A Death in the Family by James Agee

This 1958 Pulitzer Prize winner centers around Jay Follet and the void his sudden death leaves in his family.  Set in Knoxville in the early part of the 20th century, the narrative skips back and forth between Jay (pre-mortem), his wife, his young son, his wife's spinster aunt, and his young son (with a few other characters thrown in there for effect).

Agee's prose is eloquent and moving at times.  Yet I wonder if I would have read the book differently and gotten a different sense from it had I not read the introduction first.  The author of the introduction reveals that this book was not finished at the time of Agee's death (how fitting to his subject).  The book had not been altered from the final version submitted by Agee and the chapters on the end of the novel had not yet been placed where they were meant to ultimately go. 

In knowing this, I did feel a sense of the novel not really being finished.  There were times when the narrative felt a little too bloated or too frenetic.  I don't know if that was me reading too far into the prose, or trying deliberately to find those situations.  Either way, I did leave the novel with a sense of unease, like the story was not fully formed.

Agee's characters were satisfyingly human though, he expertly portrayed each one's inner monologue of doubt, anger, insecurity, and more.  I enjoyed the character studies of each one and would have loved to see them more polished.  As it was, they did each have a very raw emotional quality to them that was heartbreaking and real.

Overall impression: great characters, if a little unfinished.

Interpreter of Maladies

Jhumpa Lahiri, the 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. This slim collection of short stories was a quick read. I was a bit apprehensive when picking this one up. I had read Lahiri's full novel The Namesake a few years back and was fairly underwhelmed, but I will say I was pleasantly surprised by her short fiction. Lahiri's prose flows in each story as she lovingly reconstructs the full array of sensory glory for each of her characters.

Each of her stories explores a separate kind of sadness in her characters. Loss of family, loss of culture, loss of self, loss of faith. I think this wistful nature of the stories is what gives the collection a great deal of its beauty. The majority of the stories focus on characters who have left their native India (or in some cases have never known it) and Lahiri uses that cultural disconnect to both bind her characters together but also to isolate them.

I think mostly what pleased me most in reading this was that the way the compilation is ordered. The stories create delicate layers for the reader that pull him/her through the stories and binds them all together, even though they are different characters. It feels as though all the characters share an emotional bond. The final story in the collection shares the same sad tenor, but of all the stories ends with the most hope and a sense of peace.

Lahiri's stories are touching and thoughtfully written. With warmth and sadness she leads her characters through their lives. I enjoyed this collection and would recommend it highly to others.

The Fixer - Bernard Malmud

Well, I have finally finished The Fixer by Bernard Malamud. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1966, Winner of the National Book Award in 1967. This book read like a cross between To Kill a Mockingbird and Crime and Punishment. The heavy philosophical musings of the main character, the "fixer" Yakov, were hard to wade through at times. This book, like All the Kings Men falls into the category in that I am happy I read it, but don't necessarily think I will read it again.

Yakov's morose pondering on life and spirituality from behind the bars of a Russian prison both provoke the reader and turn them off. Malamud's portrayal of the anti-Semitism Yakov faces brings the reader into close contact with the evil side of human nature which is hard to look at face on.

At this point I can't even think of what more to say about the book. The book is achingly well written, but its hard for me to go further than that....

Maybe I'll have more to say later...

Ironweed by William Kennedy

On my plane ride to Washington DC last Friday I finished the short but powerful Ironweed by William Kennedy, winner of the Pulitzer in 1984. This book, unlike All the Kings Men struck a really deep emotional chord with me.

The story follows down-on-his-luck bum Franny Phelan through his return to Albany, NY. Franny, a former big league ball player, fled Albany 20 some years before after dropping his baby son accidentally and causing his death. What I found so breathtaking about the novel was the way Kennedy has Franny interact with his past memories as he slowly builds up the courage to reunite with the family he left all those years ago.

Kennedy not only relates Francis's memories through the omniscient narrator, but takes Franny and other supporting characters through fantastical conversations with the dead and visions of what might have been. There are times when the fantasies weave in and out of the narrative so smoothly, you won't even know that the character has been wrapped up in one until 10 pages later.

Kennedy's characters broke my heart with their broken down lives and almost cheerful acceptance of circumstance. They all had great weight in reality and were incredibly easy to relate to, sympathize with, and root for.

Overall, I found the novel an emotional punch to the gut, but in a good way. I highly recommend this one and will be reading it again.

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

So, after a SNAFU of leaving my book accidentally in Florida and then getting myself hooked on a new series a week afterward, I have finally finished All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction in 1947. All 659 glorious pages.

First off, I feel my reaction to the novel is somewhat tainted in that I couldn't get into an easy rhythm while reading it. Warren has the novel split into 10 "chapters" that each span no less than 50 pages. This division of the book made it hard to find natural pauses in the narrative to pause my own reading in between sittings, which is never my favorite way to read.

Turning my attention now to the novel itself, I feel very much at a middle ground with it. I neither loved nor hated it. I see it's literary merit and applaud Warren for masterful writing, but could not find my own hook or level with which to bond to in the novel.

Often in my reading I found myself remembering The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. Though not as a result of the prose. Warren is far more verbose and descriptive than Hemingway, but writes his characters with the same sense of malaise and clinical detachment. Not to mention the overt misogyny enjoyed in both novels.

What struck me most about the novel was the acute and almost antiseptic observation and commentary that Warren achieves of American politicians and politics. Willie "the Boss" Stark, his caricature of corrupt Louisiana governor Huey Long, offers a story arc that is almost a parable on how politics and power corrupts a man. But, what I found more probing and disturbing even was the description of the reaction of Stark's staff, seen through the eyes of his go-to man Jack Burden, and the public of Louisiana.

Warren offers up a treatise on mob mentality and the fantasy of politics that the American public applied to politics then. What chilled me most was that it is still relevant now. Willie Stark lives his life of corruption almost openly, sending Jack Burden on errands that lead to the downfall of numerous careers and lives. Stark also manages a public reputation of "tom-catting," yet his numerous extra-marital affairs and his corrupt politics do not seem to phase the good people of Louisiana. As long as Willie maintains his marriage to his backwoods sweetheart, promote his all-American football hero son, and focus his silver-tongued speeches on his work for the common man, he retains his valor in the public eye.

Even Jack, his trusted advisor, who has watched the full spectrum of his career is complacent with the Boss's doings. Only when one hits too close to home does he begin to question the Boss he knows now, not the ideological man he knew from the start.

Warren's novel definitely encourages the reader to question their own views (maybe even their ennui) on politics, which resonates now as it did in his time.

Overall feelings: chilling look at the American political scene, yet hard to slog through.