The literary world was all a-titter over the dismissal of American literature as insular (and worse), by the Nobel Prize jury’s permanent secretary, Horace Engdahl.
Shortly after that, French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio was awarded the prize.
Do you think, perhaps, the Horace Engdahl is just a good marketer, whipping up curiosity & purchasing appetite for a writer who is, to be blunt, unknown in the English-speaking world? We may never know. But in the mean time:
From Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio National’s Book Show:
2008 Nobel Prize for Literature winner The winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was announced last night. This year the prize has gone to French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio. Speaking to reporters in Paris, Le Clezio said he was very honoured and when asked if he deserved the prize he replied “Why not?”. Dr Jacqueline Dutton, head of French Studies at the University of Melbourne, has met Le Clezio and written a book about his work.
