Literary Recount

by Sara Nelson -- Publishers Weekly, 6/5/2006

For every action, there is a reaction. Who said that? Einstein? Newton? Britney Spears?

Never mind, because this week, the National Book Critics Circle proved the adage by releasing its response to the recent New York Times Book Reviewsurvey crowning Toni Morrison's Beloved as the best work of American fiction since 1980. What the NBCC did was poll the participating writers and ask them who they voted for, so as to report more of the titles that got only one vote—left unmentioned in the Times reporting—and also pair some choosers to their chosens.

While the NBCC is more politic about the results than Cynthia Ozick was at the panel at BEA—on which she opined that Morrison's work served better as social history than great literature—critics John Freeman and David Orr, the brains behind the survey's survey, are clearly reveling in what they have found out.

On the NBCC "alternative" list, several "newer" and "younger" books than any that appeared on the Times list (see: Wonder Boys and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, both by Michael Chabon) sit alongside what can only be categorized as "Oh, yeah, how did the Times survey overlook those?"—titles like William Kennedy's Ironweed (nominated by a judge who dared not speak his name to the NBCC) and The Hours (nominated—only?—by Roxana Robinson). Also making cameo appearances are Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and The Collected Stories of Grace Paley, as well as some way more obscure titles like Aberration of Starlightby the late Gilbert Sorrentino. According to Freeman, many of the polled judges didn't just confess their nominations, many editorialized on the original process and/or the final Times list and/or their own sheeplike behavior in voting for Morrison or Roth or Updike et al.

None of which is particularly surprising. Back on April 17, I predicted that the reaction to TBReditor Sam Tanenhaus's survey of writers and critics would be swift and, if anything, harsher than it has been. But the appearance of the NBCC list confirms that while there is indeed disagreement, not to say jockeying, in the literary and critical ranks, it also reminds us that there are an awful lot of books that real readers read and love and remember, even if they've not won PC awards or earned millions or even sold through. (On Glory's Course by James Purdy was not exactly a blockbuster, but it got a vote, courtesy of Paula Fox.) And while we all may grumble about these "contests"—"This is all so American Idol, one NYTBR judge told the NBCC"—and whine (correctly) that they rarely affect sales, the fact is that they get us thinking about and talking about books.

I only wish the NBCC had been able to get more disgruntled judges to "out" themselves like John Irving did. "I voted for myself, for The Cider House Rules," he told the NBCC, "suspecting that, otherwise, I might not receive a single vote." But so what? he asks. "We all know presidents vote for themselves and they do far more harm than writers do."

There. Finally. Something we can all agree on.

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