We’re Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize!

Okay, fine, we’re not – but now that I have your attention, I’d like to tell you about two books I recently read that are Pulitzer Prize winners and are absolutely incredible reads:

THE ROAD
- Cormac McCarthy (wrote No Country for Old Men)

The Road follows an unnamed father and son journeying together toward the sea across a post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after a great, unexplained cataclysm has destroyed civilization and almost all life on Earth. The setting is extremely bleak: the sun is obscured by a layer of ash so thick that the pair must breathe through masks, and plants do not grow. The surviving remnants of humanity have been largely reduced to thoughtless violence and cannibalism. Realizing that they will not survive another winter in their present location, the father leads them through this desolate landscape towards the sea, sustained by a vague hope of finding other “good people” like them.  The novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. (www.wikipedia.com)

I loved this book. It was a quick read and truly chilling – not as sci-fi as the description sounds.  Cormac McCarthy is an incredible storyteller and grabs your attention in The Road from the very first page – not letting to go until the very end.  The book is being made into a movie and should be out later this year: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/.  The cast includes Viggo Mortensen, Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron and Robert Duvall.  I definitely recommend reading it prior to it’s release!

INTERPRETER OF MALADIES
- Jhumpa Lahiri (wrote The Namesake)

Interpreter of Maladies is a 2000 collection of nine short stories written by Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri.  It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.  It was also chosen as The New Yorker’s Best Debut of the Year.  The stories are about the lives of Indians and Indian Americans who are caught between the culture they have inherited and the “New World” they now find themselves in. (www.wikipedia.com)

One of my favorite of the short stories in Interpreter of Maladies is “Mrs. Sen’s.”  This particular story is filled with lists of produce, catalogs of ingredients, and descriptions of recipes. Emphasis is placed on ingredients and the act of preparation. The caretaker, Mrs. Sen, solitary chops and prepares food as she tells Elliot stories of her past life, helping to craft her identity. The chopping and storytelling is well within her knowledge and expertise and is linked not only to Mrs. Sen’s subjectivity, but also her ethnic identity and her ability to forge a connection with others. When she can no longer care for Elliot, Mrs. Sen returns to a world where she negotiates the pangs of loneliness and alienation that she feels as a woman located far away from her family with no real community to speak of besides her husband in the United States. (www.wikipedia.com)

Jhumpa Lahiri is an ornate author who creates very detailed images in your head through her carefully chosen prose.  Much like The Namesake (another one of my favorite books authored by Lahiri), Interpreter of Maladies tugs at your heart and really makes you feel for the characters she so beautifully describes.  Lahiri’s The Namesake was made into a movie and released in 2006 with Kal Penn.  The movie was just as beautiful as the book.  Please read and see it ASAP.

Happy reading!!

xx, L