Pulitzer Prize Winners for Fiction

Having never read any of Strout's previous work, I chose this based on an NPR recommendation.

I didn't expect the short story format, but I think it works. The title character is not always the center of the stories; she threads them together with her presence in some form or fashion.

Focusing on a life in small town, the stories interweave to create characters and plot lines that are intriguing and compelling. These are your neighbors, these are your friends, this is what happens when you're not with them.

Another Pulitzer Prize winner. An intricate family history that goes from the present to the past and from New Jersey to the Dominican Republic while weaving historical facts in between.

This book is a grim projection of our possible future. In his typical stark landscapes and sparse dialogue, McCarthy offers a rich tapestry of contemplation for the reader. We are left with questions to which we will never have answers — and that is perfectly fine. At the end of our character's journey we are hopeful, but left with the bitter taste of the crimes we are capable of committing.

A thoughtful, deep look into what happens during wartime and the changes cruelty and distance can inflict on a man. A very worthwhile read that will reveal an aspect of life most of us don't experience these days.

A powerful story of generational ties. Very articulate and a very "American" tale of lineage through patriarchal lines.

Heart-breaking and eye-opening tale of slavery in the American south. The book is a beautifully written, compelling tale of slavery under owners, white, black, and Cherokee. This book challenges many of the pablum beliefs main- stream popular concepts about American slavery. Because there are some pretty brutal events (no real surprise, I guess) be forewarned that reading this book will have a big impact.

One of my all-time favorite books (that happened to win the Pulitzer Prize). The saga of a modern-day Greek family, and how genes show up in weird places and how every family has its issues.

Really engaging; I didn't want it to end and was afraid to pick up another book after, because I felt anything else would be a letdown.

Chabon's best book — it won a Pulitzer Prize. The tale of 2 cousins who meet after WWII and enter into the world of comic book writing. The comic industry of the 1930s was predominantly Jewish. There was an exhibit at the Jewish Museum a few years back showing work from that time period. I had no idea that the majority of comic book heroes that have become lore were a Jewish industry.

I'm not usually a short story person, except for this book. Each one is a small jewel, akin to Kneale's Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance.

This is a brilliant literary play on Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway". Not only does it build on the previous work but it gets across essential, beautiful messages about the transitory nature of life and what we're all about.

About two years ago, I saw Richard Ford discuss this book during an interview. His said his wife had suggested that he write about someone who is happy for a change. The result is sportswriter-turned real estate salesman Frank Bascombe, the character first introduced in Ford's The Sportswriter and brought back in the more recent Lay of the Land. Bascombe struggles to be happy in the face of considerable odds: grief over his lost son, remorse over the lost love of his ex-wife and a friend's loss to murder, and an assortment of lost opportunities. Along the way he works hard to tame the unruly demands of real estate clients who can't afford what they want, and don't want what they can pay for. Ford says he did not plan to do a series about Frank Bascombe; it's just that every ten years or so, he hears Bascombe's voice when he sits down to write. Ford once told an interviewer on WNYC radio that "literature's fundamental purpose is to insist life is worth living." This book is a prime example of that philosophy.

I struggled with this book at first, but it eventually kicked into gear and wrapped up with a sudden, dramatic finish. If you enjoy bleak Canadian landscapes — and who doesn't? — this is a must-read.

It is a fitting culmination to the "Rabbit" series. Angstrom continues to scrap with the angels and demons in his life, Updike puts the reader inside the character, while also continuing the kaleidoscope narrative of Rabbit's world. Very readable, and the concluding scene from Rabbit's point of view is imprinted in my memory.

I read Rabbit's life as a requiem for American consumerism. You ask for it, you got it, Toyota.

This is a relationship book. I had to read it for a class, but ended up liking it. It makes you think about why people stay together, and you ask yourself why some relationships work, and question what makes a good relationship... it shows that what works when we're young may be different from when we get older, and that's okay.

Morrison's book usually would be classified as a ghost story. The beautifully descriptive prose alone, though, sets this above the rest. Morrison makes the reader sympathize with the most hated creature in the world: the mother who murders her own child. What balls. But further, she is not content with telling a story of a victim coming back to haunt the accused. She's not interested in shocking us, or merely coming up with something worse than we've seen before, although she could easily have left it at that. Morrison's story is much more.

It's a history lesson, an illustration of society gone wrong and making bad choices. The subject matter, the cruelties of slavery, has been done before. But where Uncle Tom's Cabin is sanctimonious and obvious, Beloved is realistic and subtle. The brutality is not witnessed so much as felt. Morrison elegantly justifies murder of a child. She not only depicts the circumstances, the consequences, the aftermath, the price to pay, she also puts the reader in the shoes of the murderer. Not to witness the events, but to feel them. We feel the anguish, the pain, the humiliation, the knowledge of what is to come. We viscerally understand and react in a way that's far beyond wringing our hands over Simon Legree. We go to bed sick at heart, depressed, despondent as if things haven't changed after all. It's a slipstream sort of manipulation that happens without us seeing it creep up on us.

Do you want to live in the Old West? This book is the next best thing, and maybe the best thing because you can experience without heat, rattlesnakes, danger, and renegades. This a tale about unforgettable lawmen, and the lowlife criminals they bring to justice. Along the way you'll experience it all, in one of McMurtry's best loved books. Seriously, read the first ten pages, you'll be hooked, and shoppin' for a cowboy hat.

