The last book I read before we headed home was Grumpy Old Bookman, a collection of Michael Allen's blog posts. It was terrific and I plan to write a review of it. I meantion this only because I have just paid a visit to the GOB and notice that he has Patrick White in his sites once again: Patrick White remains unpublishable.
I do not myself find Patrick White unreadable. And while I think a good many of those who have won the Nobel have been overrated - think Harold Pinter, Dario Fo, and Elfriede Jelinek - others who have won have been quite good. Among the lesser known I would cite Par Lagerkvist and Gabriela Mistral. (I think the GOB would like Lagerkvist's The Dwarf.)
But I think the point is that one doesn't win the Nobel because one is widely read - though Kipling was - but rather, usually, because one has a certain cachet among a certain set. Come to think of it, how the hell did Kipling ever win it?
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