A Death in the Family

A Death in the Family by James Agee
1958 Pulitzer

"A Death in the Family" explores the emotions of the people left behind immediately after an sudden, accidental death. Jay Follet has been called out in the middle of the night by his alcoholic brother, Ralph. Ralph tells Jay their father has had a heart attack and asks Jay to come as soon as he can. Jay immediately leaves Knoxville for his fathers farm. And as he had suspected, the heart attack had been exaggerated. So he heads for home. On the way he loses control of the steering, crashes the car and is killed.

His wife May is overwhelmed by grief. His small children don't completely understand. His brother feels guilty for calling him out. His in-laws are more detached, but still sorrowful.

Mary turns to religion. And some of the family feel Jay's presence. some cling to the hope his spirit is still with them.

This is a book with a characters and emotions everyone can relate to.

The Short Stories of John Cheever

The Stories of John Cheever

1979 Pulitzer

This was my first foray into short stories (except for Stephen King) and I loved them. There are 61 stories in the order he wrote them. The earliest are set around WWI and the later stories are in the 70's. It was interesting to watch the changes in society as they occurred.

Most of the stories are filled with sadness and disappointment. Some are full of anger, crime, adultery, and all kinds of dubious behavior. Others deal with the randomness of fate.

I've become a fan of short stories with this one book. I'll never overlook the genre again.

Eleanor and Franklin

Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph Lash

1972 Pulitzer for Biography

I read this with Pulitzer_literature on Yahoo. Or tried to. Only a couple of us went past the point of pain and no one was able to finish it. Joseph Lash was a friend of Eleanor's. He was a reporter she met through a youth organization. So the book is 90% hero worship of Eleanor. And since it was written by a reporter it reads like a newspaper article...a looong article. It's full of names, dates and places but there isn't much personality.

About halfway through the book I skipped about a chapter and a half by accident and didn't even know it. So about 3/4's of the way in I realized it when someone asked Eleanor about Franklin's polio. I didn't know he had it yet. I'd read a quarter of the book and Lash mentioned crutches once but I thought he was talking figuratively.
You'd assume polio would have a greater influence on their lives than Lash indicated.

This book was a waste of time.

Killer Angels

Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

1975 Pulitzer

"The Killer Angels" is a fictionalized account of the Battle of Gettysburg. The story switches back and forth between different people from both sides and helps explain the reasons both had for fighting.

I liked this book much more than I thought I would. The story was well written and turned something I thought I knew into something new. For a well-known historical event, the book brought a little page turning wonder to it.

The Keepers of the House

The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau

1965 Pulitzer

The Howland family have lived on the old homestead since the early 1800's. In 1965 the current occupant is Abigail. Her grandfather, William, had brought home a young black woman named Margaret to help take care of Abigail. But Margaret also became his mistress and had children by him.

Abigail's husband is a budding politician. So William and Margaret's secret is a devastating blow to his campaign. And to the community at large.

"The Keepers of the House" is a powerful book about race relations and hyprococy in the south. It asks the question "Do you say what you mean or say what you think people want to hear." It's pertinant in todays PC dominated world.

Age of Innocence

Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

1921 Pulitzer

Set in New York's High Society, Age of Innocence is The story of a young man trying to follow the rules of society against his vague discomfort with them. Newland Archer is a young lawyer engaged to the proper young lady, May Welland. Everything is on tract until May's cousin returns to New York.

Countess Ellen Olenska has left her husband amid scandal and returned to her family. But in the late 19th century divorce is a scandal. So Newland is drawn into the family's efforts to persuade Ellen to return to her husband. And Newland finds himself attracted to her and begins to question the path he is taking.

American Pastoral

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

1998 Pulitzer

Swede Levov is trying to live the American dream. He marries a beauty queen and buys a house he's loved since his youth. But during the 60's his daughter becomes a war militant. Merry plants a bomb that kills a man and then goes into hiding. Levov's life sowly begins to unravel.

