Nobel Schmobel

None to Accompany Me - Nadine Gordimer
The Nobel Prize for literature is a fickle political beast at best (see Gunter Grass), and a sort of exaggerated bully pulpit for the west at worst (see Jean Paul Sartre's refusal...). That is not to say that most of the people who have won this coveted prize do not deserve it (however more than 5 women should be represented in 100+ years), but rather that their choice often reflects the political climate more than the literary merit of the works represented. Solzhenitsyn, Bellow, Camus, Morrison etc. all represent their political and social eras in succinct ways, and perhaps that is truly the idea of the prize. Perhaps the artist should be a reflection of current culture, and strive to bring their characters into that context. Gordimer certainly encompasses her culture (white, English South Africa), her time (50's on) and brings her characters into such realistic context that reading her books feels more like a walk through others eyes than ocular uptake from a worded page. None to Accompany Me, may well be her best book as I can imagine none that could be more engrossing, though I have little to compare it to having only read July's People by the same author. It is a story of a woman, her life - and her need for connections. This seems to be a central striving for much of literature - and life for us all. She tackles the issue in a much more comprehensible way than did Forster in Howard's End, and is certainly approaching Salinger's insight.
Rating: A
Related:
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
July's People - Nadine Gordimer
Waiting for the Barbarians - J.M. Coetzee