Name: Svetlana Aleksievich
Year Won: 2015
Read: Voices from Chernobyl
Original Language:
Russian
Reason: "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time"
About: Voices from Chernobyl is an oral history of the many who suffered at or around Chernobyl, told in monologue form.
What I liked: This is an intense book that covers a really important part of history. It's hard not to be affected by the suffering of the pepole described within.
It's also a really unique way of conveying history, as it captures the immediacy of what happened.
What I Disliked: Everything in the book is so horrific that it's like it's dialed up to 11 at all times. This at times makes the story feel overly dramatic and maudlin (even though all this stuff is real). I honestly think it might be more interesting if some of the stories were more prosaic. (Like, IDK, people being forced to move but otherwise being okay, or people getting sick, but not until they're 70.)
Should it have won a Nobel: Yes. This is beautifully written, intense, and important. Also, the writing style is really unique and a dramatic way to convey history.
Next Up: The Poems of Bob Dylan
Friday, February 21, 2025
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Ballerina by Patrick Modiano
Name: Patrick Modiano
Year Won: 2014
Read: Ballerina
Original Language: French
Reason: "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the Occupation"
About: Ballerina/i> is a story about a ballerina. So like, duh, but that's sort of what it is. A hazy, dreamy recollection of the life of a ballerina.
What I liked: There is a poetic, dreamy quality to this novel which is fun to become engrossed in.
What I Disliked: There isn't much of a plot to this book. It seems more like a vibe than anything else. A pretty vibe, but a vibe.
Should it have won a Nobel: I would have liked a bit more substance to this. It probably was there, but so obscured that I took almost nothing from it. So IMO, no, but this is the kind of thing the Nobel committee likes and this almost certainly isn't the only thing Modiana has written.
Next Up: "Voices from Chernobyl" by Svetlana Aleksievich
Year Won: 2014
Read: Ballerina
Original Language: French
Reason: "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the Occupation"
About: Ballerina/i> is a story about a ballerina. So like, duh, but that's sort of what it is. A hazy, dreamy recollection of the life of a ballerina.
What I liked: There is a poetic, dreamy quality to this novel which is fun to become engrossed in.
What I Disliked: There isn't much of a plot to this book. It seems more like a vibe than anything else. A pretty vibe, but a vibe.
Should it have won a Nobel: I would have liked a bit more substance to this. It probably was there, but so obscured that I took almost nothing from it. So IMO, no, but this is the kind of thing the Nobel committee likes and this almost certainly isn't the only thing Modiana has written.
Next Up: "Voices from Chernobyl" by Svetlana Aleksievich
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Monroe
Name: Alice Monroe
Year Won: 2013
Read: Lives of Girls and Women
Original Language: English
Reason: "master of the contemporary short story"
About: Lives of Girls and Women/i> details a young girl's life growing up in rural Ontario. She is surrounded by many colorful characters who she interacts with as she grows to maturity.
What I liked: The description is beautiful and unique and the characterizations are aptly done.
What I Disliked: The plot is literally just..."this girl grows up". Which is very literary since who needs plots? But also makes for a story that doesn't have much motive power.
Should it have won a Nobel: Probably. The Nobel committee does like this sort of thing.
Next Up: "Ballerina" by Patrick Modiano
Year Won: 2013
Read: Lives of Girls and Women
Original Language: English
Reason: "master of the contemporary short story"
About: Lives of Girls and Women/i> details a young girl's life growing up in rural Ontario. She is surrounded by many colorful characters who she interacts with as she grows to maturity.
What I liked: The description is beautiful and unique and the characterizations are aptly done.
What I Disliked: The plot is literally just..."this girl grows up". Which is very literary since who needs plots? But also makes for a story that doesn't have much motive power.
Should it have won a Nobel: Probably. The Nobel committee does like this sort of thing.
Next Up: "Ballerina" by Patrick Modiano
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Frog by Mo Yan
Name: Mo Yan
Year Won: 2012
Read: Frog
Original Language: Mandarin
Reason: "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary"
About: Frog follows the life of several characters (the most interesting to me being a midwife) through a fictional Chinese village (in which the children, strangely, are all named for body parts.)
The midwife (Gugu) deals with the one child policy, sexism, and just existing in Communist China.
What I liked: The characters are generally interesting and it's a really intriguing look at a turbulent time and era from the past.
What I Disliked: The story is written almost as a fable, which makes things often feel flatter and less impactful than I think they otherwise might. I get why this was done (censorship and maybe to create a sense of timelessness), but it often for me, at least, dampened the seriousness of the subject matter.
Should it have won a Nobel: Probably. It's the sort of thing that the committee likes (arty and literary), while also covers significant subjects. It's definitely more *important* than a lot of the books on this list.
Next Up: "Lives of Girls and Women" by Alice Munro (this will be...interesting)
Year Won: 2012
Read: Frog
Original Language: Mandarin
Reason: "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary"
About: Frog follows the life of several characters (the most interesting to me being a midwife) through a fictional Chinese village (in which the children, strangely, are all named for body parts.)
The midwife (Gugu) deals with the one child policy, sexism, and just existing in Communist China.
What I liked: The characters are generally interesting and it's a really intriguing look at a turbulent time and era from the past.
What I Disliked: The story is written almost as a fable, which makes things often feel flatter and less impactful than I think they otherwise might. I get why this was done (censorship and maybe to create a sense of timelessness), but it often for me, at least, dampened the seriousness of the subject matter.
