Betrothed by Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Name: Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Year Won: 1966

Read: Betrothed

Original Language: Hebrew

Reason: "for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people"

About: "Betrothed" follows the scholar Jacob, who basically flirts with all the town's eligible ladies before settling on one, Susan. Yep. That's it. (It's a fairly short novel - more of a novella than a true novel for what it's worth).

What I liked: The writing is absolutely gorgeous, and the descriptions of the bachelorettes is often quite humorous. (Rachel and Leah were impossible to choose between, because Rachel was so beautiful you couldn't help but love her, but then Leah demanded nothing, which made Rachel's demands hard to deal with by comparison. Oh, men...what jerks you can be.)

What I Disliked: It was really scant. It was literally, "Dude comes into town, vaguely falls in love with a lot of ladies, then marries one". That's it. (As a positive, at least it was super SHORT, so this didn't get boring, but there wasn't much to the story.)

Should it have won a Nobel: This year it felt like they were dead set to giving the prize to writers in Hebrew. Since that was the determination (never say that the Nobels aren't highly political), this was probably a better choice than many. The writing, at least, is lyrical. The story, at least, exists. This is a lot better than many things they've given it to.

Now is the greatest writer to have existed this year? Probably not. But I don't think that was really the point.

Next Up: "O the Chimneys" by Nelly Sachs