Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor and Really Bad Weather (2003) by Jincy Willett

 Winner of the National Book Award: 

A Novel of Fame, Honor and Really Bad Weather (2003) 

by Jincy Willett 

Frome, Rhode Island

Rhode Island: 9/9

   Rhode Island: It's eccentric even by the high standards for eccentricity set by the other states in New England.  That is my assessment after reading the 9 books this smallest state got on the 1001 Novels: A Library of America List.  As you might guess from the title, Winner of the National Book Award is a wry, self-aware book that still manages to be about the troubled relationship between two sisters in the northeast- which feels like the subject of 8/10 of the last 1001 Novels: A Library of America.  This time around, one sister (narrator) is a prim librarian the other is a slatternly tart currently facing murder charges for killing her comically abusive writer husband. 

  Once again I found myself rolling my eyes at the degree to which the mental illness of one family member totally controls the life (and plot of the novel) of another, seemingly not insane family member.  Like other re-occurring situations this one seems to be at the heart of contemporary fiction, particularly as it is represented by editor Susan Straight in the 1001 Novels List.  Winner of the National Book Award, is, at least, intermittently funny and it comes with pull quotes from both Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris, which should give anyone familiar with either writer an idea of the vibe the reader is going to experience.   I'm pleased to see the end of Rhode Island- the fourth state I've finished on the 1001 Novels List.