Anabasis by Saint-John Perse

Name: Saint-John Perse

Year Won: 1960

Read: "Anabasis"

Original Language: French

Reason: "for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry, which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time"

About: "Anabasis" is a long prose poem about someone marching from the coast inland through the wild beauties and mysteries of the Orient.

What I liked: The language is quite beautiful (although that may be the translation, done by the masterful T.S. Eliot)

What I Disliked: You know how sometimes things age really poorly? This is one of them. It's hard to imagine that the world needed a long description of some dude walking through the stereotypical Arabian nights.

Should it have won a Nobel: I will always admit that there may be things that I am missing, don't get, etc. But with that said, unless I'm missing an awful lot, no. (I think this may have seemed a lot cooler and deeper in '59 as well. Right now, it reads like, "Dude, I totally did acid on my trip to Jordan and had like these *thoughts*." Which may have read a lot deeper before that was, y'know, a thing.)

Next Up: "The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andrić (Also, I've now read 60 years worth of Nobel laureates...and only have 61 years to go. Whoo!!!!)