Whaaaaaaaaaat?????????? NO Pulitizer For Fiction, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      Girls, I cannot help it; let's start with the fact that one of the jurors on the Fiction panel was Michael Cunningham, known in his field, but hardly what I would call a world beater as a writer!!!!!!!!!  I would never put him on the same level with Jonathan Franzen, Michael Chabon at his best, or David Foster Wallace.

                                        I mean, who are we kidding?????  "The Hours" made a fabulous movie, girls, but the book reads like a creative writing program student trying to emulate Virginia Woolf.  And, as I said at the time, if you want to read Virginia Woolf, then READ Virginia Woolf.

                                          But for the Pulitzers not to award a Fiction prize--the first time this has been done since 1977--35 years, darlings!!!!!!!--is inexcusable.  Two of the nominees were literary darlings--Denis Johnson and David Foster Wallace.  Sure, one is deceased, and maybe no one wanted to do a  posthumous prize, but Johnson has proved himself time and again.  Added to which there was newcomer Karen Russell, whose first novel, "Swamplandia!" was nominated.  Now, I read "Swamplandia!" and while I may not have put it on my Ten Best book list (like the NY Times did) it certainly merits a place among the 100 Most Notable.  I never saw it as a Pulitzer nominee (I could see Jeffrey Eugenides' "The Marriage Plot", but then he already won for "Middlesex") , but so be it. It is not like any of these works were shclock.  And they could not decide to give it to ONE of these????? After reading, so they said, over 300 books???? Well, with that amount, then why could they not have found more, or at least, different nominees, so they could have an assortment to choose from, in order that they could actually choose something.

                                            By denying a Fiction award, the Pulitzer committee is dissing all fiction writers, and, in effect, writing off, Fiction as a genre.  Are they crazy????????????  If  Fiction vanished altogether from the book industry, there wouldn't be much of an industry at all.  It behooves them to recognize Fiction, and, of the list, I think it should have been given posthumously to Wallace.  Don't forget "A Confederacy Of Dunces," by John Kennedy Toole, which was a posthumous award, interestingly for the same reason--its author committed suicide.  But the Pulitzer would have certified Wallace's stature as a writer, which is something many of us have known for a long time.

                                              Fie on the Pulitzer Committee!  Get me on it next year, and I can guarantee, a Fiction award will be given!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                At least, it wasn't given to "The Hunger Games!"