Evidently, this year’s Pulitzer Awards come out soon. In fact, they may’ve been awarded already. I’m not really sure, because I don’t give a crap about awards.
But, so, hey, I came across a link to this AbeBooks list of the Top 10 Forgotten Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novels, and guess what?
I haven’t read a single book on this list! In fact, I haven’t read any other work by any of the authors on the list, except for one!
That would be Steven Millhauser, because David Gates recommended one of his books to me. This recommendation was from our first conversation a dozen years ago, and I realize now that I never actually read more than a couple pages of that book, although it looked promising.
It’s Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright
I have indeed read one of these books, Martin Dressler by Stephen Millhauser, in an American lit class at Davidson – thanks, Dr. Randy Nelson! Most everyone in class thought it desperately boring, but I liked it. It would actually be great to read just after your trip to Vegas, as it gets at a certain type of American dreamer’s need to build BIG things, like Steve Wynn or Donald Trump.
There has to be some sort of joke to be had about you reading Salinger, Millhauser and McCloud that near to one another.
And that joke… is my life! (I also just started reading some of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s stories, but they’re not very, um, Salingeresque…)