Your favorite Nobel Prize author

[The waveguide]

From the list of the Literature Nobel Prize winners - which can be found here - who is your favorite author, and which of his/her book did you like the best? Which books, on the other hand, you would not recommend for reading?

I'll start:
My favorite so far is José Saramago (Laureate of 1998) and his book "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ". It is a beautiful, ironic, cynical book by a very knowledgeable person! The whole story of JC was written from a fresh, innovative point of view! He kept the spirit of the book close to the source and to the historical period. However, in my opinion, the Saramago's version made more sense than the New Testimony itself.

The book that I kind of struggled to read was "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel García Márquez (Laureate of 1982). I was soooo happy to have finished it! Never dared again to read any other of his books - the one I read was too long, and not my style (it was, hm, VERY boring.)

 

[silverseason]

So many writers I haven't read! I recommend Orhan Pamuk (Snow), V. S. Naipaul (A House for Mr. Biswas) and Mahfouz (Palace Walk).

Young readers might go all the way back to 1938 and try Pearl Buck (The Good Earth). She has never been popular with the literati, but you can get hooked on her books.

 

[Stewart]

Off the list, I've read works by:

• J.M. Coetzee
• Nadine Gordimer
• William Golding
• Gabriel García Márquez
• Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
• John Steinbeck
• Albert Camus
• Halldór Laxness
• Ernest Hemingway
• George Bernard Shaw

Of them my favourite is John Steinbeck who I've read a number of smaller books by, though not his major works. Recently I decided to read his books in order and started with Cup Of Gold and will be rereading To A God Unknown shortly. The Moon Is Down is probably my favourite so far: but all I've read by him are: Cup Of Gold, To A God Unknown, The Red Pony, Of Mice And Men, The Moon Is Down, The Pearl and Burning Bright. That will change, as I've pretty much everything he published now, barring some journalism and collected letters.

Nadine Gordimer is one I've read two books by. I didn't get into her last novel, Get A Life one bit and found it dull and hard to follow, especially given her disjointed writing style. But July's People was much more enjoyable and I look forward to trying to get enjoyment from her books in future.

Of the other Nobel winners, the following are all represented on my shelves and waiting to be read:

• Doris Lessing
• Orhan Pamuk
• Gao Xingjian
• Naguib Mahfouz
• Saul Bellow
• William Faulkner
• John Galsworthy
• Sinclair Lewis
• Knut Hamsun
• Rabindranath Tagore

And of these I've sample two: Saul Bellow's The Actual (boring, unable to penetrate past the first 20 pages, unable to know what was happening after the first) and Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk, his paean to his home city, which I was happily reading but then set aside for some other reading pleasure and never returned to. I'm sure I may have tried Faulkner years ago, but can't remember.

 

[Sybarite]

Thomas Mann, without a doubt: Buddenbrooks, the novel that was on his citation, is good, but it's not a 'novel of ideas', as his later works often were. My favourite Mann work is Death in Venice, which I think is the most exquisite piece that I have ever read. Quite beautifully and completely haunting, and asks a lot of questions that were at the core of Mann's own life – notably about the relationship of the artist to life.

Then again, there's Günter Grass – and I'd stick with recommending the book that was cited: The Tin Drum, which is superb. Then again, Crabwalk is also well worth reading, as is Call of the Toad.

To avoid? Winston Churchill – presumably the Swedish only gave him a prize for literature in 1953 as some sort of apology for being on the 'wrong' side in WWII – unless it was a sarcastic comment on his 'histories'?

 

[beer good]

Let's see...

• Orhan Pamuk: read one. Liked it.
• Elfriede Jelinek: read one (Die Ausgesperrten). Found it engrossing, emphasis on the "gross"; one of the best books I'll never want to read again.
• Coetzee: Disgrace. Yawn.
• Kertesz: The Man Without Destiny. Yawn.
• Grass: The Tin Drum. Brilliant.
• Saramago: The History of the Siege of Lisbon. Yawn.
• Golding: Lord of the Flies. Brilliant.
• Márquez: read a few. Loved them all, especially Hundred Years of Solitude.
• Johnson: read Return to Ithaca, which is fantastic, more in the TBR pile.
• Martinsson: read a few. Aniara is my favourite of his.
• Hemingway: read a couple. Enjoyed them all, none of them bowled me over.
• Lagerkvist: read Barabbas. Brilliant. Intend to read more.
• Hesse: read a bunch. The Glass Bead Game is probably my favourite.
• Mann: read a couple. The Magic Mountain the most intriguing, Death in Venice is in the TBR pile.
• Lagerlöf: read a couple. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils is one of the best children's books I know, The Emperor of Portugalia one of the saddest novels I've read.

