Just when you thought that Oprah had confined herself to dead writers and the “Summer of Faulkner,” Oprah recently announced a return to living writers. Her first new book along these lines is actually quite interesting: James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces. I must confess that I’m highly amused at the idea of suburbanites in upstate New York and Orange County reading Frey’s gritty memoir. But if this represents the timbre of Oprah’s future offerings, then Return of the Reluctant strongly endorses the Oprah Book Club revival with the following proviso: No more Wally Lamb! Let’s see the Oprah Book Club dig up the kind of books that will provide a much needed jolt for soccer moms.
Category / Awards
The Moral of the Story: If You Haven’t Changed Your First Name to “Jonathan” by Now, You Should Consider It
A hearty congratulations to Jonathan Lethem, who won a MacArthur Genius Grant this year. Lethem, beyond being a standout correspondent, is also an adventurous stylist and one of the few novelists working today who has written successfully across multiple genres. If you haven’t yet read the gritty The Fortress of Solitude or his futuristic take on Chandler, Gun, with Occasional Music, get thee to a bookstore and sup.
[UPDATE: Matt Cheney argues that while Lethem is deserving, “this choice continues the unfortunate trend of the MacArthur award often going to writers who have already found a lot of success.”]
LBC: It Goes Down Tomorrow
So what’s been happening on the LBC front? Well, you may want to stop there tomorrow. Because the LBC will soon be revealing the next finalist. In the coming weeks, there will be guest blogging appearances and something particularly special in relation to the four other nominees. Stay tuned!
Booker Shortlist
The Man Booker Shortlist has been announced:
- John Banville, The Sea (Someone’s going to be very happy.)
- Julian Barnes, Arthur & George (Julian Barnes: Comeback Kid?)
- Sebastian Barry, A Long Long Way
- Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
- Ali Smith, The Accidental
- Zadie Smith, On Beauty
If there’s any lesson to be learned here, if you’re a British novelist who wants to win the Man Booker, change your last name to Smith.
Booker: The Real Authorities
While the BBC reduces the Booker Prize to stunt reading (“I push away comics, Doctor Who, Playstation, television, DVDs and the internet. [sic] All of a sudden this does not seem such a good idea.” Oh, we weep at this young man’s sacrifice.), the real authority, MOTEV, weighs in over at Mark’s. Among some of the more shocking revelations: an official stance on Zadie Smith’s qualifiations and a forthcoming handicap of the awards.