I have a book of hers I bought but haven’t read her yet - recommended to me by xyzzzz__ funnily enough. Rushdie was a great author before he got stabbed, Nobel committee funnily didn’t take that into consideration.
― barry sito (gyac), Thursday, 6 October 2022 15:59 (two years ago) link
I do always like the "I was going about my business" moments of people winning a Nobel:
Annie Ernaux with journalists in front of her home earlier. She learned the news through the radio. She said: "I'm very happy, I'm proud, but not shaken" and "I will definitely go to Stockholm." @nytimes #NobelPrize2022 pic.twitter.com/encBCdR2f0— Laura Cappelle (@LauraCappelle) October 6, 2022
See also:
Doris Lessing wins the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature, & this is what she finds on her doorstep.Photo: Shaun Curry pic.twitter.com/isQDz1RlGc— Deny Fear (@dean_frey) October 22, 2018
― The self-titled drags (Eazy), Thursday, 6 October 2022 16:15 (two years ago) link
Also Joris’s reasoning is a joke if he’s going to bring context outside of writing into it cos
Congratulations to my publisher, @7storiespress for publishing in English the brilliant #NobelPrize2022 winner, Annie Ernaux. Happening, about her botched illegal abortion, is more urgent than ever. Buy and share. https://t.co/xyHi097Ci3— Nina Burleigh (@ninaburleigh) October 6, 2022
― barry sito (gyac), Thursday, 6 October 2022 16:21 (two years ago) link
wikipedia on its own entry on pierre joris: "This article is an autobiography or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject"
perhaps he felt *he* deserved the award for autofiction
― mark s, Thursday, 6 October 2022 16:26 (two years ago) link
Next years' Nobel prize winner: The Wikipedia Community
― “uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Thursday, 6 October 2022 16:28 (two years ago) link
I've finished Kristin Lavransdatter. It took a month! Normally even for such a large book I'd be quicker than that. I never wanted to stop reading though. Each of the three individual books was very good, cumulatively they approached magnificence. Wonderful descriptions of nature; deep, complex, believable characters treated with compassion and generosity; a totally convincing 14th century setting. Eveything in the description many posts above - "attempted human sacrifice, floods, fights, murders, violent suicide, a gay king, drunken revelry, the Bubonic Plague" - happens, but that gives a misleading impression, overall it's much more down to earth. What it does is quietly and confidently capture the simple momentousness of life itself.
There are a few lovely moments which, very occasionally, almost lift it into something more magical or fantastic - the young Kristin thinks she sees a mountain elf; some dreams are written about; someone thinks he sees Kristin leaning over a fence but it's just a tree. Then there's this section which nearly did me in - Simon is riding home in winter, at night, with an arm badly infected from a wound and in a feverish state:
Simon gazed at everything: The full moon was sailing brightly in the pale blue sky, having driven all the stars far away; only a few larger ones still dared wander in the distant heavens. The white fields glittered and sparkled; the shadows fell short and jagged across the snow; inside the woods the uncertain light lay in splotches and stripes among the firs, heavy with snow. Simon saw all this.But at the same time he saw quite clearly a meadow with tufts of ash-brown grass in the sunlight of early spring. Several small spruce trees had sprung up here and there at the edge of the field; they glowed green like velvet in the sun. He recognized this place; it was the pasture near his home at Dyfrin. The alder woods stood beyond the field with its tree trunks a springtime shiny gray and the tops brown with blossoms. Behind stretched the long, low Raumarike ridges, shimmering blue but still speckled white with snow. They were walking down toward the alder thicket, he and Simon Reidarsson, carrying fishing gear and pike spears. They were on their way to the lake, which lay dark gray with patches of thawing ice, to fish at the open end. His dead cousin walked at his side; he saw his playmate's curly hair sticking out from his cap, reddish in the spring sunlight; he could see every freckle on the boy's face. The other Simon stuck out his lower lip and blew - phew, phew - whenever he thought his namesake was speaking gibberish. They jumped over meandering rivulets and leaped from mound to mound across the trickling snow water in the grassy with meadow. The bottom was covered with moss; under the water it churned and frothed a lively green.He was fully aware of everything around him; the whole time he saw the road passing up one hill and down another, through the woods and over white fields in the glittering moonlight. He saw the slumbering clusters of houses beneath snow-laden roofs casting shadows across the fields; he saw the band of fog hovering over the river in the bottom of the valley. He knew that it was Jon who was riding right behind him and who moved up alongside him whenever they entered open clearings, and yet he happened to call the man Simon several times. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help himself, even though he noticed his servants grew alarmed.
