Book award: Did Egan win, or did Franzen lose?

The National Book Critics Circle honored Jennifer Egan's novel "A Visit From the Goon Squad" with its fiction prize, an accomplishment reported by Carolyn Kellogg, who attended the awards ceremony Thursday night in New York.

Kellogg's article noted that Egan's win bested "Jonathan Franzen's widely publicized novel 'Freedom' and works by David Grossman, Hans Keilson and Paul Murray."

But who was pictured with the online version of the article? Not Egan, but Jonathan Franzen, who, the caption noted, did not win. (There wasn't a photo with the article in the print edition.)

Readers angrily cried foul.

Fanning the flames was the subheadline on the online article, which named Franzen's book but not Egan's:

Egan beats Franzen in National Book Critics Circle's fiction prize

The Jennifer Egan work bests Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom.' The nonfiction award goes to 'The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.'

Marjorie Osterhous of Seattle wrote in an e-mail, "Seriously? Seriously??? The news is that literary darling Jonathan Franzen LOST an award, not that (talented but less well-known female) Jennifer Egan WON? Please spend a couple of minutes gazing into your editorial navels today and ask yourselves what happened."

Rebecca Frank of Somerville, Mass., is another who wrote. "Imagine winning one of the most prominent book prizes in the country, and having it reported in one of the most prominent newspapers in the country. A once in a lifetime opportunity, right?” she e-mailed. "Then imagine that the photo of the story is of one of the losers, not you. And that the subtitle to the headline has the name of his book, and not of yours."

And Cynthia Newberry Martin of Columbus, Ga., wrote, "The photo you posted is not of the winning author, Jennifer Egan. In addition, you mention the name of Mr. Franzen's novel, the one that didn't win but it's true was written by a male, while you merely allude to the novel that in fact won the award as 'work.' Granted, 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' has more words in it, but it did win."

The readers have a point about the photo. Why show an author who didn’t win? Especially one who, as Book Critic David L. Ulin noted in September, has been called "the writer we love to hate"?

The headline's omission of the title of Egan's book is a lesser offense. As in Kellogg's article, the headline intended to point out the upset victory over a more widely known work. "Freedom" has been on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller List for 27 straight weeks, seven of those at No. 1. It also was an Oprah Book Club choice. In contrast, "A Visit From the Goon Squad" spent five weeks on the list, and it has received far less publicity. Kellogg was an early fan, though, giving "Goon Squad" a glowing review in June.

Online photo editor Jerome Adamstein gave a possible reason for the use of the Franzen photo, which was taken by a Times photographer in September. There were no Times photos of Egan. And, he said, "AP has a single posed portrait from 2006 that was publisher-supplied." There was nothing more current available.

However, Adamstein conceded, "It is odd not to see the winner, even if it's an older image."

He then swapped out the photo of Franzen for the 2006 photo of Egan along with the cover of her book.

Kellogg doesn't write the headlines or choose the photos that accompany her articles. However, she tried to defuse some of the online furor over the weekend by opening a "complaint desk" Saturday on Twitter. In a tweet, she defended the headline: "I think 'work' was a good call. Egan's book has a complex unique structure -- 'novel' oversimplifies, 'linked stories' is too small."

-- Deirdre Edgar

After the jump are screen grabs of the online article before, with the Franzen photo, and after, with the Egan photo and book cover.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Comments

[Kathleen Fennessy]

Oh pleeze,Ms.Kellogg...'work" was a good call?Novel...oversimplifies? Wonder if Joyce or Proust would have thought so...

[Laura Miller]

I don't see how "work" is diminishing. The book falls between the categories of "novel" and "story collection," so "work" is more accurate than either one. What's insulting about it?

[Cathleen]

First of all, a Twitter "complaint desk" is preposterous. Only 6% of internet users are on Twitter (according to Pew data). This notion that posting something on Twitter somehow absolves a journalist of the responsibility to respond to errors, make corrections to their work, or otherwise address complaints of READERS OF THE NEWS ITEM is just arrogant and elitist. It does nothing of the kind.

That said, you are very much off base here:

"The headline's omission of the title of Egan's book is a lesser offense. As in Kellogg's article, the headline intended to point out the upset victory over a more widely known work. ... In contrast, "A Visit From the Goon Squad" spent five weeks on the list, and it has received far less publicity. "

You are saying, in effect, that the LA Times is quite the willing pawn of the marketing side of the book publishing business. Ms. Egan didn't have the advantage of massive marketing, and the Los Angeles Times very compliantly added to the publicity of the loser at the expense of the "work" that was judged to be superior. Nice.

