Just to confirm everyone’s suspicions that writers are an odder group than the rest of the populace (which is true, but what of it?) the newest mini-obsession among certain literary and semi-literary types (I include myself in one of those categories) is watching the bookmaking odds on who is the most likely to win the Nobel Prize in literature, which is to be announced on Thursday.
(Don’t laugh, there are odds on the Man Booker prize, too, which will be awarded the following Tuesday, Oct. 12. But since we already have a 5-book short list for the Booker, that’s not as dramatic.)
I first became aware of the bookmaking issue when, on Monday, I read Carolyn Kellogg’s LA Times column on the matter. (And an excellent column it is.)
At that point, the news–-aside from the revelation that there were odds for the literary Nobel—was that punctuation outlaw and master of muscular and gloriously poetic (if violent) prose, Cormac McCarthy might actually have a shot at the prize, after his odds suddenly vaulted from 66-1 to 8-1, thereby putting him in second place behind Kenyon born, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, ahead of the expected list of east coast darlings, Thomas Pynchon, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Roth, E.L. Doctorow, and Don Delillo, all of whom most of the US literary establishment would likely deem more probable for, and more deserving of the award. (After all, McCarthy lives in—gasp—New Mexico, and writes of un-zeitgeisty western types who sometimes shoot others and take notice of the phases of the moon.)
The notion that any American might truly have a fighting chance was especially newsy after the little incident two years ago when the top member of the lit prize committee famously talked smack about US writers as a whole, whom he called too insular and ignorant to compete with Europe when it comes to great writing. (Thank you for sharing.)
(The Nobel lit committee has an irritating past of this kind of pissy behavior. For instance, one committee member was said to have, for years, blocked Graham Greene from ever getting the award [Greene was repeatedly considered], simply because he very vocally loathed Greene’s left-leaning politics.)
Anyway, as of this afternoon, the odds have shifted yet again. Now McCarthy is at 5/2, whereas Thiong’o is at 7/2. (!!!)
(It’s amazing the activities that a writer can come up with to avoid….you know….writing. It’s an art form of its own, I tell you.)
Anyway, if you too would like to obsess over something that has exactly zero relationship to your actual life, the place to go is Ladbrokes.com, this page in particular. And hit refresh. Frequently.
UPDATE: Wed, 9:30 a.m.
The betting odds still have McCarthy as the front runner at 5/2, with Thiong’o right behind at 7/2. However, the closing horse….er….novelist at 6/1 is Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, author of, among other works, Kafka on the Shore.
Still and all: Go Cormac!
PS: Do we have any assurance whatsoever that the odds-making bears even the slightest resemblance to what the Nobel committee is thinking? Well, um, no. But tomorrow all will be known.
UPDATE 2: Wed. 2:30 p.m. – McCarthy’s now at 11/4.
Stories like this come around every year. The British bookmakers will take bets on anything, and every year it always seems that Ko Un and Adonis are always right near the top…which if they’ve been among the favorites for years now, tells you something about how reliable predicting these awards are.
I just finished No Country For Old Men and I think the whole thing pretty much went over my head till the final chapters. Definitely the sort of writing that is better read aloud and slowly. I love his style.
This bit from the wiki article on McCarthy was great:
According to Wired magazine, McCarthy’s Olivetti Lettera 32 typewriter was put up for auction at Christie’s. The Olivetti Lettera 32 has been in his care for 46 years, since 1963. He picked up the used machine for $50 from a pawn shop in Knoxville, Tennessee. McCarthy reckons he has typed around five million words on the machine, and maintenance consisted of “blowing out the dust with a service station hose”. The typewriter was auctioned on Friday, December 4, 2009 and the auction house, Christie’s, estimated it would fetch between $15,000 and $20,000; it sold for $254,500.[12] The Olivetti’s replacement for McCarthy to use is another Olivetti, bought by McCarthy’s friend John Miller for $11.[13] The proceeds of the auction are to be donated to the Santa Fe Institute, a nonprofit interdisciplinary scientific research organization.
Oh, man, I hope he gets it. I’ve totally immersed myself in McCarthy’s writings over the last couple of years, starting with No Country, then The Road (which I loved), just finishing up the last few pages of The Crossing, with only Outer Dark waiting in the wings (more accurately, still in the box from Amazon).
Yeah, punctuation outlaw describes him perfectly; really bugged me in the first book, but now I don’t even notice it. Go Cormac!
Love the typewriter anecdote, Alex.
I don’t notice it anymore either, Jim (the punctuation thingy).I love McCarthy, in particular the trilogy and The Road. I’ve still not read Blood Meridian. (Note to self: Must read soon.) Old Country made me nuts, even though I recognized its beauty, but that’s a longer discussion. Adored the movie.
I would prefer McCarthy to Roth any day. I had the singular displeasure of meeting Roth in the early 1980’s when I worked for a lecture agency that represented Claire Bloom, then his paramour, later his wife,now his ex.
She was doing a one woman show of parts from several Shakespeare plays called “Shakespeare’s Women.” I was booking lecture dates in the south and had several locations very interested (University of Mississippi, University of Alabama, Vanderbilt),but Roth said “She has no interest in performing anywhere in the South.” Despite my wondering whether she had some impediment that prevented her from speaking for herself, I commented that it would be nice for her to see William Faulkner’s hometown in Oxford, MS. She perked up while Roth stared daggers at me.
I won’t deny his talent, but he really struck me as a detestable human being. I believe Ms. Bloom would agree with me.
Great Philip Roth story.
McCarthy looks too cool for his age. No country for old men? Not if he can help it, baby!
I’ll second that vote for Cormac McCarthy Celeste. A great writer even though kind of a strange weird character as I understand it. I highly recommend his novel “Blood Meridian”, one of the most beautifully written novels I have ever read. And even though it is basically a story about extreme violence and depravity it reads almost like a poem, like The Song of Hiawatha or The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, it’s almost hypnotic as it tells the tale of some of the most barbaric, blood lusting, and unsympathetic characters to ever come out of the American West . It’s one of those books that is almost impossible to put down.
And I agree with Alex Johnson about McCarthy’s novel “No Country For Old Men”, strange read but I think the Coen Bros understood it perfectly as shown by their masterpiece of a Movie (Oscar winner for Best Movie), of the same name.
Blood Meridian seems to pose a problem like NCFOM but in reverse. A great epic novel but maybe impossible to capture on film. The legendary director “Ridley Scott” was going to film Blood Meridian a couple of years back but eventually declined to continue the project and stated that Blood Meridian would be impossible to film and stay faithful to what McCarthy was trying to project.
Agreed about the Coen Brothers and No Country. I always thought it wanted to be a movie. And, indeed, in their hands it was unforgettable.
Call it.
BTW, to those who haven’t read Suttree, it has some brilliant comedy in it. The nickname given to the young man busted in the watermelon patch by his fellow jailbirds is worth the price of admission alone.
I’m rooting for Margaret Atwood.
I love Atwood, and she’s like no one else. But on the topic of the Canadians, I’d also be wildly happy with Alice Munroe.
And it’s Mario Vargas Llosa?!?!?
HA! So much for the bookmakers. Actually I think Llosa is an awesome choice.
Listen to David Kipen’s rundown on the selection (plus a bit of amusing literary gossip).
http://bit.ly/cmDScZ