two umbrellas

I recently received a copy of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists 2. And though I haven’t started reading it yet, I am looking forward to diving in. I was a little disappointed that Nell Freudenberger made the cut. I thought Lucky Girls was mediocre at best – but I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt with her sophomore effort. Besides, she seems to fit nicely into the the context of the other writers: Americans seem conflicted about where they stand relative to the rest of the world. As Edmund White, who was a judge, noted (taken from the Introduction by Ian Jack) “what might be called the Peace Corps novel, written about the encounter of the young privileged American within the developing world. Often his idealism is sorely tested by cynical insurgents or by poorer but more worldly foreigners.”

Although I will wait to read the selections before I more thoroughly pass judgment, I can’t help but be a little cynical myself – one, of how the books were chosen (by a panel who solicited books from publishers, agents, etc.) and two, of how the selection seems to have a theme, a statement, that I can’t help but think is a bit elitist, academic and not about America or an American sensibility, nor is it about writing – despite how good the writers are or will become. But again, I don’t want to jump to conclusions…