Really a fantastic book! One of the best ever. A timeless story of an abused woman coming to terms with her life, and learning to stand up for herself. Also, one of the best descriptions of God I have ever heard.

In his "Rabbit" series, John Updike captured the spirit of the upper middle class from World War II through the decline of the modern age. Rabbit Angstrom's climb to wealth via his own auto dealership explores the darker human relational side of the American Dream.

Rabbit's struggles with spouse, son, in-laws, and other social climbers is the experience of many who grew to maturity in that age. You'll feel like you're there, so enjoy the ride. You asked for it... you got it... Toyota. RIP John Updike. You wrote life.

Recommended to me years ago by then-idol John Waters, this genius killed himself before his mother discovered the masterpiece A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES and had it published. Of course it went on to win a Pulitzer, but it was too late... Toole was dead and now the millions of us in his thrall have to make due by reading and re-reading his hilarious epic satire about an obese, cantankerous self-proclaimed genius named Ignatius J. Reilly who clashes with a modern world (it's set in '60s New Orleans but is really timeless) populated by an unforgettable collection of freaks, losers and wackos. It's easy to imagine Waters' superstars in key roles — how about Edith Massey as Ignatius's clueless mother and Mink Stole as evil barkeep Lana Lee? Toole's short novel THE NEON BIBLE is very different, but flawlessly crafted in the Truman Capote/Flannery O'Connor mold.

I read this when a professor recommended this as a good comparison to Coriolanus for a character study. It's much, much more than that; aside from any literary discussion the sheer scale is impressive. The way he weaves the environment around the main topic/character is elegant and effective. It's a big book but worth the effort, especially if you are interested in contemporary American culture and media.

Okay, it's not a novel — but Cheever's writing always takes my breath away. Just when you think you're on fairly solid ground — namely, Westchester County — along comes a wondrous radio or an elephant marching over the hills. A magical realist who's part Marquez and part Walter Mitty.

Ah, Humboldt's Gift. A GREAT book! It is both insightful and hilarious, pitch-perfect in its tone with rich (as in well-drawn) characters. Since reading this, I can't get enough of Bellow. I believe he was a genius.

Historical fiction at the Battle of Gettysburg. The book provides multiple first-person perspectives on the action, and the lack of a omniscient narrator helps the reader grasp the open ended and messy nature of the communications and decisions leaders are faced with. This compelling story also weaves the human element into the battle, leaving readers struggling themselves with the notions of loyalty and courage.

Still have my yellowed 75 cent copy from high school days and will not give it up. Shirley Ann Grau paints a beautiful, descriptive narrative in the heat of the deep Old South, moving slowly and deliciously through the lives of several generations of the white Howlands, encompassing the black secrets of the family, ending in a finale of revenge that left me breathless and thoughtful.

This is one of my favorite Faulkner books. Little read, but much revered by those who have, The Reviers is part of the saga encompassing Faulkner's favorite family, the McCaslins. A story within a story — told to a boy by his grandfather — The Reviers is the tale of Lucius and Boon Hogganbeck's trip to Memphis in Lucius's grandfather's brand new automobile. Boon, the family's tag-along servant, invites Lucius (not yet eleven) on a joyride while the rest of the family is gone, and the two fight, struggle, and bet their way through the South.

The Reviers is probably one of the funniest of Faulkner's books, filled with madcap humor that is only made better by the twists and turns of all of his writing.

A classic with which you can’t go wrong. Atticus Finch, steady, firm, compassionate and single father of two provides the moral grounding for the book. His defense of Tom Robinson inspires us all to want to stand up and do the right thing.

Well written, suspenseful, characters are well drawn and "the death" itself becomes a character.

If you like your history raw and powerful — filled with both the best and worst of humanity — this is a magnificent book. The history is accurate and the story hypnotic. The setting is the infamous prison camp at Andersonville governed by the sadistic commander Wirtz. The individual stories of each man, how they came to be there, and the outcome will hold you enthralled throughout the book.

While Faulkner considered A Fable to be his greatest work, spending over a decade on it, critics were mixed in the reviews and it has been remembered as a lesser novel. This although it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Award in 1955. However, it is worth reading because of the abrupt changes from his norm: set in France, during World War I, it follows a corporal and his men who challenge the ideas inherent in war. The allegory of the Christ story is obvious but no less poignant because Faulkner makes it his own and does so delicately. It may seem tough reading at times, but the stories come together in a daring climax.

Probably one of the best character-driven novels in print. It's a book you will never forget. The war at sea brings out the underlying fears of men.

This is one of Michener's earliest books (his earliest maybe?) and it's not like his others. A collection of loosely-related short stories, it depicts the romantic vision of the South Pacific he picked up during his time there during World War II.

While it's one of his best, I personally highly recommend The Drifters — it's a great story that perfectly captures the era in which it's set.

To even begin to understand this great big mess that is American politics, you should start with the best political novel ever written, an insight into populism, power and the inevitable corruption that follows.

In its brief first chapter, The Grapes of Wrath mentions dust more than twenty times. In this Great Depression era novel, there is no escaping the Dust Bowl, even as the reader. The power of this story lies in its simplicity: once the bank has repossessed a family's farm, they must pack up and move west or die. Steinbeck's sparse prose only adds to the impression that on this trip there is no room for luxury, only survival. Misfortune follows the Joad family from their farm on, but the novel closes with an image of hope that reads like a sigh of relief.