Name: Imre Kertész
Year Won: 2002
Read: Dossier K
Original Language: Hungarian
Reason: "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"
About: Dossier K is Imre's autobiography, told as a dialogue between himself and...himself. It's pretty strange.
What I liked: It's a very interesting idea to write an autobiography as a dialogue. Just saying. Also Imre's life is fascinating. He's a Holocaust survivor who lived under Hungary's totalitarian communist regime. So he's got quite a bit to say.
What I Disliked: The dialogue format, IMO, works better as a high concept idea than in practice. It makes the writting really jumbled and jump about in a way that, IMO, robs the story of much of its power. Which feels all the more a shame as Imre's life truly is fascinating.
Should it have won a Nobel: I don't think he won it for this, so sure. FWIW, despite that I really hated the format of this story, when the story wasn't jumping around, it was incredibly riveting. Even details like his parents' divorce (normally not that exciting of a topic) was pretty cool in this as Imre Kertesz is a natural storyteller. So yeah, he probably deserved the prize. And if I can find an autobiography of his that's less scattered, I'd definitely be happy to read it.
Next Up: "The Pole" by John Maxwell Coetzee
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