Lucky Per

Name: Romain Rolland

Year Won: 1917

Read: "Lucky Per"

Original Language: Dutch

Reason: "for his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark"

About: Lucky Per is about Per, the son of a poor and very devout minister, who leaves home determined to make it rich and implement an ambitious canal system through Denmark. He goes to engineering school. He hangs out with artists and intellectuals (while never being one of them, although he is an excellent engineer). He falls in love with a wealthy Jewish heiress then dumps her to live out a life of aestheticism in the countryside with a Christian wife, having discovered, I guess, the life that made his parents happy or some such.

What I Liked: No joke. This has been one of my favorites in the project so far. The characters are wonderful (especially Per and the members of the Soloman family - of which his financee, Jakobe, is phenomenal). The descriptions of the world are great. I felt like I was there. I cared about what happened enough to rant in the next session. This is a GOOD book.

It also has an actual plot and doesn't feel anywhere near as precious as most of the earlier entries. Per is kind of an asshole. I like that, in my own way. It's rather refreshing having someone who has no artistic genius (and recognizes it), a great dream (that isn't fulfilled), and isn't a Marty Stu who everyone falls madly in love with upon meeting for the first time.

What I Disliked: If there was ever a novel that could benefit from a modern editor, this is it.

Per initially courts Jakobe because she's rich...but then seems to forget all about that and instead is in love with her refreshing intellectualism. I mean, I guess that could happen, but forgetting about her money seemed odd.

Then she gets pregnant, tells him, and he...doesn't seem to notice. Which...okay? That seems weird. (Especially in the late 19th century when I think this was set.) And then she keeps debating telling him she's pregnant (even though she told him a few chapters ago), and then doesn't, then does, but somehow it's all forgotten. (Which is, again...EDITOR!)

Even more frustrating, Jakobe ends up having the kid torn apart while inside her to save her life while in England (it's so gruesome she's not allowed to see the corpse - no joke), and then is sad...while Per goes off and marries some other lady and we're supposed to somehow care about Per's spiritual epiphany...which might make sense if she'd never told him she was pregnant, which I guess she did or didn't depending on the chapter? It's bewildering...

All of this would make a lot more sense without the pregnancy sub-plot. (Per is still, IMO, an asshole for just wandering off and ditching Jakobe without explaining that he's doing it, but he's less of one if she wasn't horribly suffering. And he's only moderately asshole-y if he didn't know she was pregnant, which he should know as she told him a few times, but somehow the book forgot that a chapter later so IDK.

Should it have won a Nobel: Yes. It's incredibly engrossing and wonderfully portrays a world and characters. It's also incredibly refreshing. It reads like a modern novel (other than the poor editing). I wish they'd fixed that. But oh well...

Next up: Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun (Olympic Spring, being poetry, is not covered by my library. Grrr....especially as this is the first poem I've heard of.)