we follow after bubbles, blown in the air

So, I am sitting here trying my damndest to compell my fingers not to type the quote "It was the best of Times ..." etc. to begin this post, as I peruse the NY Times "Best Work of American Fiction in the Last 25 Years." The list was published today, as threatened. They also posted the the list of the judges who participated. I was surprised to see that Russell Banks, Paula Fox (who I hope to write about some day), and Richard Russo agreed to participate, among some other names of whom I have a high opinion.

There are no surprises here (indeed, no surprise in that at all). The only portion of this list I found mildly interesting were some of the choices in the "multiple votes" section, where it looks as if at least a few of the judges got up from their desks and perused their shelves a little more closely.

And maybe it is my returning cynicism, but I find it terribly yawn inducing that among the multiple picks by the same handful of uber-masculine "runners-up," the winner is only one of two female writers on the list (and the book by Marilynne Robinson was not reviewed by the Times at any point). Has it really become the case that we are so hyper-aware of political correctness that it shows itself without embarrassment in this manner? At least they were consistent in their appreciation for the more oblique scribes, what better way to ascribe meaninglessness to such a meaningless endeavor. In any event, here is the list:

The "Winner":
Beloved, Toni Morrison

The Runners-Up:
Underworld, Don DeLillo
Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
The Four Rabbit Angstrom Novels, Rabbit at Rest, Rabbit Is Rich, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit, Run, John Updike
American Pastoral, Philip Roth

Titles that Received Multiple Votes:
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin
White Noise, Don DeLillo
The Counterlife, Philip Roth
Libra, Don DeLillo
Where I'm Calling From, Raymond Carver
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien
Mating, Norman Rush
Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson
Operation Shylock, Philip Roth
Independence Day, Richard Ford
Sabbath's Theater, Philip Roth
Border Trilogy: Cities of the Plain, The Crossing, All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
The Human Stain, Philip Roth
The Known World, Edward P. Jones
The Plot Against America, Philip Roth

I was a bit distressed to see that Roth wasn't on the list of judges, as I was certain he must have stuffed the ballot box. Twenty-five years is a long time, are we really to understand that only a handful of authors have been good during this period? What of Millhauser? Ian McEwan? And, frankly Banks? This exercise frustrated more than I anticipated. More for the disappointment in being correct in my not-so-optimistic-belief that all the members of our current literati are interested in is preening the already well-groomed.