Another Way to Look at It

Over at the Guardian John Freeman steps to the plate as the latest American critic to try and defend the international quality of our writers from accusations of “insularity.”

He looks to the quality of the fiction shortlist for the National Book Award, pointing out that this year’s list is littered with international interests and backgrounds. Such as Aleksandar Hemon’s The Lazarus Project (misspelled earlier because of Frankfurt—it’s always Frankfurt), Rachel Kushner’s Telex from Cuba, and Salvatore Scibona’s Halldor Laxness-influenced novel The End.

All that’s fine, good, and true, but maybe John has it flipped. It’s not that the NBA shortlist is a snapshot of American literature as a whole, demonstrating the general international flavor of our authors, but that the best American works, the ones deserving of the NBA, are the ones written by authors steeped in other cultures, literatures, and backgrounds . . .