make it through. The stuckness was not because I experienced it as bad, but rather as weighty, demanding, episodic and oblique. I'll go back to negotiating with those elements.litlovehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10952927245186474480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-55644562246209379882009-08-23T13:01:58.547-04:002009-08-23T13:01:58.547-04:00The Pulitzer Prize FAQ inludes this:
"5. Mu...The Pulitzer Prize <a href="http://www.pulitzer.org/faq#q4" rel="nofollow">FAQ</a> inludes this:<br /><br />"5. Must I be a U.S. citizen to apply for a Pulitzer Prize?<br /><br />"Only U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for the Prizes in Letters, Drama and Music (with the exception of the History category in Letters where the book must be a history of the United States but the author may be of any nationality). For the Journalism competition, entrants may be of any nationality but work must have appeared in a U.S. newspaper published at least once a week, on a newspaper's Web site or on an online news organization's Web site. (Please also see FAQ #10)"Dave Lullhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01053227199985293516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-9761211132874196012009-08-21T21:32:51.340-04:002009-08-21T21:32:51.340-04:00I don't know if Heller is eligible for the Pul...I don't know if Heller is eligible for the Pulitzer--it only says "by an American author." Geraldine Brooks, who is Australian, won, but she's now an American citizen; Carol Shields was born in the US but lived in Canada for her whole adult life, including many years before she even started writing.Seth Christenfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17782151625611528850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-49537566983054869472009-08-21T19:46:04.764-04:002009-08-21T19:46:04.764-04:00That’s a great question about Heller, and one I ca...That’s a great question about Heller, and one I can’t answer. Is she, for instance, eligible for the Pulitzer? She has been living in the States for years (she is married, I believe, to an American), and except for its first chapter, <i>The Believers</i> is set on this side of the Atlantic. Except for Audrey, the characters are American too. What is more, her subject is the American Left as well as Modern Orthodoxy (a distinctly American phenomenon).<br /><br />All in all, <i>I</i> consider her an American writer, but that’s probably chauvinistic of me.D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-26003185361965015492009-08-21T18:11:27.525-04:002009-08-21T18:11:27.525-04:00Heller is a Brit, does this skew the playing field...Heller is a Brit, does this skew the playing field at all?Sing Clementinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16329996468611442141noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-91299831527415952882009-08-20T21:24:52.422-04:002009-08-20T21:24:52.422-04:00Roth’s best book of the decade—at least so far, be...Roth’s best book of the decade—at least so far, because afer all who knows about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Humbling-Philip-Roth/dp/0547239696/" rel="nofollow"><i>The Humbling</i></a>—was <i>The Plot against America</i>.<br /><br />Two other novels deserving of mention are Gary Shteyngart’s <i>Russian Debutante’s Notebook</i> and Claire Messud’s <i>Emperor’s Children</i>, the best 9/11 novel so far.D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-10504713987436382482009-08-20T20:49:00.680-04:002009-08-20T20:49:00.680-04:00Gilead is the one novel I've ever bought, pack...Gilead is the one novel I've ever bought, packaged and mailed across country to ensure that a dear friend actually "got around" to reading it.<br /><br />It may not be one of the five best novels of the decade, but I was impressed and touched by Roth's "Everyman" of a couple years ago. I'm not proposing it for inclusion in your list, but hope that others might get around to this short, gem of a novel.Jonathannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-70446716340703759462009-08-20T20:20:21.882-04:002009-08-20T20:20:21.882-04:00P.S. I am also willing to acknowledge that the sho...P.S. I am also willing to acknowledge that the shortcoming is mine, not Vollman’s.D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-91177777098574143902009-08-20T20:11:29.727-04:002009-08-20T20:11:29.727-04:00I am willing to listen to the case for Vollman, bu...I am willing to listen to the case for Vollman, but <i>Europe Central</i> has defeated me the three times I have tried to read it.D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-50012335209553921602009-08-20T19:15:38.803-04:002009-08-20T19:15:38.803-04:00Thank you for once more adding to my reading list....Thank you for once more adding to my reading list. At the rate you're going, I'll never catch up. Perhaps I should retire and focus on reading. Teaching has a nasty way of interfering with reading.R/Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07791522136032565027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-27005900548341063622009-08-20T18:54:52.181-04:002009-08-20T18:54:52.181-04:00Europe Central. Hands down. It HAS to be on that...Europe Central. Hands down. It HAS to be on that list.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com