

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2014 - yarapavan
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2014/

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bertil
He's a fantastic author, but beware: most of his books say… nothing? It's
about someone, possibly a man, to whom something happened. And he meets
someone he used to love at the time. Not sure he still love her. She looks
more beautiful now. That's it: I just spoiled the entire plot, in every
detail. And there's a house, too. Looks smaller now. I believe that makes it
easier to translate (I read them in the original French) but the absolute lack
of detail, story line, makes it incredibly either relatable (if you are in
that mindset) or frustrating (Whyyy?! Why did she leave him? Or he left? Did
he? You can't tell.) I love it - but beware, it's very tacit.

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platz
reminds me of some of the criticisms against Murakami, who is also pretty
international.

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u124556
Read two books by him, both had the same exact plot except for locations.
There's a man, loses his cat, loses his wife, loses his job, and then there's
something magical that is somehow related to the Manchuria war.

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lobster_johnson
The only Murakami novel that has the author lose a cat, his wife and encounter
"something magical that is somehow related to the Manchuria war" is The Wind-
Up Bird Chronicle. I can only assume you read it twice by mistake.

Several of his novels do feature a man with a cat, and several novels feature
distant women. But if I remember correctly, the only other married narrator is
the protagonist in South of the Border, West of the Sun, and there is a
character in 1Q84 who is married and divorced.

To say that the plots of any of his books have exactly the same plot would be
a huge mischaracterization, though. The only two books that are even vaguely
similar are Wind-Up and the earlier Dance Dance Dance (the last part of a
quadrilogy about the "Sheep Man"); the latter feels a lot like a preliminary
sketch for the vastly superior Wind-Up, in particular the fascination about
hotel rooms and shared dreams. But the plots are completely different.

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hokkos
Kafka by the River is also related to missing cats (killed), ancient wars and
something magical. I loved Kafka by the River, but couldn't finish The Wind-Up
Bird Chronicle.

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lobster_johnson
Kafka by the Shore. It is very different from Wind-Up Bird even though there
are cats in it.

I recommend trying Wind-Up again. The first ~100 pages are difficult to get
through at times (the narrator is infuriatingly apathetic), but one you get
past that, it's an incredible page turner. I liked Kafka a lot, but Wind-Up is
his masterpiece.

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bmj
Worth reading: Jean-Paul Sarte's reasons for declining the prize when awarded
to him in 1964:

[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1964/dec/17/sartre-...](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1964/dec/17/sartre-
on-the-nobel-prize/)

~~~
mcguire
With the recent fluff-up on H.P. Lovecraft and the World Fantasy Awards, that
is an interesting read.

I particularly like his first reason:

" _A writer who adopts political, social, or literary positions must act only
with the means that are his own—that is, the written word. All the honors he
may receive expose his readers to a pressure I do not consider desirable. If I
sign myself Jean-Paul Sartre it is not the same thing as if I sign myself
Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prizewinner._ "

...especially after Pres. Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for simply
not being G.W. Bush.

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daturkel
A heads up that Honeymoon, Missing Person, and Catherine Certitude (a
children's book) by Modiano are all available from David R. Godine, Publisher,
for those looking for English translation. [0] To the best of my knowledge,
English translations of Modiano are actually shamefully rare and these might
be the only available editions at the moment.

Disclosure: I'm an intern at Godine.

[0]:
[http://www.godine.com/search.asp?search=modiano](http://www.godine.com/search.asp?search=modiano)

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u124556
No ePubs?

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daturkel
We don't currently have ebooks available for our Modiano titles unfortunately,
though reprints are already being scheduled so it's possible ebooks might be a
part of that. I can't personally make any promises. Edit: The office is very
much aware of the interest in an ebook edition!

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elorant
As a side note, in Greece, Thessaloniki, there is a building that bears his
family name. His family was a prominent part of the local Jew community and in
1922 they built a gallery as part of a building known as the Modiano Market.
It’s one of the most important sightseeing places in the town partly because
most of the shops inside remain as they were when they were built and for many
decades served as the main marketplace of the town. There is also a gathering
of living family members every two years in the town.

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jjgreen
Modiano is a genius, one of several fantastic writers coming from France in
the last 20 years -- see also Marie Darrieussecq, Sylvie Germain, Camille
Laurens, ...

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stephancoral
Add Pierre Michon to that list. Just finished reading his novella, "Origin of
the World" (translated by Wyatt Mason) and am still in awe. The density of
thought he is able to pack into his sentences, some of which go on for pages
but yet remain wholly comprehensible and focused, is incredible.

~~~
jjgreen
Thanks for the recommendation, on my list!

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krylon
Another year goes by, and once again the Nobel prize comitee fails to award
the prize to Thomas Pynchon. Really. If I was president of the US, I would
declare not awarding the prize to Pynchon (or maybe Cormac McCarthy) an act of
war and threaten to nuke the hell out of Sweden if Pynchon does not get the
prize (just imagine the delicious irony if Barack "Nobel Peace Prize" Obama
did that!).

That is not to say that whoever got it this year does not deserve it. But
still.

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CamperBob2
Bah, Pynchon can get in line behind Borges.

The Nobel committee is becoming a standing joke. Their general incompetence
and overt political bias is even evident in the physics category these days.
(Blue LEDs? Really?)

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crimsonalucard
What's wrong with Blue LED's?

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walexander
I think he's implying that they awarded it to blue LEDs in order to promote
low power consumption/green tech.

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CamperBob2
That's part of it, yes. But on what planet does it make sense to award the
prize to the blue LED guys when the original developer of commercially-viable
LEDs didn't receive it?

