Maw Books » Nobel Prize author

Nobel Prize in Literature for 2009 Goes to . . .

Natasha Maw — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:47:46 +0000

Herta Muller, a German, has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature for “who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed” Visit the Nobel Prize site for a full bio and bibliography.

I have not read anything by Muller and, even more embarrassing, am not familiar with this author at all. I said the same thing last year. I guess I’m not very well read. What about you? Have you read anything by Herta Muller?

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Nobel Prize in Literature for 2008 Goes To . . .

Natasha Maw — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:33:47 +0000

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, a Frenchman, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for being an “author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization”. Visit the Nobel Prize site for a brief bio and bibliography.

I must be uncool in the literary world because I’m not familiar with this author or his books. What about you? Have you read anything by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio?

Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee

Natasha Maw — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:00:08 +0000

I read Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee because I was participating in the Literature Network online book club and I was excited to read a novel by a Nobel Prize winner. I struggled through this book, but kept with it, mainly because I was scared that I would get on the boards and find glowing reviews. They must have chosen it because it would be good right? So after I finally plowed my way through it, I decided to see what my fellow book club members thought. What a relief!! Most everybody thought it was just average or disliked it altogether. Apparently, this is not Coetzee’s best work. No wonder the back cover only gives glowing reviews for his other books, did he even get any good reviews for this one? I don’t even want to take the time to find out, I’m just not even interested one bit and want to put this book behind me.

To very briefly summarize, the book begins as Paul Raymant, sixty years old, is hit by a car and loses a leg. Once home, he laments not only the loss of his leg but the life that he didn’t create for himself. He longs for a family and children, and in his hopelessness he falls in love with his Croation nurse, Marijana and hopes to become a part of their life. Along the way, he is visited by the mysterious writer Elizabeth Costello, but I never could figure out her role or even why she was in the story. That goes for a blind woman character as well.

Coetzee tries to offer up some themes: what does it mean to grow older, how have we lived our lives, the search of truth, what is the home, care vs. love, what is meaningful, etc, etc, etc. The only redeeming quality of this book was that the main character had once worked in photography and there were some nice photographic descriptions (my degree is in photography, I can relate to some of the stuff he said).

Should I give Coetzee another chance? Should I read Disgrace? Elizabeth Costello? If I do, it won’t be this year, but honestly there just is too many books with so little time, and this one was not worth the time!