On Monday, the Pulitzer committee awarded its annual prizes for excellence in journalism and letters. For the first time since 1977, however, there was no award given for fiction. According to Sig Gissler, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prize, the three-judge panel failed to come to a majority decision regarding the finalists displayed to the left.
Rather than argue that the system is flawed--there have been 11 instances in the history of the Prize of no award being given--we're going to celebrate all three finalists by offering a special Not Pulitzer Bundle.
Purchase all three books--Karen Russell's exclamatory debut Swamplandia!; the late David Foster Wallace's final work, The Pale King; and Denis Johnson's novella Train Dreams--and receive a 20% discount.
Then, after you've read all three, you can host your own private Pulitzer ceremony, and bestow the award upon whichever novel you feel most deserves it.
We've also put up a display of our recommendations for some of the novels we feel coulda, shoulda, woulda won the Pulitzer if anyone asked us for our opinion. No one did, but if they had, there would have been a winner this year. Just sayin', Sig. If you're reading this, consider giving us a call next year should this happen again.
So, again: purchase a bundle of the Not Pulitzers at a discount of 20% off list price (order online and we'll apply the discount for you or call the store at 415-397-2272), host an awesome party to bestow the prize on the most deserving of the three, and invite me. [The second and third steps are optional. But I'll bring the alcohol if you invite me.]