Messud's Powers, The National Book Award, and Other Ramblings

Well, you may as well know that I write fiction (AS A HOBBY!) and that I read fiction partly from a HOBBY NOVELIST'S point of view, but, and this is a BIG BUT, Claire Messud's A Woman Upstairs should--yes, should--unequivocally be considered for the National Book Award this year.

BUT because too many male judges will read it and dismiss this brilliant tour de force as a "Women's Novel," it will most likely not be named a finalist, and, if by some bizarre chance it should be declared a finalist, it will never win the award. (I am a feminist cynic, aren't I? You bet!) And that will be because the most significant characters are women portrayed living their lives in women's traditional roles. Yes, I can go out on my tree limb overhanging a cold, dark lake and say with a certitude, which comes from reading contemporary American literature for many decades, and also because I have been steeped like a moist teabag in the thick of American intellectual culture, that this will be the end result. American culture is still so male-dominated.

Oh, well, I say to myself, I and the rest of the 51 percent can collectively shrug our shoulders and say, "Messud is too brilliant a writer for men to figure out anyway."

It's not a totally comfortable read, but if you have had dreams and an intellectual life, and you are a woman (or a man), read it!