The Reuters report on the National Book Awards is online. It’s nice to have a sentence or two from winner Richard Powers (a few more sentences, uttered just yesterday; and weeks ago he made an appearance at the end of this roundtable).
In the fiction category, Richard Powers won for his novel ”The Echo Maker,” which explores the nature of human intelligence set in rural Nebraska.
Powers, a previous finalist and author of eight earlier novels, thanked supporters of his books “that haven’t always been easy to market or classify.”
The other fiction finalists included Ken Kalfus’ “A Disorder Peculiar to the Country,” — a black comedy that traces the unraveling of a marriage in the aftermath of 9/11 — and Jess Walter’s “The Zero,” which follows the life of a policeman after a terrorist attack.
The two omitted nominees were “Only Revolutions” by Mark Z. Danielewski and Dianna Spiotta’s “Eat the Document.” Why leave them out? Maybe too much wine at the dinner. I imagine they serve wine.
There was plenty, but not so much in the press box. Maybe the lack of wine explained things.