The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow

Name: Saul Bellow

Year Won: 1976

Read: The Adventures of Augie March

Original Language: English

Reason: "for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work"

About: "The Adventures of Augie March" follows Augie March from childhood through adulthood and describes his life. There is no plot. There are no stakes. There is no escalation of stakes. That's basically it. A 600 page description of someone's life.

What I liked: As might be expected, the writing is quite lovely. As might not be expected, but is true, the writing is often quite funny. There's as hint of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" to this piece. The characters are lively and interesting.

What I Disliked: There is no plot. I get that for whatever reason, literary types seem to hate plot with the blinding passion of a thousand suns. But without it, stories aren't stories so much as seemingly random descriptions of events. That's kind of this. Just a bunch of events, told in sequential order. This means that it never really grips and lets go the way books that have good plots do. (Even fairly bad books with good plots, like, say, "The DaVinci Code". Or hell, even "50 Shades of Grey".)

Should it have won a Nobel: I mean, this is the kind of thing the Nobel committee loves so probably, yes. Do I wish that literary types would concede that the best books have some magical combination of great characters, solid writing, AND a plot? Yes, yes I do. Am I holding my breath on this ever happening? (Laughs uproariously.)

Next Up: "Poesia Completa" by Vicente Aleixandre (entirely in Spanish - ooh!)

The Poems of Eugenio Montale

Name: Eugenio Montale

Year Won: 1975

Read: The Selected Poems of Eugenio Montale

Original Language: Italian

Reason: "for his distinctive poetry, which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions"

About: "The Selected Poems" is pretty much what it sounds like - a collection of Montale's poetry. It's poems. Like, 500 pages of them. They are many.

What I liked: The poetry is quite pretty.

What I Disliked: It's poems. Are these poems better than other poems? I don't know. They seemed kind of generic to me, but then again, I can't read Italian, so would likely miss the nuances that make these poems slightly better (or worse) than any other poems.

Should it have won a Nobel: I have no idea. I feel like even asking this with prose is hard. With poetry, it becomes close to impossible. None of these struck me as immortal genius, but then again, that might have been the translator's fault. Or maybe I just don't care much for Montale's poetry for my own reasons.

Next Up: "The Adventures of Augie March" by Saul Bellow