"I CANNOT, in good conscience, say that she is a novelist yet."
That is the penultimate sentence in the (generally positive) New York Times review of Francine Prose's debut novel, Judah the Pious, which was published in January, 1973 -- 40 years ago this month. Her output since has been extraordinary, in terms of both quality and quantity. Flavor-of-the-month novelists strut and fret their moment upon the literary stage and are heard no more, while Prose relentlessly churns out quiet masterpieces year after year after year. In four decades, she has produced 16 books of fiction, including Household Saints, which was made into a feature film; Blue Angel, a finalist for the National Book Award; After, her stab at YA..; and most recently, the underrated gem My New American Life. Whatever she may have been at 25, there's no question that Francine Prose is a novelist now -- as well as an essayist, critic, biographer, nonfiction writer (Reading Like a Writer, her valentine to the art of fiction, is an indispensable aid to anyone charged with teaching a creative writing class) and author of children's books.
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