Reading the NBA 2012

For the first time in years I actually read all five of the National Book Award finalists for fiction. Perhaps my motivation came from my interest in all of the nominees. Perhaps the lack of a Random House title among the finalists both made me receptive to the choices as a bystander, but also made me curious to see if this group of books actually surpassed some of my Random House favorites for the year. (For the sake of full disclosure, while McSweeney's Press published the hardcover of A Hologram for the King, Vintage, one of my publishers, has the paperback rights.) Here are my impressions on the five finalists, and ranked in order of my preference.

1. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain. Had I been judging the awards this year, this book would have been my winner. Billy Lynn's squad, after surviving combat in Iraq, are sent back to the US for a whirlwind publicity tour during the fall of 2004. The trip culminates in a visit to the Thanksgiving Dallas Cowboys game, where Billy and his pals will schmooze with players, cheerleaders, the team's wealthy owner and his rich friends, and, possibly, Beyonce. On top of this, a movie producer is tagging along, trying to secure funding to finance the movie version of the troops' struggle. Billy is the native Texan, and during the trip he briefly returns home. One of the strengths of this book is Billy's family. They are messed up in quite believable ways.  I also loved the ways in which Billy and his pals interact. They are constantly insulting each other, making juvenile jokes, showing off. They are kids, and they look to their senior officer for guidance in how to behave in situations. The book's story does wrap up rather too cleanly for my taste, but all in all I loved this story and characters.

2. This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz. Both Gianna and I are huge Junot Diaz fans, and this collection of interconnected stories only solidifies our love for him. The stories of Dominican immigrant Junior are funny, sad, and most definitely wonderfully written. Junior might be a scoundrel to the women in his life, but I still love him. Junot Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize a couple of years ago, and this book just as easily could have taken home the National Book Award this year.

3. The Round House by Louise Erdrich. This year's winner, and also a deserving one. Mostly I'm happy that Louise Erdrich, after thirteen strong books, finally won with number fourteen. Set on a reservation in North Dakota during the 80's, thirteen year-old Joe's world is shaken when his mother is brutally assaulted. While she struggles to recover as her attacker remains free, Joe and his friends begin their own search for the rapist. The Round House is a great coming of age story that also deals with violence against women, reservation politics and struggles, and family dynamics, but without being preachy. It actually reads more like a thriller.

4. A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers. Alan Clay is a former Schwinn Bicycle executive, but he's fallen on hard times. The Schwinn factory moved to China and Alan lost all of his money on various ventures that left him more and more broken spiritually. He's divorced and he can't afford his daughter's college tuition. In a last ditch effort to right his course, he joins a group of young techies working for Reliant, a company hoping to woo a contract from King Abdullah, on a trip to Saudi Arabia. Alan is isolated and floundering, and that continues in Saudi Arabia.  The king isn't actually around, and no one can tell him when the king will arrive. Alan is stuck in middle age purgatory in the middle of the desert. Eggers knows how to write about other cultures, and he knows how to write humor situations for his characters. I do think that Dave Eggers tends to appeal more to male readers; I don't relate as well as some to Alan Clay's problems and decisions and I think I'm not enough of a dude to fully appreciate him.

5. The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. Ugh. I don't get the fuss over this book, even though many of my bookseller pals included it among their favorite books of the year. It's an Iraq War story told from a veteran of the war. It's not bad, and Kevin Powers has potential. Here's my question: would this book have been lauded if the author hadn't been a veteran? It seems like most of the press focused on his autobiography as much as the quality of the book.  As for the quality of the book, it screamed "I wrote this in creative writing school!" to me. Formulaic style and story, and overwritten prose plagued it.  The book has a great first line--"The war tried to kill us in the spring"--but it's downhill from there. Of the five finalists for the National Book Award, this is the one to which I could point and say "______ is a better book than that one," and come up with more than one title to fill in that blank. (Examples? Fine. The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson. Home by Toni Morrison. In Between Days by Andrew Porter, Building Stories by Chris Ware, Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru, to name a few.) At least The Yellow Birds didn't win, and hopefully Kevin Powers's next book works for me.

National Book Award Night Predictions!

