"I am totally unprepared and I am totally surprised," Jaimy Gordon said as she accepted the National Book Award for Fiction for Lord of Misrule,
and the rest of the audience could have said much the same. When Joanna
Scott announced Gordon's name, cheers erupted from the McPherson &
Co. table at one end of the Cipriani Wall Street ballroom, and her
future paperback publishers at Vintage cheered at the other end, but the
space between was filled with a stunned silence that was finally broken
by applause when Gordon stepped up on the small stage.
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After the ceremony: (from l.) Jaimy Gordon, author of Lord
of Misrule (fiction winner); Patti Smith, author of Just Kids (nonfiction);
Terrance Hayes, author of Lighthead (poetry); and Kathryn Erskine, author of
Mockingbird (young people's literature).
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But surprise was arguably the theme of the evening: Patti Smith accepted her nonfiction award for the memoir Just Kids (Ecco) while fighting back tears of happiness, while Terrance Hayes (who won for his poetry collection, Lighthead, from Penguin) admitted that he hadn't prepared any remarks. Only Kathryn Erskine, whose Mockingbird (Philomel)
won in the young people's literature category, appeared not to be
caught completely off-guard, but she could hardly be seen as cocky--she
spent some time before the ceremony began enthusiastically praising her
four competitors. "They are all strong, important novels," she said,
then offered detailed talking points on each one.
("This book
wasn't even finished in July," Gordon said when the show was over, "and
it had been unfinished for 10 years." It wasn't until Bruce McPherson
said he was holding her to a promise to let him publish the book this
summer that she buckled down and completed the manuscript in time for
submission to the National Book Award jury.)
Earlier in the
evening, the National Book Foundation had honored Sesame Workshop
co-founder Joan Ganz Cooney with its Literarian Award: "Is that even a
word, literarian?" quipped master of ceremonies Andy Borowitz. "It's
like the National Book Awards can make up their own words." Jon
Scieszka's introductory remarks were interrupted by surprise guest star
Elmo, who stood by listening patiently during Cooney's acceptance speech
along with Kevin Clash. Then Tina Brown introduced Tom Wolfe, recipient
of this year's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American
Letters, after which Wolfe told the audience about the origins of his
journalistic career, from his college graduation to his travels on the
bus with Kesey and watching the Black Panthers party in Leonard
Bernstein's living room. He even sang a bit of "The Girl from Ipanema,"
explaining that he'd met Antonio Carlos Jobim at another party.
If
anything could be said to some the evening up, it was Patti Smith's
acceptance speech. "I've always loved books, all my life," she began,
explaining how she had dreamed, as a young clerk at a Scribner's
bookstore, of having a book of her own, and of winning the National Book
Award. She ended with a plea to the assembled publishers: "Please, no
matter how we advance technologically... never abandon the book." It was
a message the crowd eagerly took to heart.--Ron Hogan