Thursday, October 8, 2009

Herta Muller Wins Nobel

Proving once again that nobody, absolutely nobody, can predict the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Swedish Academy has just awarded it to Romanian-born German novelist Herta Muller, a writer who wasn't on anyone's list of Nobel possibilities. Having never read Muller, I can say nothing about her work, but I predict that there will be a lot of blather spoken today by people who are only slightly better informed than I am. This is a selection that's going to have readers scratching their heads and saying 'Who?' and going to Wikipedia for a quick info fix. So I guess the Swedish Academy has done the best thing they can really do. They've introduced me and the world to a writer who might be very good. I just hope she's better than Elfriede Jelinek...

2 comments:

Stephen Mitchelmore said...

"Proving once again that nobody, absolutely nobody..."

Well, except the Bookies and the Liteary Saloon.

http://www.complete-review.com/saloon/index.htm#ol2

BRIAN OARD said...

Aha! I guess I should've paid more attention to the late betting. Last time I checked, Amos Oz was far ahead.