I always wanted to be able to say that, and now I can, thanks to Colum McCann, who won the prestigious National Book Award  for fiction last night for Let The Great World Spin. For his book about a young Irish man and the characters he meets in 1970s New York, McCann goes home with $10,000, a funky bronze statue, and some serious swagger, given that he now joins the ranks of previous winners like Jonathan Franzen, Susan Sontag, Philip Roth, E. Annie Proulx and John Updike. Not bad going. And speaking of awards, John Banville made another shortlist this week . . .