🏆 The books that won the Pulitzers

Vincent Yu is the author of Seek Immediate Shelter, out today from Flatiron Books. Below, he discusses three books that influenced his writing.

My debut novel, Seek Immediate Shelter, follows a group of vastly different characters, all living in the same town, who simultaneously receive a ballistic missile alert. Their reactions range from disbelief, to panic, to relief, to even hope. When a follow-up announcement is released, 18 minutes later, declaring the alert to be a false alarm, these same people must come to terms with how they behaved and reconcile their own identities accordingly.    

I’ve always been fascinated by fiction as a pressure cooker for character development. Below are a few novels whose knotty characters deepened my own conception of the vividness with which human beings can be rendered from completely fictional circumstances. 

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen: Each of the five Lamberts in Franzen’s masterpiece seems pulled straight from real life, although Gary, the hilariously misanthropic, alcoholic, materialistic, well-meaning oldest child is my favorite. His contradictions and insecurities abound—in particular, his refusal to accept his own clinical depression. But as the novel progresses, it becomes clear he’s never quite moved on from being the little boy who wanted to feel special, especially to his parents. 

The Collective by Don Lee: This novel’s brilliant, selfish, enigmatic Joshua Yoon provided my first (personal) encounter with an Asian American character who was fundamentally unlikable. Joshua is more than simply flawed; he is, among other things, an egomaniac, a control freak, a misogynist. He is a forceful reaction to Asian American male stereotypes—ironic, since his artistic mantra centers overwhelmingly on capitalizing upon his identity. Because he’s described through the viewpoint of a more sensible and relatable sidekick, Joshua’s behavior is never fully understood, nor is it condoned, which suits him.     

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout: The titular character in this gorgeous book is, from the outside, merely a retired teacher who spent her entire life in a small seaside town in Maine. Strout, however, manages to grant this unassuming character an interiority expansive and compelling enough to create high-stakes drama from ostensibly small, quiet moments. It’s a literary miracle.