Of all American literary awards, none come close to matching the Pulitzer Prize for weight and prestige. Winners can expect to receive an astronomical boost in sales, and, aside from William Faulkner, no American has won the Nobel Prize for Literature without first earning a Pulitzer.

This leads many to speculate who the winner will be each year. Notably, one website has created an algorithm to predict who will win, and it successfully predicted Jennifer Egan’s 2011 win for her book, A Visit From the Goon Squad. In the weeks leading up to the award’s announcement Toonari Post will be reviewing several of the more discussed books from last year, and to try to see which book, above all others, deserves the award.

A Hologram for a King by Dave Eggers has been one of the more controversial books this year. It received glowing reviews from critics, but a quick visit to Amazon or Goodreads shows that the public is not too keen on the work. The plot features Alan Clay, an apathetic, divorced businessman, traveling to Saudi Arabia with his company’s hologram technology in order to impress the king and convince him to purchase the equipment. If Clay is successful he will receive more than enough money to pay off his many encroaching debts, but with the king never showing up to meetings, the pressure is building. The plot has been compared to Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka, but without a single hint at anything fantastic, it is much more grounded in reality than the works of those authors.

The book has a high rank on pprize.com’s list due to several appearances in ‘best-of’ lists and a nomination for the National Book Award, but it seems doubtful it will win the author the Pulitzer. An examination of a failing businessman in Saudi Arabia juxtaposed with American businesses failing to compete with Chinese companies is interesting enough, but in the end, the whole narrative is forgettable. None of the characters are particularly memorable or well fleshed-out. The plot ends on an uncertain note, and, given Clay’s unfortunate predicament, this does not make a satisfying conclusion. In a year with so many strong books, it is unlikely this will be the one that wins the prize.

Kevin Powers’ debut novel, The Yellow Birds, has garnered similar praise from critics, although the pubic has been much kinder to it. Focused on the Iraq war, it tells the story of Pvt. Bartle and his friend, Murph, through chapters that alternate between the war and its aftermath. It is also very clichéd, but in this case that is not necessarily a bad thing. What sets Powers’ novel apart from the others is its language. Powers is a poet first and a novelist second, and it shows here, hinting at the language of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. Occasionally, the wording gets out of hand, but, other than a few instances, is still pleasant enough to read.

The characters, while likable, never really develop. For example, all we learn about Murph is that he has a caring mother and a girl back home. The big reveal at the end is also anticlimactic. The book is not without its faults, but it has a definite shot at the Pulitzer Prize.

Stay tuned at Toonari Post for more Pulitzer Prize news and predictions in the days leading up to April 15.

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The 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to Mo Yan, a Chinese author whose works have often been compared to magical realists such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Günter Grass. The novel “The Garlic Ballads“ has been described as the best book of his to start with. One of his shorter novels, it may not be as well-known as some of his other works, but it is definitely a great introduction to the Chinese author, and not only because it is only $4 on Amazon for the Kindle.

The book describes life in a peasant village where farmers are told by the government to plant only one crop: garlic. When those same officials refuse to purchase the crop one year, the townspeople resort to violence, which brings down the hammer of law enforcement. The farmers are rounded up and put in jail, where they find themselves trapped in Kafakesque situations. The police at times seem almost human, but in the end they are as distant as the government that oppresses the people. Traditional Chinese marriages are also examined in the book, with one of the larger sub-plots concerning two hapless garlic farmers falling in love and trying to find happiness in spite of the ongoing garlic crisis.

As already mentioned, Yan has garnered many comparisons to magical realists, but another apt comparison would be to Chuck Palahniuk, of Fight Club fame. Both authors use shocking content (whether it be peeing into a waiting customer’s soup or playing a game that involves drinking one’s own urine) that simultaneously revolt and engage readers. The narrative hops from person to person and back and forth in time, which rarely leads to confusion. Instead, it enhances the book by allowing the reader to see events from multiple perspectives. The result is a page-turner that even the most casual of readers can enjoy. The prose, even in translation, is still a wonder:

“The noonday sun beat down fiercely; dusty air carried the stink of rotting garlic after a prolonged dry spell. A flock of indigo crows flew wearily across the sky, casting a shadowy wedge.”

 Interestingly, this book was once banned in China for its portrayal of farmer’s lives, and was brought back into circulation only after the writer achieved fame. Mo Yan, who  has been criticized for failing to criticizing the Chinese government, and for refusing to associate with dissident writers, is not someone you would expect to write such a work. As harsh in its message as “The Grapes of Wrath,” the book is sure to silence any who do not think the Nobel winner is as critical as he should be.

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been under fire recently for choosing little-known and lightweight authors over living legends, but this book alone proves that Yan not only deserved the award, but also the money the prestigious prize brings in. He is not a writer to be taken lightly.

Image Courtesy : Johannes Kolfhaus, Gymn. Marienthal ([1]) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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Carlos Fuentes, one of Mexico’s most famous novelists, died on Tuesday, May 15, at the age of 83. Reporters were told that Fuentes had suffered an internal hemorrhage.

Fame came easy to Fuentes. Even his first novel, ‘Where the Air is Clear’, which was published when he was 30, garnered much critical acclaim in his home country. As a social commentary that critiqued his homeland and also explored the mind and its workings, it set the tone for the rest of his works.

Fuentes was also a part of the Latin American Boom literary movement in the 1960s and 1970s, along with other acclaimed writers, such as Julio Cortázar, Gabriel Garcia Marqeuz, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Jorge Lius Borges. Writers involved often wrote works that owed a lot to modernism, a another movement after World War 1 that turned away from realism and sought to represent reality through other means. Works from this period are often categorized as examples of magical realism or historical fiction, and usually toyed with themes such as time and incorporated political elements.  The movement brought worldwide recognition to the writers and solidified their reputations abroad. 

Fuentes’s fame took off in the United States later, however, with his 1985 novel ‘The Old Gringo’. The book followed the complex story of American writer, Ambrose Bierce, who disappeared in the Mexican Revolution. The book became a bestseller in the States, a first for a Mexican writer, and was adapted into a 1989 film starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda.

Fuentes authored over 20 other books, several collections of short stories, and one opera. His oeuvre includes acclaimed novels like ‘The Death of Artemio Cruz’, ‘The Crystal Frontier’, and ‘Christopher Unborn’. His work has been translated into two dozen languages.

At the time of his death, Fuentes had amassed a large collection of prizes, including the Cervantes award, Spain’s most sought after literary award, and the Belisario Domingues Medal of Honor, Mexico’s highest honor. He was considered a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but never won.  A former friend of Fuentes, Octavio Paz, is the only Mexican who has been awarded the honor, having won in 1988.

Although Fuentes’s fiction typically was filled with social and political commentary, he himself never belonged to any political parties. He believed literature was the vehicle through which he could most effectively have his voice heard.  He lambasted the George W. Bush administration and criticized his own country’s government. He also derided Venezuela’s leftist leader, Hugo Chavez, comparing him to Mussolini.

Fuentes is survived by his wife, journalist and television presenter Silvia Lemus, and a daughter, Cecilia, from a previous marriage with actress Rita Macedo, who died in 1993. He also fathered two other children with Lemus, both of whom died before him.

Image Courtesy of   A. Bouirabdane

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