Name: William Faulkner
Year Won: 1949
Read: "As I Lay Dying"
Original Language: English
Reason: "for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel"
About: "As I Lay Dying" covers the trip of a country woman from the place she's lived for a while (and was married and had kids) to her natal home. That's it. It's told through stream of consciousness from the perspectives of 15 (15!!!!) different pepole who knew her.
Some other stuff happens (her daughter gets pregnant and fails to get an abortion. We learn that one of the kids is her illegitimate son). But...mostly it's just her body being returned home.
What I liked: The language is pretty and I get a strong sense of place.
What I Disliked: 15 (15!!!!) different points of view in a 200 page book + stream of conscious tight POVs made this hard to follow. (Like, seriously, WTF Faulkner?) Also, not much happened. I mostly felt confused and stupid reading this book, then when I gave up and read the Spark notes, thought to myself, "Yeah, I wasn't missing much." (It wasn't that I missed what was happening - it's that nothing much happened.)
Should it have won a Nobel: I loathed this book, so no. Clearly others love it though, so this is definitely a YMMV kind of call.
Next Up: Bertrand Russell's The Problems of Philosophy
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