Last April Fools, this challenge officially kicked off! Welcome all you who've already signed up ... and of course, I encourage everyone else to join in! Read just one book by a Nobel Prize in Literature winner this April -- the more the merrier, plus, you get some amazing reading in your life.
If you're curious, or ready to sign up, here's the announcement and sign-up post.
Now, go grab a cuppa and we can chat a little about my Nobel read.
Week 1 (April 1-10) : Sign up post
When someone says "Nobel Prize winner for literature," what comes to mind? Is it a positive or negative reaction? Why do you think you have this reaction?
Pose this question to me 10 years goes and I'd probably go "too intimidating" or "too serious." Nobel Prize sound so highbrow, so inaccessible. I don't know where I got that idea but when I did some digging and realized that I was being held back from seeking out these winners by holding on to this misconception.
I've discovered some amazing Nobel-winning authors. I loved Gabriel García Márquez's 100 Years of Solitude - and was surprised to learn he was a laureate. Some authors aren't at all what I wouldn't consider intimidating - like Rudyard Kipling - because really, how can adorable Mowgli be inaccessible? So initially, yes, the impression was negative. Now I am just blown away by the sheer number of authors and works that I can read!
My list is long. However for this challenge, I've decided to read and review:
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| Here's Colombia! (from Wikipedia) |
Memories of My Melancholy Whores is written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who as you all know by now is one of my favourite authors. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 "for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts." He is best known for the genre magical realism.
Like most of his books, this is set in Márquez's homeland of Colombia, a Latin American country.
When I read this first time around, I was instantly repulsed by the subject matter. This has been described as a Latin American version of Lolita, and really, who wants to read about a dirty old man preying on young women? The book has been quite controversial for this very reason and was banned in Iran after selling 5,000 copies within two weeks [source]. I read this and remember rating it quite low just because -- unfair eh?
This was Gabriel García Márquez's last book written after a ten-year hiatus. It is only 115 pages long. I want to get beyond the subject matter and enjoy his writing with no judgment.
It may seem that I am copping out with such a short read, but I have two Nobel reviews pending which I am aiming to get done within the month as well.
Please don't get me started. I have a mile-long list since I host the perpetual Read the Nobels challenge. Too spoilt for choice :)
I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else is reading!
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