Tonight, four lucky authors will have their careers change forever when they take home National Book Awards.  Here in Book Land we're always looking for ways to bet, make predictions, and go off half-cocked on things we know nothing about, so awards season is perfect.  Here are our predictions for winners in all four categories, hours before the award ceremony.  Note: if Liz is 100% correct, Gianna will buy her dinner.  If Gianna is 100% correct, it's a sign of the zombie apocalypse and you should hide.

Gianna's opening statement: I think after you read my predictions, you'll understand why people call me the Nate Silver of book awards.


Liz's opening statement: Who are these people saying you're Nate Silver?  We aren't counting the voices in your head.

Round One: Fiction
The nominees are:

Junot Díaz, This Is How You Lose Her (Riverhead Books, a member of Penguin Group USA, Inc.)

Dave Eggers, A Hologram for the King (McSweeney's Books)

Louise Erdrich, The Round House (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)

Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)

Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds (Little, Brown and Company)

Gianna's Pick: While I loved This is How You Lose Her, I can't help but be reminded of the the movie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, which my girlfriend watches every chance she gets. I am convinced that the judges, particularly Lorrie Moore, will have difficulty giving an award to anything reminiscent of Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey.

So, that narrows my choices down to Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, A Hologram for the King, The Round House, and The Yellow Birds. All great I am sure, but since I have only read two of these, I can narrow it down even further to Hologram for the King and The Round House. No, those aren't the two I read; I never end up reading the winners, so obviously I should take the two I've already read out. So, if I follow that logic, my final choice is Louise Erdrich's The Round House because not only have I not read this novel, I've never read any of her books. If you listen carefully you can hear Liz scream….

Liz's Pick: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!  She's never read Louise Erdrich?  You know how Kelly Ripa spent a year auditioning co-hosts to replace Regis?  I'll start that process next week.  Anyway, I own all five finalists this year...and haven't yet read any of them.  Therefore, I'm going with the book I bought first, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk.  I was going to pick Louise Erdrich as well, since--like Obama--she has the woman vote and the minority vote, but I can't agree with Gianna.

Round Two: Nonfiction

The nominees are:

Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956 (Doubleday)

Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Random House)

Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4 (Knopf)

Domingo Martinez, The Boy Kings of Texas (Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press)

Anthony Shadid, House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Gianna: Now, for this category I am going to really do something different. I am going to pick the book I loved best. Hands down my choice is Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. If this book does not win, I am going to petition that Texas secede from the union!

Liz: Rule #1: All things being equal, go with the book with Stalin on the cover.  Also, Anne Applebaum writes great histories about topics which interest me, like her previous Pulitzer winner, Gulag.  And as I keep telling people at presentations this fall, nothing says "Merry Christmas!" like a good history of totalitarian oppression.  Iron Curtain all the way.

Round Three: Poetry

The nominees are: 

David Ferry, Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations (University of Chicago Press)

Cynthia Huntington, Heavenly Bodies (Southern Illinois University Press)

Tim Seibles, Fast Animal (Etruscan Press)

Alan Shapiro, Night of the Republic (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Susan Wheeler, Meme (University of Iowa Press)

Gianna: I have had great luck in the past picking the winner for poetry with my method of choosing the sexiest title. This year David Ferry wins with Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations. HOT! Talk about a great movie with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey!

Liz: Who's NOT winning: David Ferry.  Wasn't this the name of Joe Pesci's character in the movie JFK? Tim Seibles.  I'm not sure how to say his name.  Cynthia Huntington, because Heavenly Bodies sounds a bit porny, as does Alan Shapiro's Night of the Republic.  I'm going with Meme by Susan Wheeler, because I appreciate brevity in poetry (so brief that I don't have to read it at all), and her title is one word long.  Congratulations Susan!

Round Four: Young People's Literature

The nominees:

William Alexander, Goblin Secrets (Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)

Carrie Arcos, Out of Reach (Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)

Patricia McCormick, Never Fall Down (Balzer+Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)

Eliot Schrefer, Endangered (Scholastic)

Steve Sheinkin, Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
(Flash Point, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press)

Gianna: The one with a bonobo on the cover.  [Endangered]

Liz: Never Fall Down.  I like the cover best.