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The National Book Award for fiction went to The Echo Maker by Richard Powers. No real surprise there, from what I’ve heard. It sounds like a terrific book.
Other winners: Nathaniel Mackey for Splay Anthem (Poetry), Timothy Egan for The Worst Hard Time (Nonfiction), and M.T. Anderson for The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (Young People’s Literature)
>I’m reading The Worst Hard Time now, research for the novel-in-progress. Good reading, good detail of the dust bowl era down on the level of individuals and how it changed them.
Non-fiction, but with a fiction narrative sensibility. Excellent!
>The Worst Hard Time was one of the best nonfiction books I read this past year. I couldn’t put it down. You are definetely right, Jim, about its “fiction narrative sensibility.”
Since several of my relatives farmed in Oklahoma during the 1930s, I had a personal connection to the book. I’m thrilled Egan won and hope his readership increases after the extra attention and publicity from the award.
An ecological disaster like the Dust Bowl is a very timely topic!