But at the same time he saw quite clearly a meadow with tufts of ash-brown grass in the sunlight of early spring. Several small spruce trees had sprung up here and there at the edge of the field; they glowed green like velvet in the sun. He recognized this place; it was the pasture near his home at Dyfrin. The alder woods stood beyond the field with its tree trunks a springtime shiny gray and the tops brown with blossoms. Behind stretched the long, low Raumarike ridges, shimmering blue but still speckled white with snow. They were walking down toward the alder thicket, he and Simon Reidarsson, carrying fishing gear and pike spears. They were on their way to the lake, which lay dark gray with patches of thawing ice, to fish at the open end. His dead cousin walked at his side; he saw his playmate's curly hair sticking out from his cap, reddish in the spring sunlight; he could see every freckle on the boy's face. The other Simon stuck out his lower lip and blew - phew, phew - whenever he thought his namesake was speaking gibberish. They jumped over meandering rivulets and leaped from mound to mound across the trickling snow water in the grassy with meadow. The bottom was covered with moss; under the water it churned and frothed a lively green.
He was fully aware of everything around him; the whole time he saw the road passing up one hill and down another, through the woods and over white fields in the glittering moonlight. He saw the slumbering clusters of houses beneath snow-laden roofs casting shadows across the fields; he saw the band of fog hovering over the river in the bottom of the valley. He knew that it was Jon who was riding right behind him and who moved up alongside him whenever they entered open clearings, and yet he happened to call the man Simon several times. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help himself, even though he noticed his servants grew alarmed.
In other places it's sometimes quite oblique, particularly when speaking of offences against god or morality - adultery and the like. This is when we discover about the gay king:
"Yes, it was clever of you to separate the boy from his mother," said Erlend gloomily. "He's still only a child—and now all of us Norwegian men have reason to hold our heads up high when we think about the king whom we have sworn to protect."“Be quiet!” said Erling Vidkunssøn in a low, dejected voice. “That's . . . surely that's not true."But the other two could see from his face that he knew it was true. Although King Magnus Eirikssøn might still be a child, he had already been infected by a sin which was unseemly to mention among Christian men. A Swedish cleric, who had been assigned to guide his book learning while he was in Sweden, had led him astray in an unmentionable manner.
“Be quiet!” said Erling Vidkunssøn in a low, dejected voice. “That's . . . surely that's not true."
But the other two could see from his face that he knew it was true. Although King Magnus Eirikssøn might still be a child, he had already been infected by a sin which was unseemly to mention among Christian men. A Swedish cleric, who had been assigned to guide his book learning while he was in Sweden, had led him astray in an unmentionable manner.
The sin is unmentionable, but reasonably clear to infer from the third paragraph. But how Erling figures out that's what Erlend is implying in the first paragraph is a mystery to me.
― ledge, Friday, 3 March 2023 11:18 (one year ago) link
Nice weekend write-up.
I have The Hive on order. This is a good review of it
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/03/books/review/camilo-jose-cela-the-hive.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytbooks
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 3 March 2023 20:57 (one year ago) link
oh yeah thanks for the kristin recommendation btw!
― ledge, Friday, 3 March 2023 21:18 (one year ago) link
Glad you enjoyed it (I haven't read it myself)
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 3 March 2023 21:44 (one year ago) link
Kristin Lavransdatter is one of the most impressively convincing historical novels I’ve ever read, just a marvellous book to lose yourself in. The Tiina Nunnally translation is great.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Saturday, 4 March 2023 06:30 (one year ago) link
1967 Miguel Ángel Asturias
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/05/25/the-inventor-of-magical-realism-mr-president-asturias/
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 8 May 2023 22:40 (one year ago) link
Among those not mentioned upthread, "The Fall of the King" by Johannes Vilhelm Jensen is really good.
― justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Tuesday, 9 May 2023 15:56 (one year ago) link
the one asturias i've read is the president which i liked well enough, didn't realise per what i could read of the article that he started on it in the early twenties which was when he was hanging out with the paris surrealists but makes sense
1960 Saint-John Perse
have a big fat volume of his correspondence, but have never succeeded in tracking down any of his poetry (he gets a footnote in the waste land i seem to recall)
― no lime tangier, Wednesday, 10 May 2023 07:14 (one year ago) link
T.S. Eliot also translated his work Anabase.
― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Wednesday, 10 May 2023 10:13 (one year ago) link
Not to be weird, but I’d never read Anabase when a blurber for my last book compared my writing to it in a favorable manner. I liked it upon my own reading, tho like said blurber noted, Anabase the similarities end at some shared formal strategies. It’s a pretty easy book to find used, worth it if at all interested.
