You gotta feel for the Pulitzer Prize committee. Everybody knows that the one inescapable, inarguable contribution that the US has made to the global scene is entertainment-- and especially, that glitzy, slick, nine-figure-budget that is the summer blockbuster movie, the superhero extravaganza, the self-defined epic space opera. (And I'm a charter member of the blockbuster fan club so no disrespect meant.)
But this doesn't exactly sit well with those who are concerned with the higher echelons of American ART. What are the judges for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction going to do? They can't just throw up their hands and hand the Pulitzer to James Patterson (with apologies to the prolific Mr. Patterson, who successfully writes more novels in six (three?) months than I have written in my entire lifetime). They must feel the need to recognize something or someone that lends some gravitas. Some credibility. There's a certain need to prove that American capital-A Art isn't all about the glitz, the latest advances in CGI.
Unfortunately, that means the Pulitzer prize-winner often ends up being a book I don't want to read. It's not that I'm a literary idiot. I have my cred. I wrote my master's thesis on Ulysses, which I have now read four times. I somehow managed to maintain a 4.0 en route to my master's degree, which I finished when I was 52. But at this moment in my life, I don't want to read dense, difficult, existential plodders, or atrocity-filled horror stories, even if they do accurately portray the dark side of the USA. I know horrible things have happened and are happening, but reading fiction about them gives me nightmares. Literally.
So you can imagine my happiness while reading Less, by Andrew Sean Greer, which won the Pulitzer in 2018. It's the story of a middle-aged gay man who is escaping the country so he has a legit excuse for missing his long-time now-ex lover's wedding to someone else. It's poignant and literary and erudite (air-you-dite or airoo-dite, which are we choosing?), but it's also witty and absorbing and even outright hilarious at times. I started giggling so hard about something or other while reading next to sleeping Dean the other night that I was afraid I'd wake him up. Less is actually fun to read. Highly recommended.
p.s. I wonder how much push-back they've received from people who think the Pulitzer winner should always be serious. Hmmmm. I don't follow that stuff enough to know.
2 comments:
I really enjoyed Less as well---it's my kind of book, admittedly: a protagonist who is his own worst enemy at times b/c of his general cluelessness, lots of wicked humor, really sharp observations and descriptions and frankly, an unexpected ending. If you liked LESS, I highly recommend BLUE HEAVEN and the followups. A little more zany/caper-ish, IIRC, but so good. Written by Joe Keenen who was maybe (?) the writer for Frasier. Thinking about it makes me want to pick it up again. It's been about 25 years or more since I read it, but I still remember laughing out loud.
I'm going to have to go look up Less.
On a side note: Chris Grabenstein talked about working with James Patterson at a Bouchercon. He said James has a room with like 8 or 10 computers all set up in a circle, each with a different book going. Most of his books are done with someone. He will write up the outline and hand it over and then work on each bit the other author sends in. So while he is prolific, he has help with it. It's Nora Roberts who amazes me - she's at least 3 books a year and she writes them completely by herself.
Post a Comment