World Literatures

» Angie Rayfield - The Nobel Prize and Politics

If the Nobel was given to a blatantly poor author simply because he/she happened to write on the "hot" topic, that would be different, but Solzhenitsyn and Pamuk hardly fall into that category! I think that when it comes right down to it, there's a tinge of politics in almost any prize award - after all, it's not like a competitive sporting event where there's a clear-cut score at the end. Sometimes it's not a matter of just writing a great book - it's also the right book at the right time.