It's Friday afternoon and you're spent for the week. Look busy by following these links to catch up on your lit news.
French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio won the Nobel Prize for literature this week. American readers know little of his work, and according to the Swedish Academy, Americans know very little about world literature at all, which may be why they're snubbing some of our greatest literary talents. (U.S. favorites are Philip Roth, Don DeLillo and Joyce Carol Oates, though we're rooting for Cormac McCarthy and Bob Dylan.) Read more about the current stink at the Washington Post, then visit the Nobel website for a bio-bibilography or a short critique of Le Clézio's ouevre. Perhaps you'd prefer this informative and somewhat contrarian summation from the streets of Europe. If you're really curious about the man, then read this lengthy interview from his homeland.
The acclaim for Marilynne Robinson's new novel, Home, continues to pour in. We haven't read a bad review yet. Here's a nice review, again from the Washington Post, and a short feature/review/excerpt from NPR. There's a longer, more intimate profile on Robinson from the British magazine Intelligent Life, and a long, thoughtful glowing review at the New Yorker. As luck would have it, we have a few signed first editions of Home, which further solidifies Robinson's reputation as one of America's best writers. Maybe she'll snag the Nobel, and then you'll be sorry if you didn't get the signed edition.
Speaking of Marilynne Robinson, did you know her novel Gilead was one of Barack Obama's favorite books? According to his Facebook page, his other favorites include Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Moby-Dick, Shakespeare's Tragedies, Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch, Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Bible, and Lincoln's Collected Writings. On the John McCain Facebook page, we learned that his favorite book is For Whom the Bell Tolls, and then we enjoyed a game of Pork Invaders. Have a nice afternoon.
