An Unfocused Year for Fiction...

In which we look at the first half of the 1957 longlist and consider the direction of the literary landscape

Hi, Y’all! Glad You’re Here—

When we consider the books featured on the National Book Award longlists up to 1955, we see that a majority were focused on World War II. I’ve talked about this a lot over the last few months, but what’s interesting is how, beginning with the 1956 longlist, we really see a sharp turn into more books focused on social issues …