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Wednesday, 10 May 2023 17:29 (one year ago) link
I read Ivo Andric's Nobel-winner this year, The Bridge on the Drain, it's great.
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Wednesday, 10 May 2023 17:36 (one year ago) link
boy have I given these three a number of chances. Am I reading the right White? What's a good start?
btw Alfred I tried Patrick White too and had the same results. Will probably try again at some point.
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Wednesday, 10 May 2023 17:37 (one year ago) link
That's a relief.
I got The Bridge Over the Drina out of the library now.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 10 May 2023 17:43 (one year ago) link
Finished Jenny by Sigrid Undset. It's very good, doesn't deserve its reputation - seemingly forgotten in English, though there was a new translation in 1998. It doesn't start too auspiciously - lots of description of clothes as well as landscapes, the characters use first names and surnames more or less at random so it's hard to tell who's who. But it soon develops into a rich psychological work. It feels very transitional - for an early 20th century novel, there are young women living independent lives, they stay out all night drinking, they sleep around (or their male friends do - it's still quite coy about this). Of course people have been doing this since the dawn of time, but in 19th/early 20th century novels, not so much. But they speak like characters in a 19th century novel, very romantically, with that almost artificial sounding articulateness. Jenny in particular is trapped by her idea of a romantic life - this is the driving force of the novel, really. It's ambiguous in many ways - modern and old fashioned, moving and melodramatic, clear at times and at other times quite opaque, the characters sometimes eliciting sympathy, sometimes being quite bewildering. But it's beautifully written and ultimately very moving, even heartbreaking.
― ledge, Friday, 9 June 2023 13:28 (one year ago) link
I recently read Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk from 1956, the first novel in his Cairo trilogy, about a family in Cairo during the British occupation in WWI in 1917, with the patriarch of the family imposing restrictions on his family during the war, and his children finding different ways of rebelling
― Dan S, Friday, 9 June 2023 23:19 (one year ago) link
Annie Ernaux doc making the rounds in London - The Super 8 Years. Basically her husband bought a camera in the early 70's and this is all footage of their lives from then to their break up in the early 80'. Ernaux narrates over it and if you dig her writing you'll dig this. They went on holiday a lot, often choosing their destinations with gauchiste awareness - so very cool footage from Chile, Albania, Soviet Union. Also a bit of London and even a little Portugal, but clearly by the time they went there they were in such a marital crisis that no one felt much like filming, alas.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 26 June 2023 09:41 (one year ago) link
Excellent piece on Cela's The Hive
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n14/tim-parks/buttockitis
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 5 July 2023 15:10 (one year ago) link
I alas found it a grind after about fifty pages.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 July 2023 15:56 (one year ago) link
Will try it again in a few weeks.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 July 2023 15:58 (one year ago) link
Probably the first essay that talks about what Ernaux is doing in her fiction in pretty good length.
For me a French author: working class or not, diaristic, a woman, using life, writing flatly...is a thing I have seen before but Haslett talks about how she is able to replace the 'I' with 'We', and she really is very interested in showing how the lived is transformed by the diaries she has issued.
https://harpers.org/archive/2023/10/all-the-images-will-disappear/
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 18 September 2023 18:23 (one year ago) link
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nobel-prize-in-literature-odds-favorites-revealed-by-swedish-betting-giant-betsson-302269692.html
― alimosina, Tuesday, 8 October 2024 15:18 (three weeks ago) link
Paul Simon: 50.0
So you're saying there's a chance
― There’s a Monster in my Vance (President Keyes), Tuesday, 8 October 2024 15:20 (three weeks ago) link
when does Alex Shepard's annual preview in the New Republic drop?
― jaymc, Tuesday, 8 October 2024 15:53 (three weeks ago) link
Stephen King: 50.0
Do it, cowards!
― jmm, Tuesday, 8 October 2024 15:59 (three weeks ago) link
Interested to see Gerald Murnane at 5/1 odds with UK bookmakers for the Nobel Prize in Literature, placing him just behind Can Xue and ahead of Anne Carson.— David Grubbs (@blackfaurest) October 8, 2024
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 8 October 2024 22:12 (three weeks ago) link
embargo email just dropped! being in the know one day early's one of the real highlights of being a bookseller pic.twitter.com/QeEyWzR6Z4— London Review Bookshop (@LRBbookshop) October 9, 2024
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 9 October 2024 14:12 (three weeks ago) link
Congrats Rick Stein!
