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Why Ha Jin's Waiting won awards

20 years ago

We just read and discussed Ha Jin's Waiting in my Prizewinning Fiction class. The novel won the National Book Award and the Pen/Faulkner, as well as being short-listed for the Pulitzer. Most of the students were at a loss for reasons why. Although we had a pretty lively three-hour discussion, the book still seemed so much less compelling, so much weaker, than what they assumed a prize-winner should be. I tried to find out what the advance "buzz" had been to see if that was a factor, but came up empty. And I've written to the NBA three times trying to find out the names of the judges for that year and have gotten no response.

What do you all think?

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Comments (5)

georgia_peach
20 years ago
I read "Waiting" and found it dry, but served the purpose and theme the author was going for. Since I didn't read the other books that were nominated for the National Prize that year, I can't say how it compares. I did find this Salon article that mentions the trends for that year and the names of the judges, if that is helpful.

Here is a link that might be useful: 1999 National Book Prize Nominees
alicia7b
20 years ago
I was thoroughly bored by the book. My opinion is that book awards often don't mean very much. I'm not saying that a wonderful book can't win an award, but so do a lot of so-so books.
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toad_CA_gardenweb_com
20 years ago
georgia peach,
Thank you SO much for the link! By the way, how did you find this? I'd thought I'd Googled and Lex/Nexed every keyword combination possible.

alicia7b,
I know what you mean, but my class is coming to the conclusion that book awards actually do mean quite a lot; they just may not mean what we assume they are supposed to mean.
Along with reading fiction, we're also reading articles about how major awards are run. And one of the most interesting twists came last week. While most of us felt that the judges were of primary importance (who they were and how they approached their job), how books get submitted to these awards turns out to be equally (if not more) significant. In the article I've linked below, the author tells us that most awards only allow books to be submitted by publishers, and they are usually only allowed two or three submissions. If you're a new author with Philip Roth's publishers and Roth's new book came out the same year your's did, that's one space gone, one less chance for you. Big name publishers can throw more money into promoting your book, but there's less chance of a new author being submitted for an award.

Here is a link that might be useful: Making the Initial Cut
toad_ca
Original Author
20 years ago
by the way, I don't know what that e-mail nonsense is. That's not my e-mail (nor do I want my e-mail posted). Another i-village glitch I suppose.
alicia7b
20 years ago
The Pulizter Prize strikes me as very political, ie, a woman should win this year, someone from this country should win the next year... How else can you explain Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres, or Jhumpa Lahiri's collection of short stories Interpretor of Maladies, neither of which struck me as accomplished enough to win a prize like that. Which is not to say that great books don't win prizes -- The Shipping News won a bunch of prizes, The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston won the National Book Critics' Award for Nonfiction, and there are more, but the best books each year do not always win the prizes. Which is how it would be in a perfect world.

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