They've announced the winner of this year's Welt Literaturpreis and it's going to ... Murakami Haruki, who gets to pick up the €10,000 prize on 7 November (laudatio to be delivered by Clemens J. Setz).
Murakami's odds at Ladbrokes for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature have gone up again -- at 4/1 he's co-favorite with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o -- but my thinking is that this is the nail in his Nobel coffin, this year and maybe even next. Yes, Kertész Imre won the Welt-prize in 2000 and went on to take the 2002 Nobel, but he really was plucked from obscurity (both times ...)); several of their other winners have been Nobel-caliber (Amos Oz, Philip Roth) but this prize -- which Jonathan Franzen got last year -- is still too lightweight for the Swedish Academy to want to follow suit (especially right on its heels like this) in their selection. Recall that they're probably deliberating right now (though they might already have made their choice ...), and I imagine this would sway far more against Murakami than it would sway towards (especially when they could make a much stronger statement by giving it to someone like Ngũgĩ (or Dowlatabadi ...)).
It's a nice career-honor for Murakami -- but it ain't no Nobel, and I fear it means he won't be considered Nobel-worthy until the double-dose of attention (now, and then in a month, when he picks up the prize) has worn off -- 2016, maybe ?
Murakami's odds at Ladbrokes for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature have gone up again -- at 4/1 he's co-favorite with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o -- but my thinking is that this is the nail in his Nobel coffin, this year and maybe even next. Yes, Kertész Imre won the Welt-prize in 2000 and went on to take the 2002 Nobel, but he really was plucked from obscurity (both times ...)); several of their other winners have been Nobel-caliber (Amos Oz, Philip Roth) but this prize -- which Jonathan Franzen got last year -- is still too lightweight for the Swedish Academy to want to follow suit (especially right on its heels like this) in their selection. Recall that they're probably deliberating right now (though they might already have made their choice ...), and I imagine this would sway far more against Murakami than it would sway towards (especially when they could make a much stronger statement by giving it to someone like Ngũgĩ (or Dowlatabadi ...)).
It's a nice career-honor for Murakami -- but it ain't no Nobel, and I fear it means he won't be considered Nobel-worthy until the double-dose of attention (now, and then in a month, when he picks up the prize) has worn off -- 2016, maybe ?