Ironweed

Ironweed by William Kennedy
1984 Pulitzer Prize

Francis Phelan has blood on his hands. He killed a scab during a strike. Then he accidentally dropped his infant son and killed him. Then while living the hoboes life, he kills another bum in self-defense. Now he has returned to Albany with his girl-friend Helen, who is an alcholic as is he. He's trying to come to terms with his past. Helen is trying to self-destruct.

Ironweed is set in the back alleys and two bit dives that most people never see. It's about the way life can conquer some people before they even get started.

The Optimist's Daughter

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

1973 Pulitzer

"The Optimist's Daughter" follows Laurel McKelva Hand as she copes with the death of her father. Laurel was raised in the South but moved to Chicago to follow an art career. Laurel and her young step-mother take her father to Mississippi for burial.
In her fathers old house, Laurel must come to terms with the past.

It's a simple little story, but it has a big emotional impact if you've lost a parent.

Gone With the Wind

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

1937 Pulitzer Prize

Gone With the Wind is a story of the Civil War and it's effect on Southern culture through the eyes of Scarlett O'Hara. Scarlett is a spoiled, self-centered, shameless 16 year old when the war begins. She's in love with Ashley Wilkes who plans to marry his cousin Melanie. So Scarlett marries Melanie's brother, Charles Hamilton, to make Ashley jealous. But the war begins and Charles is soon killed. She has a son now that she doesn't want. And she has to be "in mourning" in proper Southern society. Used to being the belle of the ball, she finds this very difficult.

The war hits Georgia hard. The book details the hardships of an army who has no government footing the bills for arms or provisions. They have to take what they need from the communities they pass through, leaving the citizens with nothing. The rich are reduced to paupers.

I've never paid alot of attention to Gone With the Wind. I want to read all the books my book club read before I joined. So when I joined the BookAwardsChallenge I found out this one won a Pulitzer. I have to admit I dreaded it. But I was surprised at how much I liked it. It is an amazing book. Everyone should read it.

Arrowsmith

Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

1930 Nobel Prize for Literature
1926 Pulitzer (declined)

Martin Arrowsmith is an aspiring biologist. He's very serious about his work but he can't seem to get to it. First he marries and has to practice medicine so he can afford a wife. When that doesn't work out he moves to a larger town to become a public health officer. After that he gets on at a top-notch reasearch facility. But Arrowsmith's problem is that he doesn't know how to play the game. Everything from small town gossip to big town politics to big city jealousies get in his way.

This was an enjoyable book. It had no big ideas. Just a small one--sometimes there's no particular cause for failure.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

2008 Pulitzer Prize

Oscar is a nerd. He's fat. He lives in the typical teen-age boy's genre of sci fi, fantasy and comics. And his biggest goal in life is to loose his virginity.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is the story of a Dominican family who are living in the US. Oscar's mother was the daughter of a rich man who fell afoul of the dictator Trujillo. The family fortunes were lost and a safer home was sought in the US.

The book skips around in time telling the story of Beli's life in the DR and her children's, Oscar and Lola in New Jersey. It's language is flowing with alot of Spanglish scattered in. Even the footnotes are interesting and sometimes funny.

Humboldt's Gift

Humboldt's Gift
Saul Bellow 1976 Nobel Laureate

1976 Pulitzer Prize

Charles Citrine is a young man who loves literature. He sets off to New York City and meets the great poet Von Humboldt Fleisher. But in the early 20th century the fate of poetry is bleak. Humboldt's gifts are no longer being appreciated. But Charlie has success writing for the stage and the cinema. Humboldt thinks he has sold out his art.

After Humboldt's death, Charlie learns Humboldt has left him something in his will. The book is set in a four month time frame, but while Charlie tries to retrieve his legacy he reminisces about the past and the paths he and Humboldt took.

Beloved

Beloved by Toni Morrison
1988 Pulitzer Prize

Sethe is a former slave who escaped with her children to her mother-in-law's home in Ohio. Shortly after arriving, slave hunters track them down. Sethe performs a desperate act to protect her children from slavery.