Should it have won a Nobel: Probably. It's the sort of thing that the committee likes (arty and literary), while also covers significant subjects. It's definitely more *important* than a lot of the books on this list.
Next Up: "Lives of Girls and Women" by Alice Munro (this will be...interesting)
Saturday, April 20, 2024
The Selected Poems of Tomas Tranströmer
Name: Tomas Tranströmer
Year Won: 2011
Read: The Selected Poems of Tomas Tranströmer
Original Language: Swedish
Reason: "because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality"
About: It's a book of poems. I'm not sure what else to say.
What I liked: I suppose they were pretty and there were some interesting images? I'm not really sure how to describe poems.
What I Disliked: These poems didn't particularly gel for me. I can't really say why, they just didn't.
Should it have won a Nobel: I find it almost impossible to describe whether poetry is good or not even in English, far less in translation. For me, these poems didn't particularly work. But they might work better in Swedish, or resonate for someone else. So...who knows?
Next Up: "Frog" by Mo Yan
Year Won: 2011
Read: The Selected Poems of Tomas Tranströmer
Original Language: Swedish
Reason: "because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality"
About: It's a book of poems. I'm not sure what else to say.
What I liked: I suppose they were pretty and there were some interesting images? I'm not really sure how to describe poems.
What I Disliked: These poems didn't particularly gel for me. I can't really say why, they just didn't.
Should it have won a Nobel: I find it almost impossible to describe whether poetry is good or not even in English, far less in translation. For me, these poems didn't particularly work. But they might work better in Swedish, or resonate for someone else. So...who knows?
Next Up: "Frog" by Mo Yan
Sunday, April 7, 2024
Aunt Julia and the Script Writer by Mario Vargas Llosa
Name: Mario Vargas Llosa
Year Won: 2010
Read: Aunt Julia and the Script Writer
Original Language: Spanish
Reason: "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat"
About: Aunt Julia and the Script Writer is a rather peculiar novel in which a young radio station worker has an affair with his somewhat older (13 years?) and fairly wild aunt. It's all written in a rather satrical tone, which I didn't personally find tremendously funny (it might be cultural. Or not. Humor is very subjective).
What I liked: Wonderful descriptions of contemporary Peru. A lively voice. It reminded me a bit of Carl Hiassen's mysteries.
What I Disliked: I really didn't get the humor. I do get that it's all subjective, but it just didn't work for me, which made the book feel like it was trying too hard.
Should it have won a Nobel: I've given up trying to understand this. Honestly, this didn't feel like a tremendously substantial book to me, but I also feel very much like I Just Didn't Get It. So...who knows?
Next Up: "The Selected Poems of Tomas Tranströmer"
Year Won: 2010
Read: Aunt Julia and the Script Writer
Original Language: Spanish
Reason: "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat"
About: Aunt Julia and the Script Writer is a rather peculiar novel in which a young radio station worker has an affair with his somewhat older (13 years?) and fairly wild aunt. It's all written in a rather satrical tone, which I didn't personally find tremendously funny (it might be cultural. Or not. Humor is very subjective).
What I liked: Wonderful descriptions of contemporary Peru. A lively voice. It reminded me a bit of Carl Hiassen's mysteries.
What I Disliked: I really didn't get the humor. I do get that it's all subjective, but it just didn't work for me, which made the book feel like it was trying too hard.
Should it have won a Nobel: I've given up trying to understand this. Honestly, this didn't feel like a tremendously substantial book to me, but I also feel very much like I Just Didn't Get It. So...who knows?
Next Up: "The Selected Poems of Tomas Tranströmer"
Sunday, March 10, 2024
The Hunger Angel by Herta Müller
Name: Herta Müller
Year Won: 2009
Read: The Hunger Angel
Original Language: German
Reason: "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed"
About: The Hunger Angel is about a man in a Soviet Prisoner of war camp. He shovels stuff. He starves. It's bleak.
What I liked: Beautiful descriptions of a miserable and hopeless situation. There's also some rather interesting stuff regarding the protagonist's family, which were Nazi's once.
What I Disliked: There's really no plot. The protagonist suffers. He continues to suffer. That is his lot.
I also found some of the stuff to feel sort of surreal in a bad way. Like, the prisoners apparently trade bread every night for...*reasons*? It was weird and baffling and took away from the stark misery of it all.
Should it have won a Nobel: This hit me harder than most. The writing is brilliant and it feels important. So sure.
Next Up: "Aunt Julia and the Script Writer" by Mario Vargas Llosa
Year Won: 2009
Read: The Hunger Angel
Original Language: German
Reason: "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed"
About: The Hunger Angel is about a man in a Soviet Prisoner of war camp. He shovels stuff. He starves. It's bleak.
What I liked: Beautiful descriptions of a miserable and hopeless situation. There's also some rather interesting stuff regarding the protagonist's family, which were Nazi's once.
What I Disliked: There's really no plot. The protagonist suffers. He continues to suffer. That is his lot.
I also found some of the stuff to feel sort of surreal in a bad way. Like, the prisoners apparently trade bread every night for...*reasons*? It was weird and baffling and took away from the stark misery of it all.
Should it have won a Nobel: This hit me harder than most. The writing is brilliant and it feels important. So sure.
Next Up: "Aunt Julia and the Script Writer" by Mario Vargas Llosa
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