05 November 2014

National Book Award Fiction Finalists: My Thoughts


While I'm an avid reader and a reasonably good bookseller, I've never claimed to have my finger on the pulse of the book award circuit.  So I was as surprised as anybody when I discovered that for the first time since I've started paying attention to these things, I have read, or at least read in, all five of the finalists for the fiction award.

Of them, I only have completed two: Emily St John Mandel's excellent break-out novel, Station Eleven and the Marilynne Robinson's literary masterpiece, Lila. But just because I didn't finish reading the other three doesn't mean that I didn't like them.  On the contrary, I very much liked what I read of them.  One of the things about being a bookseller that might seem strange to a civilian, is that in addition to reading the things I like, I also have an obligation to read widely, beyond my personal preferences, so that I can better serve my customers.

I also am one of the four readers for my bookstore's signed First Editions Club, where we select one work of literary fiction each month and send signed copies to our club members. For this part of my job, I have to read the first 50-75 pages of an additional 6-8 books each month (on average), all on my own time outside of work.  For obvious reasons, I cannot finish them all, so even when I like a book, if I have a coworker who has finished it, I'm less inclined to spend more of my time to complete it. Why? Because now I have a secondary repository of book knowledge to rely on: I can recommend a book to a customer when I know that Nancy (or Hannah or whomever) has loved it and why she has loved it.

(On a slightly braggadocian note, of the five NBA books on the short lit, our First Editions Club committee picked three of them.  And if we'd had our way with getting signed copies of another one, there would have been a fourth, but the author either wasn't touring or wasn't in the US when we wanted to pick the book. Go, us!)

So, with all of that being said, here are my thoughts on the National Book Award finalists for fiction in 2014:

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine is wonderful, telling a very quiet story of older woman living in Beirut who has translated one book per year from the world literary canon into Arabic.  I read about half of this book and very reluctantly put it down. Not only does the author paint a vivid portrait of the cultural importance of Beirut, along with its devastations during the wars, but we get the importance of translation itself, along with its intricate give and take.

I read the first 100 pages or so of Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See, which is set during World War II. I've noticed tons of reviews of this book popping up since it was published in April of this year, and two of my coworkers read it and loved it, so I felt less guilty putting this one down than I otherwise would have.

Short story collections don't often go head to head with novels for the major literary awards, but Phil Klay's debut collection, Redeployment, is handily able to take on the powerhouses.  As the title suggests, these are soldiers' stories, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I read the first two of them and they were extremely well done, and though ultimately this was not the book for me, I'm happy I bought a signed, first edition of it when I visited Nashville earlier this year.

I've been reading Emily St John Mandel's books since she first published Last Night in Montreal in 2009. I'm thrilled for her that her hopeful post-apocalyptic novel, Station Eleven, is getting the critical acclaim that indie booksellers have been giving her for years.  I think this book ties with the Anthony Doerr for having the most widespread appeal to general readers. I would put either book into the hands of almost any fiction reader.

Lila by Marilynne Robinson concludes her trilogy set in the small town Gilead, Iowa, of yesteryear.  Like the Alameddine, it's a quiet story, largely the imagined inner life of the title character. I also happen to think that Lila ties with An Unnecessary Woman for being the most literary of the finalists, and thus if I had to make a prediction for the winner, it would be one of these two.

NB: Edited to add this -- It doesn't hurt that Marilynne Robinson is basically the winningest American novelist, ever.  For her last four books published (3 novels, one nonfiction), she has won six major literary awards: PEN/Hemingway, the Pulitzer (2x), the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Orange Prize. That's not counting the lesser-known awards, or the major awards she was a finalist for but for which she didn't win.  Dayum.

13 comments:

  1. I've only read All the Light We Cannot See from this list, and I really loved it. Thanks for your thoughts on the others!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, that book stands out as being a very good book for a wide variety of readers. Maybe one day I'll let myself get back to finishing it.

      Delete
  2. I'm kind of fascinated by the reading cycles of booksellers and (if you haven't done so already!) would love to hear more about how you choose your books/what makes you pick something up or put it down, etc. It almost seems like it's easy to put down books you know will be quite well received, but you have to dig a little further into books that start slow or have a difficult audience to pinpoint.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, the short answer is that if I love a book, I will finish it, regardless of how confident I am that my colleagues will finish it and/or the public will embrace it.

      If I like the writing, or the plot, or one of the characters, or even one of the author's previous books, I will slog through a slow beginning to see if there's going to be a payoff. I'm drawn to quiet novels when I get to spend a lot of time in the heads of amazing characters, so maybe I'm more willing to "dig a little further," as you say, than many readers.

      Delete
  3. If I had monies I would TOTALLY JOIN YOUR FIRST EDITIONS CLUB because it sounds snazzy, lady. And I trust your choices.

    I just started Gilead and it's so, so, so good. Damn, Marilynne Robinson, what is your deal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We're the snazziest. I might add that to our forthcoming advertisements.

      Gosh, I would've yelled at you long ago to read Marilynne Robinson if I'd known you hadn't read her. Her Gilead trilogy is great, and she treats her characters and the subject of religion with more dignity than just about any writer I know.

      Delete
  4. Of this list, I'm looking most forward to reading All the Light We Cannot See! Thanks for your mini reviews :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, you're definitely not alone with that one. Blind French girl? Orphaned German boy? World War II? Historical sweep? Yeah, I hope to get back to it one day. We'll see...

      Delete
  5. Dayum is right! I guess I better add Marilyn Robinson to my own TBR pile; anything cinematic about the book?
    And my goodness, what a wonderful title All The Light We Cannot See is! How important is a killer title to your decision vs a title like Lila - or Olive Kitteridge or Lolita - to a novel's popularity?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd say that Marilynne Robinson's books are utterly lacking in the cinematic department. And my guess is that it's not accidental.

      And yeah, the Doerr book wins for most poetic title, doesn't it?

      Delete
  6. I started Gilead around readathon time, but I'm hoping to actually sit down and read it for real soon. I liked the beginning.

    I'm almost done with Station Eleven now, and it is kind of fantastic. Part of me keeps wanting to be like "It's been two decades and none of you people have read a book to figure out how to get a bit of electricity working again??" but you know... small complaint. It's really beautifully written.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting -- I wouldn't have expected Gilead to be a good match for you, Sarah.

      Station Eleven, on the other hand, I could see as being right up your alley. Did you know that the UK first edition actually has a panel drawn by an artist that is allegedly from the comic that is part of the novel?

      Delete

Please, sir, may I have some more? (Comments, that is!)