STIFFED

10.07.15

Every year the American novelist is mentionedas a candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature, and every year he’s passed over. Does even he still care?

The Nobel Prize people really should hand out their annual prize for literature on Groundhog Day. True, the outcome changes every year, but the run-up to the announcement, at least in the U.S., is dismally the same.

 “When will Philip Roth win?” has been the question since 1993, when Toni Morrison became the last American to win the prize.

 At this point, I doubt even Roth cares. (OK, he probably cares a little bit.) But his partisans care deeply, and they grumble loudly every year he’s overlooked. (If I were the grumbling sort, I’d whine about Thomas Pynchon getting stiffed, but that’s just me.)
But, as the Nobel officials are fond of reminding us, it’s a big world out there, and there are dozens if not hundreds of qualified authors, i.e., writers who are not named Roth or Pynchon or DeLillo. In other words, shut up, America.

 Maybe if Americans were more passionate about the outcome, we’d have a better chance. In England, where they will bet on anything, odds get posted on the likely candidates, and people wage real money on the outcome.  More