Crowdsourcing the Canon, Round 2

December 9th, 2011

by Meredith Nudo

Crowdsourcing the Canon, Round 1 proved a fascinatingly fertile experiment, and I thought it'd be interesting to try my hand at seeing what sort of response I could scratch up for the second. This time around, I asked What award-winning books do you feel deserve more attention than they typically receive? Across the board, not just within the confines of a classroom. I didn't receive the same level of response as I did the first, but still cobbled together some amazing recommendations all the same. Quality over quantity, yeah? Yeah.

Freelance digital media Renaissance woman Christina Brady with Skullrot and Things I Learned from Video Games suggests Kurt Vonnegut's Hugo nominee (not winner, but I'll allow it) Cat's Cradle, noting that it stands as "oft acclaimed, but oft ignored by schools." She also thinks the Pulitzer-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel a valuable read…which - hey hey! – I happen to as well!

A Teacher's Trek to the Land of Classic Literature's Caroline Becker, who teaches English at Houston's Chavez High School, suggested Room by Emma Donoghue. It earned the author the 2010 Irish Book Award and landed on the shortlist for the Governor General's Awards (Canada) and the Orange Prize for Fiction. The 5-year-old narrator attracted her to the narrative, which she describes as "insightful and naive at the same time" because "he noticed things that adults don't take the time to notice."

From social media maven Laura Milligan comes another fiction and nonfiction duo. She has some extremely enthusiastic things to say about an underappreciated novel with a WH Smith Literary Award and Cheltenham Booker Prize to its name – "Often introduced as simply a companion read to Jane Eyre, I think [Jean] Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea is a worthwhile novel analyzed within its own, stand-alone context. The parallels between the colonial lifestyle and traditional European society balance the true disconnect between Antoinette and Rochester, in terms of communication, cultural bewilderment and their expectations for a partnership. Plus, it's an interesting study on narrative and point of view."

Milligan goes on to also recommend David Remnick's Pulitzer-winning Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, calling it "A forced read for an undergraduate political science class proved itself an exciting, tumultuous study on modern Russian history, politics, and public sentiment. Personal testimonials, as well as input from a journalistic point of view are sharp, honest and captivating."

Because this topic admittedly giddies me up, I have to throw a couple of suggestions in there. No, they're not A Confederacy of Dunces. They should be, if only because EVERY book should be, but they aren't. Both Pulitzer winners, Oscar Hijuelos' The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (which I'm currently reading for funsies) and Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ought to be considered contemporary classics worthy of intense academic study and casual book club chit-chats. I actually reviewed the latter at my old book blog Burning Leaves, and it garnered a right fair amount of attention after winning piles of awards and honors around 2007 and 2008. However, the book doesn't seem to enjoy the same amount of love it once did, and The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love rarely piques any recognition beyond the literary community. Even then, I know many bibliophiles who've never even heard of it!! So I highly recommend both of these for anyone seeking insightful books about Latin American culture (Cuban for Hijuelos and Dominican for Díaz), family, and very human struggles about life, identity, and love.

Thanks so much to everyone contributing to this round of Crowdsourcing the Canon! Our third round should be an interesting one, so look for more information on our OEDB.org Twitter!

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