| National Book Awards |
[Nov. 25th, 2007|03:37 pm] |
The CIA plays a big role in the winners of the 2007 National Book Awards announced this month.
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (Adult Fiction New), the winner for Fiction, introduces us to William "Skip" Sands, a CIA officer who goes to Vietnam in 1967 as part of a team operating against North Vietnam. The Library Journal describes this book as, "Ugly and fascinating, with many shattering scenes, this long work may seem familiar to fans of Apocalype Now, but is nevertheless gripping."
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner (327.1273 W423 New) is the non-fiction winner. The jacket says, "...here is the hidden history of the CIA: why eleven presidents and three generations of CIA officers have been unable to understand the world, why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found it and how these failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security."
The winner for Young Adult Literature, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (YA Alexie New), however has nothing to do with the CIA. It is the story of a young boy who moves from the Spokane Indian Reservation to an all-white school where the only other Indian is the mascot and of the growth of this young Indian's understanding of his identity. |
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