Years later, Sethe's sons have run away, her mother-in-law has died and the town has ostracized Sethe and her remaining daughter Denver. And there's a ghost in the house. A former fellow slave shows up. Sethe hasn't seen Paul D. since she left the plantation but the two decide to try to build a life together. But coming home from a carnival one day, they find the mysterious Beloved sleeping in their yard. And Beloved slowly begins to control the household.

"Beloved" is a story about ghosts. Ghosts in the house, ghosts in the soul and ghosts of the past.

Angle of Repose

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

1972 Pulitzer Prize

Lyman Ward is suffering from a bone disease. He has recently separated from his wife and has moved into his grandparents old house. Lyman acquires old letters his grandmother, Susan, had written to her friend. These letters lead him to write a biography about his grandmother.

Susan Ward had been a writer and artist but marriage to Oliver had led her to the old west. Oliver was an engineer. But problems on jobs usually forced them to move on to other jobs. Sometimes Susan had to return east while Oliver took particularly difficult jobs.

Angle of Repose simultaneously tells the story of Susan and Lyman. Susan has difficulty adapting to the west where her desire for culture is in short supply. And Lyman is trying to come to terms with the drastic changes in his life that have come on so suddenly.

So Big

So Big By Edna Ferber

1925 Pulitzer Prize

Selina Peake had been living with her father in Chicago. He was a gambler. When he won, they lived high off the hog. When he lost...well, Selina learned to roll with the tide. But Simon gets shot in a bar by a woman aiming at someone else. So, at the age of 19, Selina has to earn her own living or return to two maiden aunts, a destiny she refuses to contemplate. She's accepted as teacher for the Dutch school at High Prairie. She boards with the Poole family.

Selina eventually marries farmer Purvis DeJong and the have a son, Dirk, to whom she gives the nickname So Big. But 8 years later Purvis dies and Selina is left alone to raise the boy and work the farm. Selina is determined that So Big will grow up to appreciate beauty.

The Magnificent Ambersons

The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

1918 Pulitzer Prize

"The Magnificent Ambersons" are a fading family in the Midwest. Once very rich, they were the cream of society. Now, two generations later, their glory is being forgotten as the modern world comes to life.

As life and the town around him changes, young George feels his place is to be a gentleman of leisure.

I loved this book. I hadn't heard of it until Yahoo's Pulitzer_literature group voted to read it. I wasn't looking forward to it. But I was captivated somewhere around the third chapter.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

1928 Pulitzer Prize

Brother Juniper is a monk who witnesses the collapse of the rope bridge between Lima and Cuzco broke and plunged five people to death in the gorge below. He immediately wonders why the disaster happened to that particular five people. He sets out on an investigation into their lives to try to find out if they deserved their fate.

I enjoyed the book, but I didn't get what the big Pulitzer whoopty-do was about.

To Kill a Mockingbird

"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
1961 Pulitzer Prize Winner

Scout is a young tomboy growing up with a single father and big brother Jem in a small Alabama town. The children spend their days outside playing and are soon joined by a neighbors young relative, Dill. The three are fascinated with a recluse in a neighboring house and spend their time trying to bet the shy Boo Radley to show himself.

Scout and Jem's father is a local attorney assigned with the defense of Tom Robinson, a local black man accused of raping a white woman. The book is set in 1935 when such a crime was punishable by death.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is about a child trying to figure out the world around her. Her father is patiently trying to teach his children about prejudice and hatred and how all people deserve respect. It's a deceivingly simple book that covers very complex issues from a child's point of view.

The Road

The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
2007 Pulitzer Prize

He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.

I pulled the book review out of Time Magazine and added it to my gotta read pile many moons ago. It took a while but I finally read it Monday. Only after it won the 2007 Pulitzer. And it was amazing.

It's the story of a man and his son traveling across the country on foot. The world is a postapocalyptic cinder, now sparsely populated by roaming bands of scavengers trying to survive. The travelers are trying to get to the coast, not knowing what they may find there.

It's a disturbing scenario. And McCarthy leaves so much to the imagination. We're not told what happened to the planet. We don't know when it's set; we only know it's cold. We're not even given the name of the boy or his son. All you know is the only world left for the two of them is each other.