9 October, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I got my first paycheck from my teaching job today, so I went right out and bought a new book. Of course. Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog — the French sensation — has now arrived on English-speaking shores and I just have to see what all the fuss is about. It’s getting mixed reviews — as in The Independent (not great) and the Washington Post (glowing). It seems to be a very French novel, which may not play well in the anglophone world. I’ll let you know what I think. I’m due for another book post soon — it’s been a while. Since my Richard Yates kick this summer, I’ve been totally focused on literature in translation. I have some things to say about Haruki Murakami, who ended up having a big effect on me.
Speaking of Murakami, his name was mentioned as a possible Nobel contender in media speculation, but now a French writer has won it. A lot of the Nobel winners are duds, so I’m not particularly interested to rush out and learn about Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio just because a group of pretentious Swedish intellectuals decrees it. I was offended by the rude and arrogant comments a Nobel judge made about American literature last week. While I agree that American literature tends to be too insular and not engaged with the world at large (just like many Americans themselves), I think that saying Americans are ignorant is way out of line and just degrades whatever shred of credibility the Nobel prize has left. Anyone who has ever traveled in Europe can see that European bookstores are crammed with American books. If European literature is so great, I wonder how this can be explained. And given the British obsession with celebrity chef cookbooks, Z-list celebrity misery memoirs and books by former topless models, Americans look like blazing intellectuals in comparison.
Grrrrr. Anyway, the only French literature I’m going to be reading right now is by Muriel Barbery!
Anglofille said @ 8:41 pm | literary |
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samantha Says:
October 9th, 2008 at 11:50 pmI was actually very excited to read this book and went out to get it straight away. Unfortunately I didn’t make it past the first few pages - which says a lot for me, as I usually finish any book I start, no matter how bad it is. Something about it just really turned me off though. Maybe it’ll be better in English? Or maybe it’s just me…
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Oh dear. Well, I’ve heard mixed things about it. In general I’m not a big fan of philosophical novels. I’ll let you know what I think. The first few chapters look good.
