Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 Speculation

[nagisa]

It's always nice to see some love for Albert Camus and Halldór Laxness in 2021. They'are probably two of my favorites ever. Szymborska and Faulkner would probably be on my list too, but I'm too lazy to compile it right now.

Camus and Faulkner would have narrowly made mine, and I'm very much looking forward to getting to read Laxness!

 

[Leemo]

I haven't read enough books by Nobel Prize winners to make a top 10 list of any confidence, but from the little that I have read Laxness is my #1. He writes with such tenderness and humor it's hard not to love him.

 

[Bartleby]

I've read a couple of new interviews with Soyinka in the wake of his new novel, and it's interesting that he states he's very happy with the younger generation of African writers, especially the women. I wish he dropped some names tho.

 

[Stevie B]

I've read a couple of new interviews with Soyinka in the wake of his new novel, and it's interesting that he states he's very happy with the younger generation of African writers, especially the women. I wish he dropped some names tho.

I read his prison memoirs A Man Died years ago. It didn't really strike a chord with me, as Soyinka came across as arrogant at times (imo), but I suppose there was a lot of bitterness built up with his prison guards.

 

[redhead]

It's always nice to see some love for Albert Camus and Halldór Laxness in 2021. They'are probably two of my favorites ever.

Camus and Faulkner would have narrowly made mine, and I'm very much looking forward to getting to read Laxness!

Im curious what you like so much about Camus? I’ve read The Fall, The Plague, and The Stranger (the latter three times), and haven’t been impressed by any. I find his ideas which inform his novels interesting, but something in the execution of them leaves me cold.

 

[hayden]

something in the execution of them leaves me cold.

In Camus' defence, that's what he was going for. Those were the textures and atmospheres he plays with. Think Bresson. Cold is actually a very good descriptor for his work (in a good way).

 

[Liam]

Have you read his essay on Sisyphus, Red? Probably my favorite piece by Camus, closely followed by The Stranger.

 

[nagisa]

Im curious what you like so much about Camus? I’ve read The Fall, The Plague, and The Stranger (the latter three times), and haven’t been impressed by any. I find his ideas which inform his novels interesting, but something in the execution of them leaves me cold.

In Camus' defence, that's what he was going for. Those were the textures and atmospheres he plays with. Think Bresson. Cold is actually a very good descriptor for his work (in a good way).

I agree, he's the ur-écriture blanche (much as I despise Barthes I'll give him this one). In addition, I think Camus' ideas have so penetrated the Zeitgeist that it blunts their literary effect now; it was necessary, somehow, but now maybe calls for a supersession. His essays are still very worth reading though (Sisyphus, Rebel), precisely because he is straining against the strictures of the diagnostic he poses.

I think I like him for his ideas, his complex identity, his complex morality in an absurd world we are thrown into; and for the sober (simple?) style that doesn't get in their way. But he didn't make the "top ten" ?

 

[namelesshere]

Im curious what you like so much about Camus? I’ve read The Fall, The Plague, and The Stranger (the latter three times), and haven’t been impressed by any. I find his ideas which inform his novels interesting, but something in the execution of them leaves me cold.

I love your perseverance re The Stranger, unless there's a reason you had to read it 3 times??

 

[Johnny]

I haven't read enough books by Nobel Prize winners to make a top 10 list of any confidence, but from the little that I have read Laxness is my #1. He writes with such tenderness and humor it's hard not to love him.

Yes agreed, for me he would be top 3 with Beckett and White. By the way I see there is a new English translation of Salka Valka coming out ( March 2022) which is great news, has been hard to find other than in expensive used copies. Hopefully it heralds a renewed interest in his work.

 

[redhead]

In Camus' defence, that's what he was going for. Those were the textures and atmospheres he plays with. Think Bresson. Cold is actually a very good descriptor for his work (in a good way).

True. Maybe it’s not so much the coldness—I like other “cold” authors—but it’s been a few years since last reading him so I have more general impressions than actual in depth critiques.

Have you read his essay on Sisyphus, Red? Probably my favorite piece by Camus, closely followed by The Stranger.

I have not, but you’re not the first person to recommend it after telling them Camus isn’t for me. I’ll check it out—thanks!

I love your perseverance re The Stranger, unless there's a reason you had to read it 3 times??

Lol it was never required reading for me. For of those rereads I was on a month-long trip with little else to read, and the other time I just wanted to see if my opinion had changed at all (it hadn’t).

By the way I see there is a new English translation of Salka Valka coming out ( March 2022) which is great news, has been hard to find other than in expensive used copies. Hopefully it heralds a renewed interest in his work.

Nice, I’ve heard great things about that one. I think it, along with Independent People and World Light, were what convinced them to give him the Nobel.

 

[namelesshere]

Lol it was never required reading for me. One of those times I was on a month-long trip with little else to read, but other than that I’ve kept coming back to him to see if my opinion’s changed at all (it hasn’t).

Haha, I don't even finish books I don't like, let alone read them 3 times!

I do however have a big pile where I put "books I couldn't get on with first time around but that I suspect I may just not have been in the right brain-space for"; I keep it in the hope I'll get the chance one day to try some of them again, but so far that hasn't happened.

 

[redhead]

Haha, I don't even finish books I don't like, let alone read them 3 times!

There’s something about The Stranger that keeps me coming back—it’s a classic, and I can understand why it’s a classic even if it’s not for me. Plus, it’s super short and I was doing reading challenges when I read it those times lol

 

[Johnny]

True. Maybe it’s not so much the coldness—I like other “cold” authors—but it’s been a few years since last reading him so I have more general impressions than actual in depth critiques.