Also, there's a bunch of authors on the list I intend to get around to at some point - less for their Nobel prize than for their general standing in the world of literature. Camus, Buck, Hamsun, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, Bellow, Soyinka, Morrison above all.

I suppose out of these, I'd pick Eyvind Johnson as my favourite and Coetzee as the one I wouldn't recommend - though I certainly wouldn't object to people reading him or anything.

(And Sybarite - we weren't on the "wrong side". Technically, we weren't on either side, since we weren't actually in the war.)

 

[Stewart]

Technically, we weren't on either side, since we weren't actually in the war.

Technically that's still a side: the outside.

Oh, and I have Fatelessness by Imre Kertesz sitting on the shelf, on loan from the libray. Perhaps I should read it before it goes back.

 

[The Doogster]

It's tough call, but I have to narrow it down to either Hermann Hesse or Knut Hamsum. Such a tough choice........OK, make it Hermann Hesse.

My favourite Hesse novel is Narcissus and Goldmund (it's also one of my all-time favourite novels), although there are so many great ones to choose from. There are no duds IMHO.

My favourite Knut Hamsun novel is Hunger, no, make that Mysteries (or maybe The Women at the Pump), but, once again, there are no duds.

The Doogster

 

[The Doogster]

Thomas Mann, without a doubt: Buddenbrooks, the novel that was on his citation, is good, but it's not a 'novel of ideas', as his later works often were. My favourite Mann work is Death in Venice, which I think is the most exquisite piece that I have ever read. Quite beautifully and completely haunting, and asks a lot of questions that were at the core of Mann's own life – notably about the relationship of the artist to life.

Buddenbrooks is my favourite Mann novel, although as you state, it is not a novel of ideas (perhaps that's why I like it). I agree that Death in Venice is hauntingly beautiful - I still actually remember the day I read it 18 years ago, and the effect it had on me. I'll have to go and read it again now.....

The Doogster

 

[Sybarite]

... (And Sybarite - we weren't on the "wrong side". Technically, we weren't on either side, since we weren't actually in the war.)

Neither were the Irish, but you still hear about their allegedly pro-Nazi neutrality in WWII, while I've equally heard that their not joining in the war is part of the reason for the popularity of Irish pubs in Germany.

But please, I wasn't meaning the comment in any way offensively – but there does have to be a reason that Churchill was given a prize that quite frankly couldn't have been for literature.

The Doogster – Death in Venice is one of those novels that I actually re-read and, while on the surface it can appear such a simple story, it's a work that I find something new in every time I return to it.

I hope you enjoy it again.

 

[The waveguide]

Thomas Mann, without a doubt: Buddenbrooks, the novel that was on his citation, is good, but it's not a 'novel of ideas', as his later works often were. My favourite Mann work is Death in Venice, which I think is the most exquisite piece that I have ever read. Quite beautifully and completely haunting, and asks a lot of questions that were at the core of Mann's own life – notably about the relationship of the artist to life.

Let's see...

• Mann: read a couple. The Magic Mountain the most intriguing, Death in Venice is in the TBR pile.
• Lagerloef: read a couple. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils is one of the best children's books I know, The Emperor of Portugalia one of the saddest novels I've read.

I love Mann, too! The "Death in Venice" was so beautiful! My next Mann on TBR is "Joseph and His Brothers "

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils - I read it as a child, and I was totally charmed. It was my first HUGE book! I think I was around 10 or 11 back then... Wow, I did not notice her on the list of the Nobel Prize winners at the first glance! It seems that she was the first woman to win the prize in literature!

