Name: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
Year Won: 2008
Read: The Prospector
Original Language: French
Reason: "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization"
About: The Prospector follows a dude who wanders around the Carribean looking for ancient, lost treasure while encountering a bunch of adventures.
What I liked: The description of the Carribean is gorgeous and evocative. It almost felt like I was there. It was really beautiful and serene. Also, I basically enjoyed that stuff happened in the story. The hero got lost, looked for treasure, wandered around, etc. It was a very enjoyable read all in all.
What I Disliked: Not really anything. This was a legitimately fun book. I think maybe I didn't get overly attached to the protagonist (who didn't feel tremendously deep to me or really compel me in any particular way), but that didn't distract too much from the enjoyable journey of going through a richly realized world. (Filled with adventure, beauty, and some despair and the actual history of the Caribbean is pretty bleak.)
Should it have won a Nobel: Probably? This felt fairly unpretentious for a Nobel choice. But I felt like Clezio did an excellent job telling a fun story while also weaving in some of the darker aspects of Caribbean colonialism, which is hard to do. (Far less gracefully and in a way that doesn't feel like I'm being beaten over the head with it.)
Next Up: "The Hunger Angel" by Herta Müller
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