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!)