The Nobel Prize for Literature goes to Doris Lessing, “that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny.”
At 88, Lessing is 10 years older than Milan Kundera and 20 years older than Margaret Atwood, both of whom I thought had a chance. 14 years older than “snubbed” Philip Roth, 11 years older than Chinua Achebe. And a full 30 years older than Haruki Murakami. All these kids can get the prize some other year.
In other enormous book prize news, the National Book Award nominees have been announced. Kind of cool that Denis Johnson’s voluminous Tree of Smoke is up against Lydia Davis’ minimalist Varieties of Disturbance.
