Oh, Oregon, how do you consistently produce such fabulous writers? Here at Library HQ we've just received word that Willy Vlautin, author of Lean on Pete, is up for Oregon's Ken Kesey Award for Fiction. 43 works of fiction were nominated for this award, and the field has been narrowed down to five. Winners will be announced on April 27, 2011 in a ceremony presented by Literary Arts (www.literary-arts.org). If you loved Lean on Pete as much as we did, cast your vote for Willy here.
Praise for Lean on Pete:
"[Vlautin] unearths a world Steinbeck would have recognised...where the American underclass still resides. Lean On Peteis an archetypal American novel, Huck Finn for the crystal-meth generation." —Independent Extra
“Vlautin has created a convincing tragic hero, a dreamer and a survivor. Charley says more than Holden Caulfield ever did. This is a rare book because of its raw truth, its candour. It is a telling odyssey that stabs you in the heartand makes you consider every casual crime of neglect or cruelty ever committed against a child or animal...As one boy’s journey, Lean on Pete is as real as blood: as a novel it is remarkable. Willy Vlautin, romantic and realist, has written something special that will make you shudder, weep, rage and wonder at how such things happen and do, and how some individuals such as Charley can suffer them, absorb the grief, and somehow survive. How good is contemporary US fiction? This good: catch your breath good.— Irish Times, Eileen Battersby
-Kayleigh
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