Name: Claude Simon
Year Won: 1985
Read: The Flanders Road
Original Language: French
Reason: "who in his novel combines the poet's and the painter's creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition"
About: The Flanders Road is a semi-autobiographical retelling of Simon's time in WWII. Semi-autobiographical, because while many of the details are pulled from memory, he also follows the stories of other characters from his life. It's all very weird and trippy.
What I liked: There were a lot of very unconventional, intersting, and vivid images.
What I Disliked: The whole novel is told in long, run on, never ending stories and in stream of consciousness that drones on and on and makes for a near unintelligble reading experience unless, as a reader you like to parse, ah, but reader, do you like to parse: "Ah, the book, it has these themes and meanings" and oh, another battle scene with mud and dogs and horses and gunshots and....
Yeah. It's pretty much all like that. I gave up after about a dozen pages as every page felt like a miserable slog to me.
Should it have won a Nobel: This is the kind of book that the Nobel committee seems to lap up but that no ordinary person would want to read. So...IDK. Maybe? I just can't help but feel that writing things people might want to read is a valuable skill. (I really loathe writing that seems almost designed to flummox and annoy the reader.)
Next Up: "Chroncles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth" by Wole Soyinka
Monday, January 23, 2023
Saturday, January 14, 2023
"The Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert" by Jaroslav Seifert
Name: Jaroslav Seifert
Year Won: 1984
Read: The Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert
Original Language: Czech
Reason: "for his poetry, which endowed with freshness, and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man"
About: This poetry collection is just that...a poetry collection. Many of the poems surround the Czech Republic, particularly Prague, of which Seifert felt a particular love.
What I liked: A lot of the images are both beautiful and fresh. The language (at least in translation) is interesting and keeps me on my toes. There's a light, unencumbered feel to the verse, similar in nature to that of ee cummings (who I also rather like).
What I Disliked: Not really anything, although I'll admit that I find it really hard to assess poetry in the same way I do prose. Like, it's pretty and the images are interesting and the language fresh. I'm not sure what more to say?
Should it have won a Nobel: Perhaps. Again, I feel that poetry is one of the more challenging genres to assess precisely because it's subjective in a way few other forms of literature are.
Next Up: "The Flanders Road" by Claude Simon
Year Won: 1984
Read: The Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert
Original Language: Czech
Reason: "for his poetry, which endowed with freshness, and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man"
About: This poetry collection is just that...a poetry collection. Many of the poems surround the Czech Republic, particularly Prague, of which Seifert felt a particular love.
What I liked: A lot of the images are both beautiful and fresh. The language (at least in translation) is interesting and keeps me on my toes. There's a light, unencumbered feel to the verse, similar in nature to that of ee cummings (who I also rather like).
What I Disliked: Not really anything, although I'll admit that I find it really hard to assess poetry in the same way I do prose. Like, it's pretty and the images are interesting and the language fresh. I'm not sure what more to say?
Should it have won a Nobel: Perhaps. Again, I feel that poetry is one of the more challenging genres to assess precisely because it's subjective in a way few other forms of literature are.
Next Up: "The Flanders Road" by Claude Simon
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