New York — The author himself may not be that popular in certain circles, but acclaim for Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections" continues. Franzen's novel about an unhappy Midwestern family is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle prize.
Among other nominations announced Monday are a poetry collection by 90-year-old Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, essays by Martin Amis and a novel by W.G. Sebald, a highly regarded German writer who was killed in a car crash late last year.
Two of 2001's most notable biographies, David McCullough's "John Adams" and Edmund Morris' "Theodore Rex," were not cited.
Franzen is already a National Book Award winner. The critics' nomination reinforces the author's place in what he calls "the high-art literary tradition" and should help "The Corrections" outlast the notoriety from his falling out with Oprah Winfrey. The talk-show host chose his novel in September for her book club but canceled the traditional author dinner after he made a series of disparaging remarks.
The wrath of Winfrey apparently did not hurt Franzen commercially and may have helped. Sales for "The Corrections" are nearing the 1 million mark, an enormous number for literary fiction and especially large for an author whose previous novel sold less than 20,000 copies.
Franzen joins a strong list of fiction finalists. Besides "The Corrections," nominees include Sebald's "Austerlitz," Ann Patchett's "Bel Canto," Colson Whitehead's celebrated "John Henry Days," and "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage," the latest collection from the revered short story writer Alice Munro.
Paula Fox, whose books Franzen helped bring back into print, is a finalist for her memoir, "Borrowed Finery." Other nominees include Barry Werth's "The Scarlet Professor," Adam Sisman's "Boswell's Presumptuous Task," David Hadju's "Positively Fourth Street" and "Milking the Moon," by Eugene Walter, as told to Katherine Clark.
Walter, an award-winning writer and translator, died in 1998.
The book critics circle has a history of favoring outsiders, but nine of the 25 finalists this year were published by Random House Inc., the largest trade publisher in the United States.
A lifetime achievement award is being given to Random House editor Jason Epstein, whose authors include Norman Mailer and E.L. Doctorow.
The winners will be announced March 11.
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