How 'The Sopranos' Helped Jennifer Egan Win a Pulitzer Prize

Yet more proof that we're in the midst of a TV golden age: A prestige HBO series was part of the inspiration behind this year's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In an interview with the New York Times, Jennifer Egan, whose A Visit From the Goon Squad won the award earlier this week, explains how The Sopranos influenced her book:

"I don't watch much television," she said, "but I got really caught up in that. And I did consciously ask the question of whether there would be a way to write a novel that would have the same kind of lateral feeling of a television series - the same kind of sense of movement in all directions, but not necessarily forward. The movement from central to peripheral characters from season to season, or even within a season."

And Egan may be about to come full circle: HBO has optioned A Visit From the Goon Squad for a series.

Read the full story at the New York Times.

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http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/04/how-the-sopranos-helped-jennifer-egan-win-a-pulitzer-prize/237681/