Bookslut has started the Daphne Awards, seeking to honor the best books of the year -- from fifty years ago -- in four categories (fiction, non, poetry and kid's stuff), and they've now announced the shortlists for the first go-round.
Counting 1963 as the year of first publication (rather than the year when the books originally appeared in English), the fiction list is a pretty impressive and translation-heavy one (and I'm a bit surprised to note that I've read all of them). Two of the books are even under review at the complete review: the obvious winner, Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch (the other titles are very good, but this is the towering -- and most influential -- work of fiction that saw the light of 1963-day) and The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas -- and I do have a soft spot for two of the others: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima as well as The Grifters by Jim Thompson. (Meanwhile, it's good to see that some good sense and taste prevailed, and Mary McCarthy's The Group did not make the cut (as originally feared).)
I've even read some of the titles shortlisted in the other categories -- from Encyclopedia Brown to Hannah Arendt -- but find it hard to work up much interest in what's best of those lots.
Counting 1963 as the year of first publication (rather than the year when the books originally appeared in English), the fiction list is a pretty impressive and translation-heavy one (and I'm a bit surprised to note that I've read all of them). Two of the books are even under review at the complete review: the obvious winner, Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch (the other titles are very good, but this is the towering -- and most influential -- work of fiction that saw the light of 1963-day) and The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas -- and I do have a soft spot for two of the others: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima as well as The Grifters by Jim Thompson. (Meanwhile, it's good to see that some good sense and taste prevailed, and Mary McCarthy's The Group did not make the cut (as originally feared).)
I've even read some of the titles shortlisted in the other categories -- from Encyclopedia Brown to Hannah Arendt -- but find it hard to work up much interest in what's best of those lots.