Okay, last minute speculation here before the big announcement tomorrow.
The Guardian notes that the Swedes have given a tip-off by critiquing their European focus in the last decade:
Peter
Englund [the new frontman of the Nobel literature prize jury] has said that he believes the prize has been too
“Eurocentric” in recent years (nine of the 10 previous winners have
been European) and that there are plenty of worthy American writers for
the award.
Or maybe this just evens the score after Horace Engdahl’s rant against American literature?
There’s also a pitch for EL Doctorow, which I think is misguided. If you want to pick an outside American shot, give it to Cormac McCarthy (100/1 odds).
As Newsweek notes, no Latin American author has won since Octavio Paz in 1990, and that might give an edge to Mario Vargas Llosa or Carlos Fuente.
The Associated Press says that Joyce Carol Oates jumped in the rankings from 7/1 to 5/1, which I think is wrong, wrong, wrong. If she wins before Philip Roth or Alice Munro I will tear my hair out.
The Literary Saloon and a number of other sites have been picking Herta Müller as a solid option. She’s risen from 50/1 odds to 3/1 odds in less than a week.
If you want the true experience of competing conversations, try the World Literature Forum. Everybody’s got a guess and a theory.
Of course, there’s a 31% percent chance that it won’t be anyone on the list, or even someone we’ve even heard of before. In that case, kiss your bets goodbye, and start reading.
[This is Part II of Nobel Prize Speculation. See Part I.)
