National Book Critics Circle Passes Over Vietnam

Darned if I can figure it out. It isn't that Joyce Carol Oates isn't one of my favorite authors. She led in the National Book Critics Circle finalists that were announced on Saturday. But Tree of Smoke, a book about the extreme ups and downs -- spirtually, physically and politically, of the Vietnam war didn't get a nod. Hard to tell why. Maybe those of us who care about such things should be glad that Dennis Johnson's book did receive the National Book Award. But I have to wonder, what WERE the Book Critics Circle judges thinking!?
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson wrote the foreword for Eric Dinyer's book of patriotic quotations, Support Our Troops, published by Andrews McMeel. Part of the proceeds for the book benefit Fisher House. Her chapbook of poetry won the Military Writers Society of America's award of excellence.