A Little Bit of Pulitzer Drama: JAMES

I breathed a sigh of relief on Monday afternoon when I learned the Pulitzer Prize for fiction went to the best book of 2024: James by Percival Everett. The Pulitzer Board got it right this year, selecting a book which has the true feel of a modern classic, riffing on another classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I even spent a few moments after learning of the winner, imagining English classes in high school or college reading the two books side by side making comparisons to the plot, the language, the times. To say it mildly, I was delighted.

I did note there were three finalists announced. not the usual two, alongside the winner. None of these books -- Headshot (Bullwinkel); Unicorn Woman (Jones); and Mice 1961 (Levine) -- are well known to me. In fact, I don't think they are well known to many readers as evidenced by the low number of reviews on Goodreads: 

• Headshot: 3.5 stars; 10,108 ratings; 1,890 reviews
• Unicorn Woman: 3.09 stars; 140 ratings. 27 reviews.
• Mice 1961: 3.52 stars; 61 ratings; 19 reviews.

Lest you think these are good numbers, especially for Headshot, here are the comparative numbers for the winner:

• James: 4.49 stars; 294,414 ratings; 32,758 reviews.

I'm not saying the other three books aren't good, worthy of our notice, but they are not in the same ballpark with James. Whew, I thought, they got it right this year.

Then I learned about the controversy.

According to an article in the New York Times, "James Won the Pulitzer, But Not Without Complications" (May 6, 2025). James wasn't the first choice of the Pulitzer jury. Here are the highlights from the article:

-First, a reminder of the process -- a jury of five authors and literary critics wade through a vast number of books each year and select three titles to forward to the Pulitzer Board. The board then takes a vote which of the three to select as the winner. If the board cannot reach a majority decision on one book they may decide to not give out an award, as they did in 2012, or they can reach back to the jury and ask for another recommendation. James was the 4th book on their list.

-As delighted as many in the literary world were with James, it was mentioned that the three finalists were all authored by women. And James, the only book of the four authored by a man, was selected. Many wanted to pick at that scab, but Stacey Levine, author of Mice 1961, was demissive to this criticism, noting in an email that, at a moment when diversity initiatives and public funding for the arts are at risk, the Pulitzer Prize stands for integrity — a quality worth celebrating.“Percival’s book is so important in this regard,” Levine wrote in an email. “Is this really the time to fuss about what might or might not be gender politics in a literary contest?”

One has to wonder, however, if Percival Everett is smarting a bit since this news surfaced. Here he is the winner of one of the biggest literary prizes in the world and then he learns his book was actually selected as fourth place by the selection jury. 

But here's the thing -- If the award had gone to another little-known book, one could quibble about the male-female thing. But James' merit stands out. Not only did James win the National Book Award in 2024, it also won the Kirkus Prize and was a finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Percival Everett, a Black author, has a large body of work which has spanned his long career. He has published 30+ books. His book, Telephone, was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 2021 and was published by a small, independent press. Though James is published by Doubleday in the US, one cannot lay the criticism on this author for being a part of some publishing cabal, ruled by the big publishers.

Last year I was fairly critical of the Pulitzer Board for selecting Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips, a female author and a lesser known book, overlooking a fantastic book by another Black male author, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. So now the tables are turned. Apparently the Pulitzer Board lives in that liminal space between two schools of thought.

My hope for each new award book -- to live well beyond its publishing year, becoming a classic book worthy of being read 50, 100 years from now. I believe James is such a book.

-Anne

P.S.Here is my review of James, written in October 2024. I'd be honored if you'd read it. Let me know your thoughts.