I've got this bad habit of paying attention to year-end lists and award long lists and short lists. Even though I'm doggedly grumpy about it all, I keep intermittently paying attention. Now that I'm spending many hours a day standing with a view of a "new releases" shelf, I find myself a bit more engaged than usual. I watched the Booker awards live-stream. I could name several Colleen Hoover titles and, shamefully, I can even almost quote the first sentences of some of them from memory. It's a weird time. Meanwhile, I'm reading Moby-Dick, slowly, savoring every sentence, still finding it delightfully funny. I'd even go so far as to describe it as "a joyous romp". Maybe Ahab's obsession is going to put a damper on the fun, maybe. I'm excited to find out.
Anyhow, contemporary lit. Lists.
I saw that the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction long list (and short list) had been posted. I decided that I would read at least the first sentence of each of these. If I could get through the first sentence, I'd read the second sentence. If I could get through the second sentence, I'd read an entire paragraph. If I could get through that paragraph, maybe I'd read the entire first chapter. If I loved that first chapter, I'd keep going.
Now, of course, I'm betting on giving up on almost all of these sooner rather than later. It's a foolish thing that I'm doing. I know that. And yet... it still ought to give me a better sense of contemporary lit than I have right now. Worst case scenario is that I can point to sentences in a first chapter to show why I dislike a book instead of having to admit that I'm unfairly dismissing it based on its cover and publisher description. Best case scenario is that I find new books that I love. As pessimistic as I am about contemporary publishing and awards trends, I do still hold out hope that this is possible.
What is this award? https://www.ala.org/rusa/awards/carnegie-medals/about
"The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, established in 2012, recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year and serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by the American Library Association and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals who work closely with adult readers."
My take? It's a bunch of self-appointed arbiters of taste who have risen through the ranks of library and publishing politics, well-known enough by each other to be chosen by each other for important judging roles. The list is heavily weighted towards "important" LitFic over and above "genre" fiction. So it goes.
Here's the list of Fiction books from the long list:
* = on the short list
Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield
Seeking Fortune Elsewhere.. Sindya Bhanoo
The School for Good Mothers - Jessamine Chan
Trust - Hernan Diaz
*Greenland - David Santos Donaldson
The Candy House - Jennifer Egan
If I Survive You - Jonathan Escoffery
Calling for a Blanket Dance - Oscar Hokeah
The Kingdom of Sand - Andrew Holleran
Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver
What We Fed to the Manticore - Talia Lakshmi Kolluri
The Book of Goose - Yiyun Li
Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel
The Passenger - Cormac McCarthy
How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu
The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O'Farrell
*The Swimmers - Julie Otsuka
Young Mungo - Douglas Stuart
*Night of the Living Rez - Morgan Talty
Joan is Okay - Weike Wang
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm - Laura Warrell
Four Treasures of the Sky - Jenny Tinghui Zhang
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I know very little about any of those. My project right now is to give them each a try, going in as blind as possible, giving each the benefit of the doubt, hoping to love, always ready to get my grump on.
I'm committing to writing at least one sentence about each of these. "Meh." counts as a sentence for these purposes.