SALON

Wednesday, Oct 13, 2010 4:12 PM UTC

Franzen snubbed by National Book Awards

He won the prestigious prize nine years ago for "The Corrections," but highly touted "Freedom" is not a finalist

By

Topics: National Book Awards, Jonathan Franzen,

Franzen snubbed by National Book AwardsDer US-amerikanische Schriftsteller Jonathan Franzen gestikuliert am Freitag (08.10.10) in Frankfurt am Main auf der 62. Frankfurter Buchmesse. Die diesjaehrige Buchmesse findet vom Dienstag (05.10.10) bis zum Sonntag (10.10.10) statt. Foto: Katja Lenz/dapd(Credit: Dapd)

It’s the Great American Snub.

Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom,” the year’s most highly praised and talked about literary novel, was not among the fiction finalists announced Wednesday for the National Book Awards.

Nine years ago, Franzen won for “The Corrections” and his latest book was a sensation even before its release, the subject of a Time magazine cover story and rave reviews and so in demand that President Obama obtained an early copy. Oprah Winfrey picked “Freedom” for her book club, even though Franzen’s ambivalence in 2001 over her choosing “The Corrections” had led her to cancel his appearance on her show.

Nominees on Wednesday included Peter Carey, whose “Parrot and Olivier in America” was a runner-up for the Man Booker Prize, and such well-regarded authors as Nicole Krauss (“Great House”) and Lionel Shriver (“So Much for That”). The book awards also welcomed a rock star, Patti Smith, a nonfiction contender for “Just Kids,” a memoir about her friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe; and an attorney, poetry finalist Monica Youn (“Ignatz”), whose day job is with the Brennan Center for Justice in New York.

Two Beijing-based journalists for the Los Angeles Times, Barbara Demick (“Nothing to Envy”) and Megan K. Stack (“Every Man in This Village”), were nonfiction contenders, while previous nominees Rita Williams-Garcia (“One Crazy Summer”) and Walter Dean Myers (“Lockdown”) were finalists for young people’s literature.

Winners, each of whom receive $10,000, will be announced at a ceremony Nov. 17, hosted by humorist Andy Borowitz.

Franzen’s book wasn’t the only notable work not selected. Among the non-nominees were such novels as Karl Marlantes’ “Matterhorn” and Tom Rachman’s “The Imperfectionists,” Ron Chernow’s 800-page biography of George Washington and Edmund Morris’ third and final book on Theodore Roosevelt.

“Obviously, ‘Freedom’ is the big book of the year, but the question is what the National Book Awards are supposed to honor,” said Harold Augenbraum, exeuctive director of the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization that presents the awards. “We tell the judges just to look at the books and that outside chatter is not important. We go with that every year.”

Established in 1950, the book awards are chosen in each category by five-member panels of fellow writers, with judges changing each year.

Two authors from small presses were fiction finalists: Jaimy Gordon, whose “Lord of Misrule” was released by McPherson & Company; and Karen Tei Yamashita’s “I Hotel,” published by Coffee House Press.

John Dower, a National Book Award winner in 1999 for his study of post-World War II Japan “Embracing Defeat,” was a nonfiction nominee for “Cultures of War,” which unfavorably contrasts the occupation of Iraq with U.S. policy after Japan surrendered in 1945. The other nonfiction finalist was Justin Spring’s “Secret Historian,” a biography of the gay author and collector Samuel Steward.

Besides Youn, poetry nominees were Kathleen Graber’s “The Eternal City,” Terrance Hayes’ “Lighthead,” James Richardson’s “By the Numbers” and C.D. Wright’s “One With Others.” Young people’s literature nominees included Paolo Bacigalupi’s “Ship Breaker,” Kathryn Erskine’s “Mockingbird” (a tribute in part to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”) and Laura McNeal’s “Dark Water.”

More Hillel Italie.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 16 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations