Today was the day that Pulitzer Prizes were announced. I look forward to this day each year to find out which book is the latest winner in the Fiction category. The last few years I have also been reading some of the books that are mentioned as front runners for the prize during the time leading up to the announcement. Especially as I have read all the previous winners for Fiction and want to keep current.

This year I read several books that I felt were Pulitzer worthy.

The ones shown in the picture are some of the candidates that I read just this last week.

Here is a partial list of books that I read that I thought might win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this year.

Magnificence – Lydia Millet

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – Ben Fountain

The Round House – Louise Erdrich

Flight Behavior – Barbara Kingsolver

The Yellow Birds – Kevin Powers

This is How You Lose Her – Junot Diaz

A Hologram for the King – Dave Eggers

I had The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson on my list, but had been waiting to read it as it did not deal with American life and I thought it was less likely to win the prize.

I started reading The Orphan Master’s Son last night and was only a few pages in when I had a feeling that it would be the winner this year. The book is set mainly in North Korea, and figured that this setting alone might be enough to sway the jury toward selecting it as a finalist. I was not surprised when it was announced as the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction today. I had not even heard of the other two books that were selected as finalists let alone seen them listed anywhere as possibilities for winning the prize.

I am a bit disappointed though as the book does not deal with American life. The prize is for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. There were so many good books this last year that did deal with American life. I have not read the entire book yet, I am only about a third of the way through, but to me their is nothing special about this book that would give it a significant edge to overcome the preference for a book dealing with American life. The book is good, but to me it is not what is normally looked for in a Pulitzer Prize winner. Give me a book that is about American life.

Which book would I have chosen? I would have gone with The Round House or Flight Behavior. Each of these are well written and deal with very important issues facing us here in America.

At least this year there was a winner. I was really disappointed with the finalists selected by the Pulitzer jury last year, as was the committee.

Steven