11.03.2004
Nobel Prizes For Me
Every year around this time I go out and buy a book by the recent recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature. And then I read it. What a novel concept. I've been doing this since high school, starting with Naguib Mahfouz.
Some years, I have already read stuff by the winner: Toni Morrison, Gunther Grass, and most recently, J. M. Coetze. I've come across some favorite books this way: "The Silent Cry" by Kenzaburo Oe (which has my all-time favorite opening, which involves face-painting, a hanging and a cucumber), and "Blindness" by Jose Saramago, for example.
Usually, within a week, the Barnes and Noble would have a copy of a book by the author with a sticker on it saying "Nobel Prize Winner." Not so this year. I have been to ten bookstores, even the usually excellent Concord Bookshop, and have not found one. This is worse than when Dario Fo and Gao Xinjian won! At least now you can find Gao's books in most well-stocked bookstores. Where is the Elfriedke Jelinek? Amazingly, I had actually heard of her before (which was seldom the case: Szymborska? Walcott? Heaney?) I am not a poetry reader, and the Nobel Prize's committee decision to award so many awards to poets eludes me.
Anyway, I have a list of writers who should have recieved the award but never did: Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Jorge Luis Borges, Graham Greene, Kobe Abe, Abdelrahman Munif and Vladimir Nabokov.
I do not know of any Russians who should get the award: maybe Voinovich or Aksenov. In a long shot, Pelevin. I'm sure Tolstaia and Petrushevskaia have their supporters.
Since I am most familiar with American writers, and some english, then I can only guess the frontrunners: Kurt Vonnegut and Phillip Roth being my favorite americans and Salman Rushdie my favorite Britwog. Maybe short list Amis, Barnes, Atwood, and very long chance - Updike. Internationally: Milan Kundera and Milorad Pavic. Even though pavich is a Serbian bastard.
Of course, I have been trying to guess the winner for fifteen years now, and I am now 0-15.
Every year around this time I go out and buy a book by the recent recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature. And then I read it. What a novel concept. I've been doing this since high school, starting with Naguib Mahfouz.
Some years, I have already read stuff by the winner: Toni Morrison, Gunther Grass, and most recently, J. M. Coetze. I've come across some favorite books this way: "The Silent Cry" by Kenzaburo Oe (which has my all-time favorite opening, which involves face-painting, a hanging and a cucumber), and "Blindness" by Jose Saramago, for example.
Usually, within a week, the Barnes and Noble would have a copy of a book by the author with a sticker on it saying "Nobel Prize Winner." Not so this year. I have been to ten bookstores, even the usually excellent Concord Bookshop, and have not found one. This is worse than when Dario Fo and Gao Xinjian won! At least now you can find Gao's books in most well-stocked bookstores. Where is the Elfriedke Jelinek? Amazingly, I had actually heard of her before (which was seldom the case: Szymborska? Walcott? Heaney?) I am not a poetry reader, and the Nobel Prize's committee decision to award so many awards to poets eludes me.
Anyway, I have a list of writers who should have recieved the award but never did: Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Jorge Luis Borges, Graham Greene, Kobe Abe, Abdelrahman Munif and Vladimir Nabokov.
I do not know of any Russians who should get the award: maybe Voinovich or Aksenov. In a long shot, Pelevin. I'm sure Tolstaia and Petrushevskaia have their supporters.
Since I am most familiar with American writers, and some english, then I can only guess the frontrunners: Kurt Vonnegut and Phillip Roth being my favorite americans and Salman Rushdie my favorite Britwog. Maybe short list Amis, Barnes, Atwood, and very long chance - Updike. Internationally: Milan Kundera and Milorad Pavic. Even though pavich is a Serbian bastard.
Of course, I have been trying to guess the winner for fifteen years now, and I am now 0-15.
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