I have not, but you’re not the first person to recommend it after telling them Camus isn’t for me. I’ll check it out—thanks!




Lol it was never required reading for me. For of those rereads I was on a month-long trip with little else to read, and the other time I just wanted to see if my opinion had changed at all (it hadn’t).



Nice, I’ve heard great things about that one. I think it, along with Independent People and World Light, were what convinced them to give him the Nobel.

Yes, and for those looking for an intro to his work, Fish Can Sing is a rather wonderful and lovely book and much shorter than those magnificent books you mentioned.

 

[Johnny]

Yes, and for those looking for an intro to his work, Fish Can Sing is a rather wonderful and lovely book and much shorter than those magnificent books you mentioned.

Sorry put this in the wrong section, I am of course referring to Laxness!

 

[Liam]

Haha, I don't even finish books I don't like, let alone read them 3 times!

That is an interesting question in itself: how many times have you read your favorite work of fiction (poetry excluded, except perhaps long epic poems like the Iliad or Paradise Lost)?

So far, in my case, the record belongs to Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, which I have read five times in the last... 15 years or so? ?

 

[redhead]

That is an interesting question in itself: how many times have you read your favorite work of fiction (poetry excluded, except perhaps long epic poems like the Iliad or Paradise Lost)?

So far, in my case, the record belongs to Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, which I have read five times in the last... 15 years or so? ?

Let’s see… I first read A Personal Matter by Oe in the summer of 2012 and have read it twice since then, and will probably read it again soon. I’m also about to reread Morning and Evening by Fosse for the third time in 6 years.

 

[Daniel del Real]

I wonder if anyone might feel inclined to do a Library checkin for Drago Jančar? I don’t recall anyone here discussing his work or chances for the Nobel, but I think maybe Morose Mary has. But I’m amazed with his work. I do not feel that he has a readership here in the US of great significance, but I wonder if elsewhere, in other languages, if he might. Jančar is a Slovene writer, aged 73, and I have read I Saw Her That Night, Northern Lights, and The Tree With No Name, and wasn’t disappointed by either of them. Powerful, emotional and unique writing deeply engaged with themes of great importance. The Tree With No Name embodies a very original approach to storytelling, and still the more traditional works such as Norther Lights have a distinctive quality. His varied and nuanced contributions to the arena of literature are also impressive and I’m certain he has been nominated. I look forward to a forthcoming translation, And Love Itself, to appear in November. Regretfully, despite English translations having appeared, they are largely out of print. I Saw Her That Night is the work I believe to be the strongest, of the three novels I have read.

Edit: I was able to find this article after writing this, just to get a stronger impression of his prominence. https://sloveniatimes.com/drago-jancar-nominated-for-nobel-prize-in-literature/
It’s quite apparent that in Slovenia, he’s clearly considered a prodigious man of letters.

I purchased The Galley Slave a few years ago after someone from the Fictional Woods spoke highly of it but haven't read it. Also a Spanish translation of a novel titled "Zumbidos en la cabeza" (Must be Ringing in the Head) came out a few years ago as well.

I have a different take on Yoko Ogawa. And I can only, unfortunately, read her in translation. I found nothing prurient about the short sharp shock of Hotel Iris despite its graphic sadomasochistic subject matter. The novel is a gripping account of an unlikely encounter between two very damaged people. Among the things that linger in the mind after putting the book down is that rare feeling that not a single word was wasted.
Memory Police is absorbing in an entirely different way. The spareness of Ogawa’s prose is eerily suggestive of a dystopian island where entire categories of objects randomly disappear from the consciousness of most of the island’s inhabitants.
Le musée du silence, the French translation of Chinmoku hakubutsukan, a novel to my knowledge not yet available in English, involves a collection of objects, each of which was taken from its former owner after his/her death.
In each of these books, a psychological or metaphysical quandary is matched by an acute sense of the physical world in which Ogawa’s characters live.
I certainly hope she is on the Nobel committee’s radar.

I'm currently reading Hotel Iris. This is my third read from her, all of them happening this past few months. I'm still figuring out what she brings to contemporary Japanese literature. I found her narrative technique in Lectures from the Hostages quite refreshing, a sort of Decameron happening during the kidnapping of several people under one roof. Then The Tender Laments had a very promisory plot but was quite flat, way larger than it should have been IMO.
This third one seems to fall right in the middle, with a narrative much more fluid than the Laments but not as enticing as Lectures.
Also happen to have four more titles in my never-ending pile.

 

[Daniel del Real]

I don't know if we have already discussed the odds, but here is the link to those: https://www.nicerodds.co.uk/nobel-prize-in-literature.
Murakami, Ngugi, Carson, Ulitskaya, and Atwood are their leading candidates.

Betting sites used to be the huge indicator before we had the Nobel Library. It provided a lot of future winner names, like Herta Müller, Mo Yan and Modiano. Then the leaks were controlled and it became irrelevant. Probably these newbies that are currently saying checking titles out at the Nobel Library have no purpose would had also criticize checking Ladbrokes.

Also, thanks for bringing the subject of your favorite Nobel winners, so nice to check it for the 37th time.

 

[Stevie B]

By the way I see there is a new English translation of Salka Valka coming out ( March 2022) which is great news, has been hard to find other than in expensive used copies.

Stumbled upon a very nice used copy of Salka Valka a couple of years ago. Only $10 and it included a bright dust jacket with almost no wear. One of my top ten finds since I started collecting books in college. Days like that give me hope that I'll one day run across a copy of The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. The fun is in the quest, I suppose.