|
|
|
|
The Banta
Award 1992 The
Imposter: Stories About Netta and Stanley
The
1992 Banta Award BOOK Netta and Stanley are not lovers but second cousins and the joyriding episode a flash forward. The remaining eight interconnected stories explore aspects of their separate pasts which have brought them to this point. Stanley has moved twelve times in as many years and across several states while his mother tries to protect him from his father's attempts to kidnap him. He grows up fragile, unable to read, hungry for a father, and with a flair for crime. Netta's childhood is also unsettled. Her mother, abandoned by her father after he has moved the family from New Orleans to Ripon where they know no one and do not fit in, clings to one inappropriate boyfriend after another in a desperate attempt to prove her self worth. But Netta, blessed with an innate self-assurance, maintains a passionate vitality despite her homelife and the hostility of the small town. While a bare bones plot outline makes the book sound grim, it is anything but. It is rich with laugh-out-loud comic scenes. It is peopled with colorful, full-bodied characters who engage our sympathy despite (or even because of) their flaws. It sparkles with wit and love of life. Some of the stories, and often the same incident, are told from several points of view. This not only demonstrates Ms. Sharp's technical skill as a writer but also supports the imposter theme. We learn that people are wonderfully complex and that it is hazardous to think we can distinguish the imposter from the authentic self in anyone, even in ourselves. Netta and Stanley's young lives have been troubled so far but also full of adventure and loyalty and courage. Such is Ms. Sharp's gift that when we come to the end of the book we want to read more about them, their families, their world. We have been greatly entertained but have also learned something about how to live our own lives. The
AUTHOR Paula Sharp was born in 1957 in San Diego, California and spent a significant part of her growing up years in Ripon, Wisconsin. She received a BA with highest distinction in comparative literature from Dartmouth College and a law degree with honors from Columbia University. She continues her interest in both literature and the law by pursuing a dual career as a writer and as a public defender in New York City. She explains it this way: "I write because it gives me pleasure. For me the best art can do is remind one how to rejoice in the richness of life. I am a public defender because I like a good fight and I don't like prosecutors." This sensibility is evident in her writing which shows a warm sympathy for her characters, warts and all, and a robust appreciation of the comic as well as the tragic aspects of the human condition. The reader emerges from a Paula Sharp book glad to be alive and more kindly disposed to fellow human beings. Although she is still in the early stages of her writing career, she has already earned recognition for her talent. Besides the Banta, her literary honors include the Distinguished Artist Award from the New Jersey Council on the Arts in 1987 and, for her first novel The Woman Who Was Not All There, the Joe Savago New Voice Award from the Quality Paperback Book Club. Paula Sharp currently lives in Brooklyn, New York and is working on a new book. 1992
WLA Literary Awards Committee Members
|
| Readers Home Page| LAC Home| WLA Units WLA Units | WLA Home | A to Z | Search
Please send Committee
questions to:
Chair
|
