Nobel Prize literature

[Pamela Moberg]

The prize goes to the Belorussian writer Svetlana Alekseijevitj.

Will be back with a commentary in half an hour.

[Pamela Moberg]

This was not unexpected and if one can judge anything at all in this very short space of time, it was well received by the assembled press corps.

The secretary of the Swedish Academy, Sara Danius, said in her announcement "... a monument over suffering and courage in our time...".

[dirac]

Thanks as always for keeping us posted, Pamela. I note that this award is for nonfiction, a rarity in Nobel history. And, Philip Roth is snubbed again! The New Yorker will be so upset.

Ms. Alexievich, 67, is the 14th woman to win the literature prize, and one of just a few Nobel laureates to be recognized for nonfiction. While the Nobel committee has occasionally awarded the prize to philosophers and historians, including Bertrand Russell and Winston Churchill, it has been more than half a century since a dedicated nonfiction writer has won what many regard as literature’s most prestigious award.

[Quiggin]

They referred to Alekseijevitj's work as being polyphonic, the Soviet critic Bahktin's term for Dostoevsky's techniques, so maybe they're novelistic.

When she was mentioned, I thought of Vasily Grossman who was a journalist before he wrote "Life and Fate" (which I occasionally chip away at). It's supposed to be the "War & Peace" of WWII - though closer to Stendhal in shape and pace.

Thanks for the reports. With everything happening in the world it sounds like a good choice.