Name: Francois Mauriac
Year Won: 1952
Read: "Viper's Tangle"
Original Language: French
Reason: "for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life"
About: "Viper's Tangle" is a reasonably long book detailing a man's complaints about his wife and children (and great hatred for them) on his death bed. Yes. Literally. That's all it is. A litany about how much he hates his wife, detailing everything from that time she refused to let his mother live with him (um...reasonable?), to how she wastes money, to all kinds of other petty things.
What I liked: Pretty much nothing. I feel that I'd have been better enlightened by reading incel forums on Reddit.
What I Disliked: Pretty much everything. I fail to see why a book like this needs to exist, considering that almost everyone knows of someone who will rant endlessly about their estranged partner (and along similar lines, too!). Why not just get your most obnoxious friend drunk in a bar and listen to him? You could do that and spare yourself this existence.
Should it have won a Nobel: It seems entirely possible that Mauriac has written other, greater books. With that said, this was one of the few I found translate into English at my local library...so possibly not.
Which means I'm inclined to think no. Although possibly this is another example of a book that has aged exceedingly poorly.
Next Up: A History of English Speaking People's by Winston S. Churchill
No comments:
Post a Comment