― There’s a Monster in my Vance (President Keyes), Wednesday, 9 October 2024 14:14 (three weeks ago) link
Han Kang. "For her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” That's a great description of 'Human Acts', which is a masterpiece, so that's a good choice for me.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 10 October 2024 11:05 (three weeks ago) link
Vegetarian is an excellent novel. Read Human Acts too.
Good to see Korea finally get one (they have wanted this for a long time). They might also be alternating between men and women too, though we will only be sure in a few years.
Nobel has felt way too familiar over the last decade. Most of the authors (if they don't write in English already) are fairly recognized in the literary world, they've won a prize already. Want to wtf @ it, which is part of the fun.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 10 October 2024 12:56 (three weeks ago) link
Is this the youngest one in recent memory? I think of Kang as Important Contemporary Author rather than the Living Legend status I associate the Nobel with, this is not a complaint tho.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 10 October 2024 13:36 (three weeks ago) link
The youngest since Joseph Brodsky, who was 47 in 1987, as far as I can tell.
― jmm, Thursday, 10 October 2024 13:42 (three weeks ago) link
She is 53, so technically, yeah, but there's been a couple more in their fifties this century. Pamuk was 54. Tokarczuk 56.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 10 October 2024 13:43 (three weeks ago) link
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/nobel-laureates-by-age/
She's 18th youngest overall, if I got them all.
Rudyard Kipling, 1907, age 41Albert Camus, 1957, age 43Sinclair Lewis, 1930, age 45Pearl Buck, 1938, age 46Sigrid Unset, 1928, age 46Joseph Brodsky, 1987, age 47Eugene O'Neill, 1936, age 48Maurice Maeterlinck, 1911, age 49Gerhart Hauptmann, 1912, age 49Romain Rolland, 1915, age 50Selma Lagerlöf, 1909, age 50Frans Eemil Sillanpää, 1939, age 51Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1970, age 51Wole Soyinka, 1986, age 52Rabindranath Tagore, 1913, age 52William Faulkner, 1949, age 53Halldór Laxness, 1955, age 53Han Kang, 2024, age 53
― jmm, Thursday, 10 October 2024 13:55 (three weeks ago) link
I haven't read her. I put a hold on Human Acts at the library and will buy a copy of The Vegetarian this afternoon.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 October 2024 13:56 (three weeks ago) link
Was she predicted as a favourite anywhere? She isn't in the Betsson list. Ladbrokes had her very far down.
― jmm, Thursday, 10 October 2024 14:06 (three weeks ago) link
No, it was a very big surprise.
Fun fact: Kangs latest novel, We Do Not Part, is already out in Swedish. They do like to give it to someone where they're ahead of the English speaking literaty world - Books of Jacob by Tokarczuk another example.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 10 October 2024 14:12 (three weeks ago) link
The Vegetarian was not good, this is a weird choice
― corrs unplugged, Thursday, 10 October 2024 15:45 (three weeks ago) link
I mean it's better than Bob Dylan obv
I don't know. I like Dylan's new writing:
I ran into one of the Buffalo Sabres in the elevator at the Prague hotel. They were in town to play the New Jersey Devils. He invited me to the game but I was performing that night.— Bob Dylan (@bobdylan) October 9, 2024
― There’s a Monster in my Vance (President Keyes), Thursday, 10 October 2024 16:29 (three weeks ago) link
I thought The Vegetarian was fantastic but not to be taken lightly. I need to read Human Acts.
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Thursday, 10 October 2024 20:55 (three weeks ago) link
Wait, is Dylan himself now posting from his official Twitter account? The last four tweets from the account could all have been written by him.
― bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Friday, 11 October 2024 09:27 (two weeks ago) link
I haven't read it, but maybe this was because of the quality of the translation?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/jan/15/lost-in-mistranslation-english-take-on-korean-novel-has-critics-up-in-arms
― bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Friday, 11 October 2024 09:31 (two weeks ago) link
i enjoyed ‘the vegetarian’
― flopson, Friday, 11 October 2024 12:20 (two weeks ago) link
The Vegetarian was fantastic. Will now search out the rest of her translated works
― Zelda Zonk, Friday, 11 October 2024 12:31 (two weeks ago) link
Tim Parks is an excellent reviewer of books and I personally love a lot of his translation work.
He has been highly critical of a lot of translation work over the years. 'Greed' by Jelinek and he hates Elena Ferrante (and the translator of her works, Ann Goldstein).
Whatever the flaws in the translation of The Vegetarian are things I am not a close enough as a reader to have a handle on. But the story does have a power to it.
Is that enough for a Nobel? Not really but I only read another book of hers, then dropped off.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 11 October 2024 13:08 (two weeks ago) link