Tell me again why the Los Angeles Times book critic has any journalistic credibility? Why should I care what Carolyn Kellogg writes when she only cares about what her Twitter followers think, and obediently privileges the loser's marketing strategy over the actual news, i.e., Jennifer Egan wins the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Prize.

[E. E. Williams]

Please, anybody complaining doesn't know a thing about putting together a web site or a newspaper. The public editor should know better. This is much ado about nothing. Gotta tell you, if I ever win the National Book Award, I'm not complaining that the loser got his or her picture published and I didn't. This is about the AWARD not the COVERAGE. I'm guessing she's glad she won the former and doesn't worry about the latter.

[Chris Roberts]

Really it is the perfect time, the perfect cause. That is, if you don't really look closely. Newly minted National Book Critics Circle fiction winner, Jennifer Egan, is the latest casualty in the literary war on men. VIDA: Women in Literary Arts is front and center in this latest battle. Why was losing author Jonathan Franzen pictured in the article? Why no mention of Egan's book title in the photo caption? Also at issue is why Franzen was even mentioned in the articles headline. VIDA has posted on Facebook, "This is pretty devastating ..."

I think that the Los Angeles Times report On Jennifer Egan's wonderful win is professional and wholly above board. There is no gender bias at work, a female staffer wrote the article. The photograph used shows a top contender for the fiction prize. That's legitimate usage. Yes, ideally a photo of the winner could have been used, but perhaps there was not one available at press time. The issue of not using the winning book's title in a photo caption is offset by it's use in the lead sentence of the piece. The use of Franzen's name in the article's headline is justified given his fan base and interest in the NBCC awards results.

You pick and choose your fights they say. There is no fight here. VIDA's response, to paraphrase, 'devastating' is over the top. What is happening in Japan is devastating. What happened in Los Angeles at the National Book Critics Circle awards? A very talented author, Jennifer Egan, was recognized and celebrated. That's the real story.

[Holly LeCraw]

@Chris: please, please tell me you mistyped when you wrote "the literary war on men."

[walter peyton]

If Franzen's picture and the title of his book were not used, the literary world would be robbed of the bizillionth chance to masterbate over Franzen. Thank you LAT, so much. All together everyone! ... FRANZEN! FRANZEN! FRANZEN! FRANZEN!

[Pamela Henstell]

The publisher always has an updated author photo--just ask. And the jacket image is a good substitute, dontcha think?

[Chris Roberts]

@Holly: File that under figure of speech or rather, an analogy that got away from itself. I'm all about the best and the brightest being published. The more varied the representation, the more the reader wins. I believe in the spirit of VIDA, while at the same time there is a vision to keep sight of and I wouldn't want this fine organization to get mired down in counts and numbers, but rather engage in a constructive dialog within the literary community.

[wurdnurd]

Considering the subhead had enough space to list both the title and subtitle for the winning non-fiction book, methinks there was more than enough space to leave Franzen OUT and celebrate the winner. And to address a previous comment in defense of sexism: Just because a woman wrote the article doesn't make it gender-neutral. Editors (photo and print) are in control of photos and headlines: those are where the sexism resided.

And it DOES matter. While it's lovely to hype that a book that received far less coverage (in the LA Times...NPR was a much different story) as winning, the news is that EGAN won, NOT the hyper-publicized, over-saturated, undeservedly idolized Franzen. The media machine was wrong, both in shoving Franzen in the face of the reading public, and in using the coverage of the NBCC awards as another marketing opportunity for his doorstop of a book.

[new england reader]

Kellogg is a self-important mediocrity, just not all that as a critic no matter how much importance she assigns to herself based on her Twitter stats.

[Jean]

"As in Kellogg's article, the headline intended to point out the upset victory over a more widely known work. "Freedom" has been on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller List for 27 straight weeks, seven of those at No. 1. It also was an Oprah Book Club choice. In contrast, "A Visit From the Goon Squad" spent five weeks on the list, and it has received far less publicity."

Exactly. So why should those poor critics break their brains deciding who should get the prize? Get a statistician to merge Oprah's choices with LA Times bestseller list, together with whatever measures are used to determine how much publicity a book receives.