Another Nobel Winner
I like reading "best of" lists. I like hearing about someone new from the Nobel committee. While I was at the library yesterday, I stumbled upon a book by Imre Kertesz and several by J. M. G. Le Clézio. It is from one of the latter, that I wanted to share a passage.
Wow! I'm impressed. First, I'm impressed that the author isn't really trying to impress me with all of his bag of literary tricks and second I'm impressed at the capture of a truly distraught and nearly paranoid frame of mind. It is these nuances that M. Le Clézio excels. (Well so far as one can tell with a single short story and a fragment of another under his built--but I'm nothing if not a generalizer.) At least what I've read so far encourages further reading. The same cannot be said of all winners of the Nobel.
from "Moloch"
in The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts
J. M. G. Le Clézio
She gets hungry and then the next minute she feels nauseous. Maybe it's because of the baby? Maybe she should go and see a doctor, like that pale young woman with glasses, a social worker, says. But she doesn't like doctors. They always want to touch you, examine you, they're always prying. . . If she goes to see a doctor, he'll surely ask her questions, and his eyes will be all shiny. People so love to pose questions. They have shiny eyes and they talk with wet lips, saying things, asking about things, wanting to know names.
Wow! I'm impressed. First, I'm impressed that the author isn't really trying to impress me with all of his bag of literary tricks and second I'm impressed at the capture of a truly distraught and nearly paranoid frame of mind. It is these nuances that M. Le Clézio excels. (Well so far as one can tell with a single short story and a fragment of another under his built--but I'm nothing if not a generalizer.) At least what I've read so far encourages further reading. The same cannot be said of all winners of the Nobel.
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