Recent content by Ben Jackson

In as much as I feel France has been over-awarded the Prize (I still can't believe that Prudhomme, Federic Mistral, Rolland were awarded), Simon is actually one of France's, in fact Europe's greatest post-war novelists. The exuberance of his sentences (like Perse) and imagination, the cinematic...

Anytime I want to go poetic, I usually pick up this book that you just reviewed. I love the language so much Everything about Jimenez is astonishing. I haven't read Platero and I yet, but you're a big fan of 20th Century European Poetry, Jimenez's one unforgettable poet. Have you read his other...

Anytime I want to go poetic, I usually pick up this book that you just reviewed. I love the language so much.

So sorry to hear of Munro's demise. I really like her stories, at least due to her technical capability to jump between time and space, her precise, economic but sharp language. Although most of her stories are heavily filled with autobiograpical details, her strong focus of sense of place, in...

Sorry if I'm late, but I think its time to grab Simon. Try Flanders Road or The Trolley. Aside from Simon, you can try Faulkner's Sound and the Fury, or the short stories of late Alice Munro: Progress of Love or the one I just finished Open Secrets.

An article from The Guardian last year revealed that Pulitzer has included entries for non-US writers, so maybe that's the reason Garza was awarded.

Among poetry volumes from Africa in this century, one of the finest remains Sahara Testaments by Tade Ipadeola, which has already acquired something of a classic status. The epic describes the history of Sahara, using as motif to explore migration, pains and suffering of the continent as well a...

Not really my favourite poet, but here are some poems. Example: The nude thing was taken around To various ambarssadorial residences And on the day he had come home To see her, her in the maze of sandwiches Some artisan proposed, He was like a bee in the summer. Remember the reflexive mode...

Big Green Tent--- Ludmila Ulitskaya Open Secrets--- Alice Munro Jazz--- Toni Morrison

I was about to ask you (or Benny or Bartleby) if any of you guys can do a little introduction of Bandeira. I'm surprised as you when I found out about the committee working during the war years. The Academy was hoping that they could still award candidates during the war, but the tension was...

The Nobel Prizes for 1940 to 1943 were awarded to the impact of the Second World War. Following the award to Silanpaa the previous year in 1939, the following were the shortlisted names for 1940--1943. The shortlist for 1940 prize became: Gabriela Mistral (1945 Laureate) Kostas Palamas...

For the first two years, 1914 and 1918, the shortlisted writers were: Dmitry Merezhkovsky W B Yeats (1923 Laureate) Grazia Deledda (1926 Laureate) Carl Spitteler (1919 Laureate) And for the second year, the shortlist were: W B Yeats (1923 Laureate) Knut Hamsun (1920 Laureate) Maxim Gorky...

The Nobel Literature Prize weren't awarded for the years 1914 and 1918 and from 1940---1943 due to the impact of the war. However, after going through the reports from these years, apart from 1942, there were, apparently deliberations for some of the candidates with the hope that if the war...

Very shocked to hear about Auster's demise. I have actually read his wife Siri's books, and I remembered an article I read about her relationship with Auster. Still shocked.

I think why part of it is depressive is because Couto was trying to describe a society ravaged/torn by the effects of war. I can say that hellish (or depressive) depiction of societal disintegration of Mozambique's similar to both Antunes and, to some extent, Cela. Quite depressing, yes, but...