 

[beer good]

But please, I wasn't meaning the comment in any way offensively – but there does have to be a reason that Churchill was given a prize that quite frankly couldn't have been for literature.

None taken, and at any rate it's off topic for this subject. I agree that Churchill might not be the most deserving literature prize winner ever, though the official motivation is ”for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values” - in other words, he got it as much for his speeches as for his written works.

I read Buddenbrooks last year and found it impressive but as with most big German meals, it's tasty but you end up eating a lot of pork. It had passages of sheer brilliance, but I thought it suffered some from firstnovelitis - that tendency to cram everything in there regardless of whether it was needed or not, and being a little too fond of his favourite jokes and tricks and repeating them once or twice too often. But Death in Venice is definitely moving up in my TBR pile with all the love that's being heaped on it here. I think I might actually give it a go in the original German; Mann has a beautiful way with language.

 

[Zolipara]

I've read books by these authors from the list.
2003 - J. M. Coetzee
1999 - Günter Grass
1997 - Dario Fo
1983 - William Golding
1982 - Gabriel García Márquez
1976 - Saul Bellow
1970 - Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
1969 - Samuel Beckett
1964 - Jean-Paul Sartre
1962 - John Steinbeck
1957 - Albert Camus
1954 - Ernest Hemingway
1949 - William Faulkner
1929 - Thomas Mann
1928 - Sigrid Undset
1920 - Knut Hamsun
1909 - Selma Lagerlöf
1907 - Rudyard Kipling
1903 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Its hard to pick a favourite but i'd say Knut Hamsun. My favourite books are Pan, Hunger and Mysteries.

And Thomas Mann is probably the author from that list i most want to read more books of.

Authors to avoid in my opinion is Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (he is too much a product of his time and his writing just feels so dated in a bad way). I could not get into Sartre either.

 

[chuephödli]

Its hard to pick a favourite but i'd say Knut Hamsun. My favourite books are Pan, Hunger and Mysteries.

And Thomas Mann is probably the author from that list i most want to read more books of.

Authors to avoid in my opinion is Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (he is too much a product of his time and his writing just feels so dated in a bad way). I could not get into Sartre either.

If your list is a cross-section of your taste in reading, I can only recommend to go for Thomas Mann - should be up your alley.

I am bit puzzled nobody has mentioned (or did I miss it?) Elias Canetti. He does not quite fit in with the rest, but then, he doesn't really fit in anywhere. He didn't write all that much, but what he wrote is quite a trip.

You didn't like Sartre?

 

[chuephödli]

Of the other Nobel winners, the following are all represented on my shelves and waiting to be read:

• Doris Lessing
• Orhan Pamuk
• Gao Xingjian
• Naguib Mahfouz
• Saul Bellow
• William Faulkner
• John Galsworthy
• Sinclair Lewis
• Knut Hamsun
• Rabindranath Tagore

Please let me know if you manage to actually finish Gao Xingjian. It's fascinating stuff, but I found it very impenetrable and finally gave up.

 

[Sybarite]

It's brilliant to see other fans of Mann's work here – as I said elsewhere, he seems very out of fashion in the UK at present.

beer good – I know what you mean about the pork! There's a meal in Buddenbrooks, boiled ham with a sour brown shallot sauce, that I cook every year on Boxing Day – a German friend found me the recipe. In terms of the atmosphere of a book and food/drink, I found myself desperately wanting to eat matjes herrings and drink vodka when I was reading Gorky Park; you could almost smell it. Kudos to you: I'd love to be able to read some in the original and have been learning a bit of German for some years with that as a long-term aim. I was made up the day I stood in a foreign-language bookshop in London and was able to read the whole of one of Mann's long opening sentences in German – so chuffed, I bought the copy. Mind you, reading Asterix in German is easier – and saying that you're doing it for educative reasons is a great excuse to read Asterix in the first place.

Back to the topic – there are plenty more on that list that I intend to read some/more of.

 

[beer good]

In terms of the atmosphere of a book and food/drink, I found myself desperately wanting to eat matjes herrings and drink vodka when I was reading Gorky Park; you could almost smell it.

Heh. I know the feeling - I get the same whenever I read Dostoevsky; I just want to live off tea, vodka, potato soup, black bread and herring for weeks.